Basketball NSW publishes three Codes of Behaviour, for players, for coaches, officials and support staff, and for spectators, which includes parents. It adds a Zero Tolerance statement dated 6 November 2023 and short heat and concussion summaries. Above them sits Basketball Australia's integrity framework. Your association's Member Protection Information Officer is the local first contact for member protection questions.
Last updated 9 October 2026.
Basketball NSW's Resource Directory says it is bound by Basketball Australia's National Integrity Framework. Basketball Australia lists that framework as effective from 16 December 2024, with the policies under it carrying their own dates: the Member Protection Policy effective 1 October 2024, the Child Safeguarding Policy effective 1 August 2024 (the PDF itself is version 2.1 dated 1 October 2024), and the Complaints Policy effective 1 March 2025 (version 2.2).
Watch the dates on older pages. Basketball NSW's Member Protection web page still describes Basketball Australia's Member Protection Policy as effective from 1 January 2023, and its Resource Directory still lists a Basketball Australia Member Protection By-Law dated 18 June 2018. Basketball Australia's own integrity page lists the current Member Protection Policy as effective from 1 October 2024, and the version history in its version 2.1 PDF gives the same date.
One naming trap. Sport Integrity Australia also uses the name National Integrity Framework for its own set of policies. Basketball Australia is not in its table of sports that have adopted that framework. It appears instead in a second table of sports whose own policies have been assessed as meeting Sport Integrity Australia's 2022 and 2023 Standards, and that page says that if your sport is on the second list, you should report all integrity issues to your national sporting organisation.
Underneath all of this sit your association's own by-laws and rules. Basketball NSW's complaints page describes associations as autonomous bodies that run their own competitions, and says each must have a process for resolving disputes under its constitution.
Basketball NSW publishes three short codes, listed in its Resource Directory as Code of Conduct for Players, Coaches and Officials, and Spectators. None of the three carries a date in its text. The players and coaches codes still refer to a Member Protection By-Law, which Basketball Australia's own version history shows was separated into a number of policies on 2 December 2022, so read them alongside the current Basketball Australia policies.
The players code asks children to play for fun rather than just to please parents and coaches, never argue with an official, control their temper, avoid derogatory language about ability, gender, race or impairment, including on social media, and treat others the way they would like to be treated, without bullying.
The coaches, officials and support staff code covers the adults. It says physical contact with players must be appropriate and necessary for skill development, that unaccompanied and unobserved activities with under 18s should be avoided wherever possible, and that coaching staff should not stay in change rooms unnecessarily. It also asks coaching and support staff not to have team members, especially under 18s, as personal Facebook or social media friends. Basketball NSW's child safety FAQ says its Code of Conduct states that coaches should refrain from private messaging with children. The coaches code document we read does not use those words, so read the FAQ and the code together.
The spectators code is the one written for parents, and it opens by naming all parents, spectators and other participants at Basketball NSW sanctioned events. It asks you to respect officials' decisions, never ridicule or scold a young player for a mistake, and applaud good efforts from every team. It bans offensive comments aimed at opposition players, coaches, referees or spectators, insulting posts about them on social media, any images in or near toilets or change rooms, and live streaming of junior games. Breaches can be dealt with under Basketball Australia's Member Protection Policy, Basketball NSW's Disciplinary Tribunal by-laws or its Zero Tolerance policy, and non-members can be refused entry to future events.
Basketball NSW's Zero Tolerance Towards Inappropriate Behaviour statement, dated 6 November 2023, applies at all Basketball NSW sanctioned events. It covers persistently questioning referees, berating or abusing players, coaches, referees, scoretable officials or other parents, and homophobic, transgender-related, racist or other discriminatory slurs. Anyone seen, heard or reported doing so will be asked to leave, with no prior warning, and may face suspension, a disciplinary hearing and being refused entry to future events.
Basketball NSW says every participant must be able to contact the Member Protection Information Officer, or MPIO, at their association. It describes the MPIO as the point of contact for players, volunteers and parents with member protection questions or complaints, says many MPIOs also manage the association's Working with Children Check responsibilities, and says the MPIO's name and phone number should be given without question to anyone who asks.
MPIOs are impartial and usually volunteers. They do not mediate or investigate complaints. Basketball NSW says complaints are handled by a suitable person the association appoints, a committee member it nominates or an independent person, and that where there is a conflict of interest Basketball NSW can sometimes manage the complaint itself.
