The world's largest global sporting event, the Olympic Games, is only capable of functioning due to its role as staunchly apolitical. As an organisation dedicated to honouring athletic greatness, its president wisely recognises that the politicisation of the Olympic Games is the end of the Olympic Games. It is a position the government takes as well, after they announced last month that Australia would avoid the petty politicking of the United States and others by participating in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

My colleague TheSensibleCentre correctly noted Washington's hypocrisy in condemning China while cozying up to authoritarian regimes, exposing the true Sinophobia at the centre of their boycott. However, let's put that aside for now, and talk about the Commonwealth Party's recent statement, calling for Australia to engage in a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics.

On the face of it, this is strange. You believe that China is a "dangerous and cruel regime", and one we should not dignify by sending diplomatic personnel to, but you're perfectly fine with Team Australia attending? It seems to me like a cowardly middle ground, one of attempting to have their cake and eat it too. You cannot jointly hold the position of not wanting to support the "blatant human rights abuses" of China while also allowing our athletes to attend.

Now, I will not address the individual talking points used by the CPA in this article as to why we should boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics. Instead, I will look at two previous Games. Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016. The Sochi Games were held on the historic land of the Circassian people, who suffered what some have called genocide at the hands of the Russian Empire - one of the events was even held at a hill named for the blood of Circassians! The Rio Games were held under the backdrop of corruption allegations. Poor families living in favelas were driven out of their homes by government forces to make way for mega Olympic stadiums.

I am fairly sure most would recognise these as significant evils, and certainly worthy of condemnation. But were we correct in sending our athletes? I believe, yes. History has shown that Olympic boycotts have been largely ineffective - the boycott of 1980, which Australia did not participate in, had very little effect. Historians wrote that it threatened the Olympic movement, estranged allies, but was ultimately a "failure of Olympic proportions".

China would rightfully be enraged at any boycott from Australia - indeed, they have already promised to make boycotters "pay the price". Is it worth jeopardising relations with our largest trading partner in order to make a gesture that may be well-intentioned but will ultimately be meaningless, and put the future of the Games at risk? Or should we stand alongside our athletes as they go for gold in Beijing? I am glad that the government has made the right decision - it remains to be seen if the opposition will support our athletes.