Integrity in sport submission to the select committee
Many submitters along the same lines
Morena, thank you to the committee for giving me this opportunity to speak to you.
My name is Ken Maclaren, I’ve been involved in sport at many different levels since going for a run with my Dad in 1971.
There are many parts of the proposed Integrity Sport and Recreation Commission that are commendable.
However, the bill and appears to undermine the ability of sports to have separate girls and women’s categories based on biology and sex at birth and opens up sports to be challenged by biological men who claim their gender identity is female.
Clause 12(b) states that one of the objectives of the Commission is to promote participants ‘trust and confidence in integrity within the sport and physical recreation sector’.
If the intention is to protect sports integrity including women’s sport then an additional clause should be added to clause 12 that specify that provisions in this Bill are subservient to the section 49 of the Human Rights Act, that all sporting bodies will continue to be free to provide single sex sport where eligibility is determined by sex, not gender identity.
The protection of women’s and girls categories (as with any categories) is essential to protect the very essence of sports integrity.
The Regulatory Impact Statement of May 2022 states:
“We consider that a system that does not deal with integrity issues effectively is likely to have disproportionate impacts on vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, such as tamariki and rangatahi, women, disabled people, LGBTQ+, Māori and Pacific peoples and those from minority ethnic backgrounds.”14
It is worth noting that all groups mentioned here are included in section 16 of the Bill as stakeholders, except Women. I hope this is an oversight. If it’s not the bill could well have the opposite effect what is intended.
It is difficult to see how a Bill that does not mention women as a group will achieve its objective to increase participation in and protect women’s sport.
One of the issues that’s mentioned is bullying. Currently there is a group of women in New Zealand who face extreme hostility and bullying. They are, those female athletes (at the moment it’s mostly young women cyclists) who have spoken out against male athletes who identify as women competing in their category. These women cyclists have been told in no uncertain terms to shut up and get on with racing, despite the obvious unfair disadvantage of racing against biological men.
I’d like to speak about LGBTQ+ or Rainbow Communities as a group that needs supporting. I’ll split the letters.
LGB - Who a consenting adult chooses to have sex with should in no way at anytime have any influence on their involvement in sport at any level. Every letter after the B is a different matter. In order to protect women’s and girls sport as a category this needs to be clear.
Integrity in sport also means that when categories are used particpants in that category are indeed members of that category. In just over a weeks time, I’m competing in a swimming gala. The medals will be given out according to the age of the participants. I along with all other participants will be racing, assuming that in the men’s 60-64 category we are all men aged between 60 and 64 and not 40.
Finally I’d like to address the issue of the fox that has got into the henhouse. Sport New Zealand promote themselves as the Kaitiaki the guardians of sport. Late last year promoted by the Minister of Sport Grant Robertson and the Sport NZ CEO Raelene Castle they released the Transgender Guidelines for community sport. This plan with it’s prioritising ideology over biology show’s that far from being guardians of sport ethics and integrity they have become a risk to sport. Like a dentist advocating washing your mouth with coca cola to protect your teeth.
Thank you committee please show strong and appropriate leadership on this issue.
I added my ten cents worth to the Sports Integrity Bill Select Committee. All three submissions are broadly along the same lines. The two speakers immediately before me starting at 30:00 speak about broadly similar issues. A bit later on Olympian Mary O’Connor adds her piece. My bit kicks in a 41.45minutes.