Moves to make sport safer and fairer have been announced by Sport New Zealand.
Sport New Zealand is introducing an independent mediation service, an independent integrity work group and a new community guidance portal focusing on children.
The new initiatives have come from a NZ integrity report carried out last year.
Sports lawyer Don Mackinnon will head up a newly formed independent Integrity Working Group, to look at how New Zealand's recreation and sport integrity institutional arrangements might be streamlined or improved for the future.
Everyone at all levels of sport will be able to access the independent mediation service.
The service is expected to be up and running by February.
There will also be community guidance portal on Sport NZ's website for those at all levels of the sector, featuring free policies, guidelines and training modules on topics such as child protection, safeguarding, preventing discrimination, competition manipulation and member protection.
Photo: Photosport
"What we have launched... support(s) the sector in creating environments and experiences that are safe, fair and inclusive for all New Zealanders. With a genuine collective effort, we hope to see meaningful and sustainable gains across all levels of play, active recreation and sport," Sport NZ general manager Jennah Wootten said.
"These new initiatives work together. The online resources will build awareness and capability at all levels of our sector, the Sport and Recreation Mediation Service provides an independent way to escalate issues if they arise and in the working group we have independent experts who can help us identify how all these measures can be housed into the future for maximum effectiveness."
Basketball NZ chief executive Iain Potter is confident that these new support measures will benefit sports.
"Sport is run by volunteers and they understand that their roles have considerable responsibility, especially when working with young people.
"In an already busy world the expectations on volunteers has increased, which is why I believe volunteers and employees throughout the sector will welcome these measures as they will help them to fulfil their responsibilities in keeping sport safe and fair, and to have a means to escalate any issues they may experience or observe."
Basketball NZ chief executive Iain Potter. Photo: Photosport
The independent service will handle mediation for active recreation and sport from grassroots community level to high performance and elite athletes.
"As we have seen within issues that have arisen in different sports over the past two years, there are times when an independent, expert service is required so that participants, athletes, volunteers and all those within the sector feel safe in stepping forward to escalate issues within a sport or recreation community," said Michael Heron who will head up the service.
"This new service covers community sport and recreation as well as high performance and elite sport and, being totally independent of any national body or Sport NZ and High Performance Sport NZ, should give anyone negatively impacted the means and confidence to step forward."
Photo: 123rf
The online portal will cover child and member protection, equity and inclusion, match-fixing and gambling, anti-doping and organisational culture.
"(The) Community Guidance Portal is ground breaking and I encourage everyone from the sector who works or volunteers in roles with children and young visit the portal, to gain knowledge, skills and guidance to safeguard and protect children and young people," said Safeguarding Children's chief executive and children's advocate Willow Duffy.
