The Bill is an echo of the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Bill 2014 (Cth) noted here and the more problematical Queensland legislation highlighted here.
ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell comments that
This legislation is a critical part of the ACT's preparations for hosting games as part of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup and the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup in 2015.The Bill repeals the Major Events Security Act 2000 (ACT), introduced ahead of the Sydney Olympics.
The Bill makes "important changes to improve the operation and management of major events in the ACT" by -
- creating a new scheme for major event declarations.
- allowing additional crowd management security provisions to apply at certain declared events.
- allowing advertising and intellectual property rights protection at declared events.
- making pitch invasion an offence.
- prohibiting ticket scalping.
- giving police and authorised people improved capacity to effectively manage security, including the ability to search bags and others items including through the use of electronic scanning.
new prohibitions on advertising near major event venues and the use of protected symbols without permission. Symbols such as logos, designs, emblems or words can be declared as 'protected symbols' for a defined period.