The rules a parent is most likely to run into are in the spectators code and in Basketball Australia's Child Safeguarding Policy, version 2.1. The spectators code bans live streaming junior games and taking any images in or near toilets or change rooms. The safeguarding policy says no phone, camera or other recording device is to be used in changing rooms, particularly while children are getting dressed.
Taking photos of your own child is fine. Basketball Australia's policy says nothing in it is meant to stop parents reasonably photographing their own child playing, while asking parents to be mindful of other children and to respect families who do not want their child photographed. Beyond that, the policy says children should only be photographed or filmed in the sport with a parent's prior written approval, in a context related to playing, and with other personnel present.
The same policy asks that any electronic communication with children copies in both the organisation and a parent or guardian, and says that apart from emergencies, participants must not transport children without a parent's prior written approval. In an update first published on 24 August 2026, the NSW Office of the Children's Guardian also said organisations' policies on sharing images of children on social media need to account for new risks from AI and image manipulation.
Basketball NSW's Heat Policy Summary, approved by its Board on 26 February 2020, adopts the Sports Medicine Australia Hot Weather Guidelines. It says that on hot or humid days the court temperature must be measured every hour the stadium is in use and recorded. At 31 degrees Celsius on court, or 26 degrees where humidity is high, teams should be encouraged to take at least one time out each half. At 36 degrees or above, or 30 degrees or above where humidity is high, games should be postponed, cancelled or abandoned.
The summary also asks host associations to make sure first aid is known about, referees watch for heat stress, players and referees keep drinking water, and there are ways to cool down, such as water, fans or air conditioning, and ice.
Basketball NSW's Resource Directory still lists the SMA Hot Weather Guidelines 2007. Sports Medicine Australia's hot weather page, checked on 9 October 2026, now points to its Extreme Heat Risk and Response Guidelines and a Sports Heat Tool that rates heat stress risk for a location in real time. The same page says indoor conditions cannot be captured by weather stations, that indoor data cannot currently be entered into the Heat Tool, and that organisers of indoor sport should use good monitoring devices inside the venue. For basketball, the court temperature thresholds Basketball NSW sets out are the ones in its 2020 summary.
Basketball NSW's Concussion Policy Summary is undated and adopts Sports Medicine Australia's Concussion in Sport Policy. A player with a suspected concussion must be removed from play straight away and referred to a medical practitioner. Nobody other than a medical practitioner can decide they may return on the same day, and the summary says that includes the player, parents, coaches and officials. All suspected concussions must be reported to Basketball NSW on its Injury Report Form, and medical clearance must be given to Basketball NSW and the local association before the player does any basketball activity again.
The Basketball NSW summary says most people recover within 10 to 14 days, that children and adolescents often take longer, and it does not set a minimum number of days out.
National guidance is more specific. The Australian Institute of Sport's concussion page, checked on 9 October 2026, says the Concussion and Brain Health Position Statement 2024, which the Australian Government funded, sets a minimum stand down for youth sport (under 19) and community sport: 14 days free of symptoms at rest before going back to contact training, and at least 21 days before going back to competitive contact. Basketball NSW's summary separately requires medical clearance before any return to basketball, so the doctor clearing your child is the person to ask about timing.
Basketball NSW's Integrity Complaint page says most matters belong with your association first, including game day and competition disputes, local registration and eligibility, grading, on court behaviour, referee concerns and association or club fees and refunds. Raise those with the association, which must have a dispute resolution process.
The same page lists what Basketball NSW deals with itself: child safety and safeguarding concerns; discrimination, harassment or abuse; breaches of Basketball Australia's Member Protection Policy; serious integrity matters that cannot be sorted out locally; and matters in the competitions it runs, such as NBL1 and the Waratah leagues. It also takes matters still unresolved after the association's process. It says it cannot overturn an association's competition decisions, and that alleged theft or criminal conduct is a matter for NSW Police.
To contact Basketball NSW about a member protection or integrity matter, its Integrity Complaint page gives (02) 8765 8555 during business hours, 1300 30 45 50 at any time (24/7), and an online Stopline form. The page notes the Stopline form is not for disputing the standard of officiating in games Basketball NSW runs. For breaches of the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 by an incorporated association, it points to NSW Fair Trading.
If a child is in danger, call 000. If abuse or neglect is putting a child at risk of harm, call the Child Protection Helpline on 132 111, open 24 hours, 7 days. Our Child Safe Standards page has the full list of numbers. Liddicoat Basketball is not a reporting body and does not take reports.
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Facts on this page were compiled from the official sources below and written up in our own words. Dates, fees and venues change every season, so confirm anything you are relying on with the association directly.
This page was last updated October 2026. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
