Swimming Australia announces Integrity Panel
Swimming Australia
Published: Feb 21, 2013 03:12:20 PM Updated: Mar 19, 2013 09:24:07 AM
Following the release of the Independent Review of Swimming and the Bluestone Review into the culture and leadership , Swimming Australia will establish an Integrity Panel to be chaired by former Australian Rugby Union Chairman and Partner at Griffin Legal, Mr Peter McGrath.
The Panel, which will also comprise Swimming Australia Board Members Mr Peter Lozan, Ms Chloe Flutter and Interim CEO Mr Jeremy Turner, will be charged with investigating allegations of inappropriate behaviour stemming from the two reviews announced on Tuesday.
The Panel will look at alleged matters of drunkenness, misuse of prescription drugs, breaching curfews, deceit, and bullying, and compliance with the Swimming Australia Team Agreements signed by athletes, coaches and team officials.
Swimming Australia President Barclay Nettlefold said the Integrity Panel is a critical next step in developing the right culture going forward.
“First and foremost, we encourage swimmers, coaches and staff to be forthcoming with information that will lead to an improvement in culture, values and standards within the EnergyAustralia Swim Team and Swimming Australia generally,” said Nettlefold.
“To establish the right culture, we have to investigate these allegations and deal with them appropriately by putting in place the right framework.”
“I will be encouraging the panel to look at each allegation and we want to stop talking about rumour and act on the facts of what did or did not actually occur.”
“We will be decisive, we will be firm and we will discipline athletes, coaches and staff accordingly, where such action is deemed appropriate and necessary, but we must get the facts first and follow the right processes to do that.”
The Integrity Panel will begin work on these investigations immediately and no further comment on the process will be made until the complete findings are handed to board of Swimming Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee.
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