Concussion and head trauma in contact sports to be examined by parliamentary inquiry, Greens say

A federal parliamentary committee will examine concussion and repeated head trauma in contact sports, with the Greens saying they have the support of Labor and the Coalition to establish the inquiry.

The push follows growing concern about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated head trauma and concussion that has been increasingly linked to contact and collision sports.

There are also questions about the influence of the Concussion in Sport Group, an international body of experts who provide sporting codes around the world, including the AFL and NRL, with blueprints on how to manage head injury.

The inquiry proposed by the Greens would examine concussions and repeated head trauma in contact sports at all levels, for all genders and age groups.

Thorpe plans to move the motion to establish the inquiry in the Senate on Thursday.

In their 2016 consensus statement, the Concussion in Sport Group said there was no proven cause-and-effect relationship between concussions and degenerative brain diseases such as CTE, despite respected neurologists and neuroscientists saying there was a link. The condition can only be definitively diagnosed via autopsy.

In March the former AFL concussion doctor Paul McCrory stood down as chair of the Concussion in Sport Group after allegations of plagiarism. With McCrory as its adviser, the AFL was under increasing pressure to recognise the risk of CTE on players and to act to prevent it by better protecting players from concussion.

But former players and health experts expressed concern that the review did not go far enough.

Thorpe said the inquiry would examine what physical and financial supports were available, including compensation mechanisms for players affected by the long-term impacts of concussions. Sports officials could be called on to provide evidence.

The inquiry has written support from the sport minister, Anika Wells, and verbal support from the shadow sport minister, Anne Ruston, Thorpe said. The committee would report by the end of June 2023.

The neurophysiologist Prof Alan Pearce, who has previously claimed that McCrory and the AFL hindered his own research into concussion and CTE in players, said he hoped the inquiry would be supported.