Doubling down on his criticism of the AFL illicit drugs policy, federal MP Andrew Wilkie says the current code must be torn up and redrafted.
Just as the AFL welcomed Monday's release of the Sport Integrity Australia investigation, Wilkie likewise said the findings backed the allegations he raised earlier this year in parliament.
The league and Wilkie drew sharply different conclusions from the SIA report, with Wilkie saying the AFL escaped a breach of the World Anti-Doping Agency code on a technicality.
He remains fiercely critical of the league, saying it's running secret drug tests and facilitating illicit drug use among players.
"I don't think there's been a player-centric model, I think it's been a model that has tended to allow some AFL players to not get busted on match day for illicit drug use," he said.
"It's also been a way of the AFL protecting its reputation up until now.
"Well, I reckon just because they dodged the word breach on a technicality, that doesn't that doesn't mean the AFL is in the clear. I think the AFL's reputation is in tatters today.
"Sports Integrity Australia has come out and said in other words, your illicit drugs policy is junk, it has to be torn up, and it has to be rewritten in full."
Wilkie initially made his allegations in late March, citing former Melbourne club president Glen Bartlett, former Demons club doctor Zeeshan Arain and ex-Melbourne player Shaun Smith - the father of current Demons player Joel Smith, who is under provisional suspension for failing a drugs test.
The politician alleged under parliamentary privilege that secret illicit drug tests enable AFL players to avoid detection on match days.
"The substantive issue today is that the AFL have been busted running a secret illicit drug testing program," Wilkie said in response to the SIA findings.
He conceded that there must be confidentiality between a player and the club doctor, but some information about drug test results needs to be made available to other team officials and the AFL.
"(It's) a testing regime that hasn't had the effect of supporting players, it's had the effect of enabling ongoing drug use," he said.
"It has the effect of encouraging dependency on illicit drugs, because the players know it will be just a private matter between them and their team doctor."
