In a corporate boardroom in Melbourne’s CBD, a young girl was ready to speak.
Across the table were two investigators from Sport Integrity Australia (SIA), there to interview her about allegations of bullying and verbal abuse she had made against her gymnastics coach and club.
“You’ve got this very timid, very quietly spoken child [who] had this powerful voice and a powerful story that she wanted heard,” says her mum, Kate* (not her real name).
Gymnastics Australia, SIA and the National Sports Tribunal set up a confidential complaints process in 2020 – called the Supplementary Complaints Management Policy (SCMP) – after the sport was rocked by revelations about former USA Gymnastics doctor and abuser, Larry Nassar.
After years of complaining to Gymnastics Australia and her daughter’s club about what she described as “relentless attacks”, the new system gave Kate hope.
“I felt that we had finally had the complaint land with an organisation that was equipped to be dealing with a complaint of such severe nature,” she says.
“I had no other choice but to engage in a system where they’re telling me it’s child friendly, and it’s independent, and they’re experienced, and they know what they’re doing.”
In the course of the SIA investigation, Kate alleges age discrimination occurred.
As revealed by the ABC on Wednesday, the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is now handling a complaint lodged by Kate alleging age discrimination occurred during SIA’s investigation into the allegations made by her daughter.
The SIA investigation was closed after the claims were found to be “unsubstantiated” or “neither unsubstantiated or substantiated”.
Sport Integrity Australia said it would not comment on the alleged age discrimination complaint. Gymnastics Australia has been contacted for comment.
‘It’s these reciprocal arrangements that we’re looking for’
Advocates hope the AHRC’s decision to handle the alleged age discrimination complaint will help address what they say are “power imbalances” when a child alleges harm against adults in sport.
During the SIA investigation, Kate’s two daughters were asked questions such as, “Do you know the difference between a truth and lie?” and “Is that what really happened?”.
Child advocate Hetty Johnston, who has reviewed some excerpts related to the SIA investigation, believes these sort of questions are “setting up the stage where you’re telling lies”.
“This could be their [investigators] way of getting that on the record, that they understand what’s true and what’s not true, but it’s quite intimidating,” she says.
“They [investigators] may well have been trained in this way, but this isn’t how you get the best evidence from a child,” she added.
Sport Integrity Australia is also accused of allowing one of the coaches under investigation to submit eight character references.
Gymnastics integrity advocate Alison Quigley, who is acting on behalf of Kate and her daughter, believes that process should be afforded to children as well.
Ms Quigley says the premise that children are “not given the same processes as an adult” prompted her to look at the case “through this age discrimination lens”.
“[We would hope] if you were asking for character references of adults that you would also ask children, do you have any character references? It’s these reciprocal arrangements that we’re looking for.”
Kate also takes issues with findings made by SIA in relation to one of the allegations her daughter had made.
An excerpt from the investigation report summary into the initial complaint said “evidence provided by child witnesses was lacking in pertinent detail to support the allegation” that the coach had shown favouritism to other athletes.
“It is also possible the perception of young children could be inaccurate where they may perceive the respondent to be showing favouritism to other athletes where they are receiving corrections and other athletes are not due to a difference in skill level,” it found.
About 200 age discrimination complaints made each year
The Australian Human Rights Commission has assessed the complaint documents and formed a view that it is reasonable to argue that the alleged conduct, if true, could amount to unlawful discrimination.
The AHRC averages about 200 age discrimination complaints a year, including 11 related to complaints in sport between 2021 and 2023.
The majority of total complaints are about older people, and mostly about employment, according to commissioner Robert Fitzgerald.
But “fundamentally, anybody of any age can, in fact, suffer age discrimination”, he says.
“This is one of the areas where we have very strong legislation and age discrimination is unlawful, some forms of age discrimination not only would be subject to complaint and conciliation but could also be subject to civil penalties.”
The AHRC is not reviewing decisions of the original SIA investigation and is only examining if there was age discrimination.
Ms Quigley believes organisations outside SIA, including child protection agencies, should be brought in to investigate allegations when they are first made by children in sport.
“We are asking children to come forward and have their voice heard,” she says.
“If we don’t offer an effective complaints process, we’re asking children to go forward and harm themselves again. It’s not fair.”
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