ASADA should resolve saga: Abbott

With careers ruined and lives blighted over allegations of drug use in Australian sport, Prime Minister Tony Abbott thinks its time the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority resolves the saga.

The federal government is being urged to broaden powers for ASADA at a Senate inquiry hearing on Friday where Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates is appearing to support proposed amendments to bring it into line with the World Anti-Doping Authority.

Next January, WADA will introduce changes including the doubling of bans for drug cheats from two to four years.

Mr Abbott was on Friday asked if ASADA should have more power.

He did not answer that directly at a press conference in Sydney but said it was high time the long-running saga was drawn to a close.

"ASADA should do its job, it should do its job efficiently and effectively and it should resolve all of these matters as quickly as possible," he told reporters.

He said the former Labor government summoned heads of sports to Canberra and raised the allegations at a dramatic press conference.

"We were told this was the blackest day in Australian sports and since then we've had all sorts of allegations swirling around, we've had all sorts of controversy, we've had all sorts of careers ruined and lives blighted," Mr Abbott said.

"But it's still hard to see what exactly a lot of this was about."

Sport should be clean and fair, he said.

"I say to ASADA `get on, finish the job so that we can all move forward from this'."