Under the ASADA Act, all athletes under investigation were entitled to confidentiality until and unless they are found to have taken a World Anti-Doping Agency prohibited substance. The Act allows ASADA to put strict conditions on third parties with which it shares confidential information. Despite the confidentiality of the players under investigation being constantly breached through leaks to the media, ASADA did nothing to prevent its own Act being subverted. ASADA did not abide by its own Act and allowed the AFL to leak information from the joint AFL/ASADA investigation. Incomprehensibly, ASADA shared information with the minister and public servants, which was a blatant breach of the NAD Scheme provisions.
Release of the Interim Report
“On 1 August 2013, ASADA received legal advice from the Australian government solicitors that the interim report, which includes highly confidential information, can only be provided to the AFL is part of an anti-doping investigation.
“ASADA’s position after receiving this advice is that the report cannot be used to inform the AFL’s disciplinary proceedings against Essendon and its officials. In a flurry of legal letters, the AFL breaks clear to ASADA this is exactly what it plans to do. The report is distributed to the AFL Commissioners who will decide the fate of Essendon, Hird and the other club officials. Parts of its texts are cut and pasted into a 34-page charge sheet compiled against the club. Copies of the report were distributed to 67 people, including Essendon and its lawyers.
“Once heard, Danny Corcoran, Mark Thompson and Bruce Reid are charged, a copy is made available to them and a second one to their lawyers. When further copies are provided by the AFL to the AFL players Association, the Australian government solicitor’s order the AFL to cease any further distribution of the report.
“‘Every man and their dog got that that report,’ says Amendola. ‘How do you maintain confidentiality? (Source Steve Amendola, interview with author, 26 February 2015). They don’t. By this stage, nearly all information contained in the interim report damaging to Essendon and Hird has been leaked anyway. The circumstantial case against the players for taking a banned peptide, Thymosin Beta-4, the mysterious ‘Mexican’ drug, ASADA’s inflated guestimate of how many injections were administered at Essendon – all have found a home on the front or back pages of the morning newspapers. When I read the interim report in full, I am staggered at how little of it hasn’t been published.Source: Chip Le Grand’s award-winning book, The Straight Dope (pages 193-194).”
As Essendon president David Evans was batting on the same side as the AFL and ASADA, investigators Paul Simonsson and Staffer 5 breached ASADA’s confidentiality responsibilities by regularly sharing investigation evidence with him.
According to Chip Le Grand in his book The Straight Dope, one such confidentiality breach concerned the investigators informing Evanson 11 March 2013 that “the players don’t have anything to fear from the doping investigation”.
Inexcusably, AFL media officer James Tonkin was also given access to the evidence from the investigation and used it public statements.
Perhaps the worst transgressor was AFL senior counsel (and now CEO) Andrew Dillon. Dillon did a cut and paste job of 34 pages from the interim point and released it to the media. The document contained hundreds of points and charges against James Hird, Mark Thompson, Danny Corcoran and Dr Reid. It poisoned the public’s attitude to the four men. Subsequently, Dillon reduced his allegations to 17 points. But without informing the public or media.
Essendon AFL Drug Saga 