Government orders Sport NZ to scrap transgender inclusive community sport guidelines

Sport NZ is ditching its guidelines for the inclusion of transgender people in community sport, after direction from the government.

It has also removed the document, which the government originally asked it to review and update, from its website.

Labour has labelled the decision a step backwards, and is questioning why the position changed from updating the principles to removing them entirely.

First published in 2022, the document asked sporting bodies to consider a set of "guiding principles" to make participating in community sport more inclusive for transgender people.

But last October, then-minister for sport Chris Bishop said sporting bodies were "grappling with a tricky issue," and asked Sport NZ to review and update the principles.

National's coalition with New Zealand First contains a commitment to "ensure publicly funded sporting bodies support fair competition that is not compromised by rules relating to gender".

In 2023, New Zealand First campaigned on making any publicly funded sporting body "that does not have an exclusive biological female category, where ordinarily appropriate" ineligible for public funding.

Announcing the review, Bishop said the principles did "not reflect legitimate community expectations that sport at a community level should not just be focused on diversity, inclusion, and equity, but also prioritise fairness and safety".

The completed review was handed over to Bishop's successor Mark Mitchell.

Rather than an update, the government has now told Sport NZ to stop all work on the guiding principles and remove them altogether.

"After considering the review, the government has informed Sport NZ that it should not be involved in publishing guidelines related to gender in sport," said Sport NZ chief executive Raelene Castle.

"Sporting organisations will continue to make their own decisions on the participation of transgender people in community sport and there are a range of expert organisations that can provide support," she said.

Earlier this month, the Save Women's Sport Australasia group published an open letter to Mitchell, urging him to "dump" the guidelines.

"Their continued existence creates unnecessary conflict for national sporting bodies, particularly those reliant on Sport NZ funding, who may feel pressured to adopt these guidelines despite their misalignment with international federation policies," the letter said.

The group previously met with Bishop and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, in the weeks leading up to the announcement of the review.

Labour's rainbow issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert said removing the principles was a step backwards, and the government was kicking people while they were down.

"It's about enabling organisations to keep people safe, to support people, and most of all create inclusive environments. But here we have the government removing and excluding people from playing sport, and that's not acceptable," he said.

He said there was no evidence for removing the guidelines, and Sport NZ had not raised any issues with them.

"Sport NZ has always advocated for the inclusion of trans people in sport, no matter what age they are. We want people to be involved, we want all New Zealanders to be playing sport. Most of all, we don't want people excluded and I don't think that's what New Zealanders expect either."

He questioned whether there was a "political trade-off" with New Zealand First in order to remove the principles, instead of update them.

"Sport NZ, they did want inclusivity, and I absolutely agree with that. Why has that position changed?"

Green Party spokesperson for Takatāpui and Rainbow communities Benjamin Doyle said the directive showed the coalition had once again failed rainbow communities.

"Minister Mark Mitchell said himself that there was nothing wrong with the guidelines. It is abundantly clear that this is a political move to appease coalition partners and appeal to some of the most hate-filled corners of our society."

Doyle said the guidelines were never mandatory but helped keep communities safe.

"Everyone deserves to feel safe in sport, including our trans whānau," Doyle said.

"We cannot build a thriving society where all people are valued and respected by trying to disappear trans and non-binary folk from public life."

What were the principles?

The "overarching principle" of the document was inclusion.

"Every New Zealander has the right to participate in Sport and to be treated with respect, empathy and positive regard. Transgender people can take part in sports in the gender they identify with," the document said.

The guiding principles were based around:

• Wellbeing and safety
• Privacy and dignity
• Anti-discrimination, anti-bullying, and anti-harassment
• Listening and responding
• Education

Each principle had its own series of suggestions, such as providing private spaces in bathrooms, using gender-inclusive language, and establishing robust anti-harassment codes of conduct.

The principles were not mandatory and were not rules or criteria, as Sport NZ noted it would not be possible to provide a one-size-fits-all approach across every code.

The guiding principles did have a section on safety, noting "the gender identity of a player does not create a danger or risk to safety" and "transgender players, as with all cisgender players, are diverse and varied in their height, weight, strength and stamina".

It said mismatches or significant disparities may contribute a risk to safety, depending on the sport, but various sports had age and weight restrictions to reduce mismatches or any subsequent injuries that may arise.

Sports minister Mark Mitchell told Morning Report, the government had decided to leave decision making to individual sporting codes.

"The guidelines were never mandatory, it is up to the individual organisations whether they use them or not."

When pressed on whether there had been something wrong with the guidelines, Mitchell said there was nothing wrong with them, but the government would "not dictate to sporting codes how they were going to deal with their own decisions and guidelines around safety and fairness in their own codes."

"The government does not want to be telling codes how to run their own sports - fundamentally we want to see rising participation in sport, but we want to make sure there is safety and fairness in all sports."

Mitchell denied the government had any particular stance on the issue.

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