National Rugby League Cronulla Sharks players could face fines of up to A$5,100 ($5,082) "for failing to co-operate with the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority if a bill is passed in the Senate giving greater investigative powers to the federal government agency," according to Stuart Honeysett of THE AUSTRALIAN. The Senate will Wednesday "debate an amendment to the ASADA act that will provide the authority with powers to compel persons of interest to co-operate with investigators." The bill "has been watered down following the input of the Greens: persons of interest will face fines if they don't attend interviews, but they will not be required to answer questions if they could incriminate themselves." However, under the bill ASADA "will have access to emails, text messages, receipts and bank records that could still indicate an offence" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 5/14).
PUNISHING THE SUPPLIERS: In Sydney, Adrian Proszenko reported the Australian Crime Commission "is pushing for a minimum jail term of three years for anyone found guilty of supplying peptides or other performance-enhancing substances to athletes." And in a further bombshell, the ACC alleges that ''some coaches and support staff within the NRL and AFL (Australian Football League) have orchestrated and/or condoned the use of prohibited substances and/or methods of administration" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 5/14). The AP reported the World Anti-Doping Agency's top officials "spent the weekend honing a new global code which includes doubling suspensions for some drug cheats." WADA's exec committee and foundation board met in Montreal, Canada "to review the third draft of the proposed 2015 World Anti-Doping code," which will come up for approval at the Nov. 12-15 World Conference on Doping in Sport in Johannesburg, South Africa (AP, 5/13).
