Athletics: New act will give anti-doping agency more power

A bill passed through Parliament on Friday will give New Zealand's sports drug-testing agency more ability to eradicate the use of steroids.

Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ) executive director Graeme Steele said the Sports Anti-Doping Act 2006 will change his agency.

"At present, we have no power to do anything other than test athletes and act on the results of those tests," Steele said.

"If, for example, we were to receive a credible report that an athlete was selling steroids at a gym, all we can do is report it to the police. It is unlikely they would follow it up."

Under the new Act, Steele said DFSNZ would be in a position to to gather evidence themselves and have the athlete or coach sanctioned by the Sports Tribunal.

"If it involves possible criminal activity we would be in a position to provide police with some detailed information which would get them to a point where it is worth their time to follow through on it.

The legislation gives us authority to exchange such information.

"This is particularly important as our processes can lead only to sanctioning of people who are within the jurisdiction of a sporting organisation. It may be that a doctor is prescribing drugs but is not a member of a sporting organisation. We may now be in a position to provide information which would have him prosecuted by the police and the appropriate medical ethics body."

While New Zealand sport has largely been immune to the drugs scandals that have hit the headlines in recent years - such as Balco and the 'Tour de Farce' - only the very naive would believe that we are squeaky clean.

Steele said while there would be no widespread spying on athletes and coaches, there would be a push to weed out those responsible for supplying, or encouraging the use of, performance-enhancing drugs.

"If a Balco scenario occurred in New Zealand today we would have limited ability to respond other than testing implicated athletes.

"Under this legislation we will be responsible for seeking evidence and prosecuting [in the sports courts] people who are proven to be involved even if there are no positive tests," Steele said.

The Act implements the World Anti-Doping Code provisions.

Sport and Recreation Minister Trevor Mallard said this country should be proud of the stance it had taken on the matter.

"New Zealand is at the forefront of the commitment to maintain a level playing field for all athletes in the spirit of honesty, ethics, courage and fairness," he said.

The Act comes into force in July.