Issue date
Sport NZ have launched a nationwide public consultation on their review into sport integrity, calling on anyone involved in sport to share their thoughts on a range of integrity issues through an online survey.
While New Zealand has various initiatives in place to protect and promote the integrity of sport, the current environment has prompted Sport NZ to undertake an integrity review to determine whether these measures are sufficient. They are seeking public submissions on a discussion document to help them better understand the size of the risks and problems with sport integrity.
The review considers five specific areas:
- Member protection – ensuring those involved in sport are not subject to harassment, bullying and abuse, and are physically and mentally safe.
- Integrity issues in children’s sport – ensuring children involved in sport are protected from abuse and that the focus is on enjoyment rather than winning, and considering the changing environment within secondary school sport.
- Anti-doping – the use of prohibited substances (colloquially referred to as performance and image enhancing drugs) in contravention of the World Anti-Doping Code.
- Protecting against corruption – fraud, bribery, bid rigging and other dishonest behaviours intended to achieve personal gain by manipulating an outcome.
- Protecting against match-fixing – action to inappropriately predetermine the result of a match, or part of a match, for gambling purposes.
It also considers some overarching themes that cut across multiple areas of sport integrity, namely: organisational culture, whistleblowing and the institutional arrangements for sport integrity in New Zealand.
The review is being conducted over two phases. The first phase will assess the current environment, identify priority areas where existing policies and protections may be insufficient, and gather evidence to support future interventions. Phase two will develop solutions to problems within these priority areas.
Sport NZ would like your input to help with phase one. Given the very broad nature of the issues covered, they are inviting submissions from anyone with an interest in any of the review topics. Your input would be invaluable to help them draw a full picture of the current sport integrity landscape in New Zealand.
It's important Sport NZ get a good range of submissions, from elite to grassroots. Therefore, it would also be helpful if you could encourage your networks to make a submission, and ask them to encourage people in their networks to submit. If Sport NZ can help with this, e.g. by providing content for social media or a newsletter, please let them know as they are more than happy to help you get the word out.
There are two ways you can submit:
- complete the survey questions on some or all of the topics in the discussion document – anonymous submissions can be lodged this way.
- email a submission to integrityreview@sportnz.org.nz
The consultation period closes at 5pm on Tuesday, 11 December 2018.
