Debate on Crown Entities, Public Organisations, and State Enterprises — Sport and Recreation New Zealand

What about those All Whites, eh? Has it not been exciting to watch their progress up to, and through, the FIFA World Cup? Has it not been exciting to see the rise in support for football here in New Zealand? Has it not been exciting to see the way Māori Football NZ has tried to run a campaign to make football a credible alternative to rugby and rugby league? And has it not been exciting to listen to Winston Reid and Rory Fallon, both All Whites, speak of their desire to return home and inspire Māori and Polynesian youngsters to follow football? Yet if we were to talk to the manager of Māori Football NZ, Phillip Pickering-Parker, he would tell us that the All Whites had in the past been invisible to New Zealand youth, who lacked visible role models, whether Māori or non-Māori.

Nowadays roughly 50,000 to 60,000 Māori youth across both genders are playing football, yet when we look at the 2008-09 financial review of Sport and Recreation New Zealand, we do not see football. It is invisible in the review of the performance and current operations of Sport and Recreation New Zealand. I commend the initiative, the vision, and the commitment of people like Wynton Whai Rufer and Phill Pickering-Parker, who have done so much to generate energy for the new growth sport of football. Phill Pickering-Parker, of Ngāti Manawa, is an amazing legend. After his own football career took him from Kawerau to South London, he has now become a qualified elite coach to Aotearoa’s budding football stars. It is all about the mentoring and development of our young players—something that one would have thought was an appropriate role for Sport and Recreation New Zealand to take on.

There are other notable omissions from the 2008-09 financial review. Yes, the Rugby World Cup is there, with its $1.5 million for volunteers, but there is nothing to support the Aotearoa Māori Women’s Rugby Sevens Team, who took out the Roma Sevens final against France and Italy just 20 days ago. These young women are great ambassadors for their country, their whānau, and their culture. They are seven-time international winners, having won the Women’s Rugby Sevens championship in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2010. What is even more exciting is that women’s rugby sevens will be an Olympic sport in 2016.

The opportunity to compete internationally and to enjoy world-class success is an amazing experience for our young Māori men and women, and provides automatic career openings for many of them. Yet although the team is supported by the New Zealand Rugby Union through its Māori board, Whakapūmautanga, no funding has followed. The team is celebrated across Aotearoa, and has received support from Te Puni Kōkiri, the New Zealand Community Trust, and the First Sovereign Trust over the years, yet it has received nothing from Sport and Recreation New Zealand. It is hard to fathom why.

Third time lucky? Perhaps I will try basketball. We have been aware of young Māori players who are selected for the Junior Tall Blacks yet struggle to attend the tournaments due to a lack of funding. Again, nothing in the latest review indicated support for this high-growth area of sporting excellence.

What about waka ama? There is nothing in the report. I know that my two young nieces who went to a world championship in Tahiti a couple of months ago had to fund-raise really hard. They had quiz evenings and sausages sizzles to enable them to get there.

Every year the National Māori Sports Awards show that Māori sportspeople are demonstrating their incredible talents and abilities in every sporting area across the world. We see Māori world champions represented in sporting areas as varied as woodchopping, wood sawing, cue ball, rowing, tae kwon do, and body-boarding, yet the only reference we see in the report of Sport Recreation New Zealand that addresses Māori and Pacific communities describes the need to invest in Māori and Pacific Island participation in sport because Sport and Recreation New Zealand is worried about the prevalence of inactivity and obesity. Otherwise, we see the justification for the involvement of Sport and Recreation New Zealand in schools as that it wants to support schools in responding to an increasingly risk-averse attitude.

I refer the Committee to the amazing initiative in my electorate, the sports academies at Aranui High School, and their mission to motivate Māori and Pacific Islanders.

Tihei mauri orā. Whāia te pae tawhiti kia tata, whāia te pae tata whakamaua kia ū, kia tīna.

[Behold the breath of life. Seek the distant horizon so that it is closer, but the horizon closest at hand must be held on to firmly, and cherished.]

That whakatauākī teaches us to reach for the stars and pull them close to us. If there is something in New Zealand that we do extremely well, it is following that proverb when it comes to sport. Across the globe and around this nation we go after our goals in a big way, and we reach for the stars and pull them close to us. If there is a team that has done that in the last couple of months it has been the New Zealand All Whites. They have gone out on to the international stage and done an amazing job. We saw the way New Zealanders got behind that team throughout those three games. We supported Ricki Herbert, Ryan Nelsen, and guys from my own electorate—for example, Shane Smeltz and Mr Paston. They did a wonderful job on that stage. They made us feel proud.

Sport and Recreation New Zealand stands behind that team and helped it to get there. If we look at the appropriations throughout last year and this year in helping that team to get to the World Cup, we will see there was a $250,000 appropriation to help with the preparation, and further on there was a $300,000 appropriation to help with the campaign proper. But when we think about the contribution that this nation gives to its sports teams in comparison with what other nations give to help their teams on an international stage, it really does fade into insignificance. If we look at what the Italians did to help their team get there, and at what the English did, we see that we really do box above our weight, which is absolutely amazing, and long may it continue. Long may we continue to follow that proverb I read at the start of my speech.

In respect of Sport and Recreation New Zealand, there are two areas I want to focus on. The first is the funnel it is opening up to ensure we continue to stay on the international stage and stay champions. The second is on KiwiSport at the bottom level, where we encourage our children to develop the skills that are necessary to give them the competence to get out and play sport. I am proud to say I was with Sport Hawke’s Bay on Monday at Te Awa School with Pip from Sport Hawke’s Bay. It has started a scheme called Parents in Schools, where it is bringing dads—particularly dads—into the schools in the mornings. So the dads, instead of just dropping the kids off at the gate and shooting off to work, are being asked to come into the school, shoot a netball or throw a rugby ball around and give the kids the skills to get them started so when they do start to play competitive sport they do not feel embarrassed in front of their peers.

We have seen that amongst all the amazing sports trusts around New Zealand. They are a key part of our community, binding the community together and ensuring that there are volunteers and coaches to help the children get the skills they need to compete. Sports trusts are absolutely amazing organisations, and I am fully behind them. It is great to see Sport and Recreation New Zealand supporting them.

The point I want to finish on is the impact this Government has made in terms of taking sport to a whole new level with high-performance sport. The announcements Minister McCully has made in the last couple of weeks are absolutely fantastic. It is great to see what we will now be investing in the Millennium Institute of Sport and Health in Auckland, a great organisation. It was originally started by Graeme Avery, I might say, and Allan Peachey. Allan Peachey, from this House, started, through his school, in association with Graeme, and they got it off the ground. Now there is $40 million going into that. Throughout the country, throughout the motu, as Mr Horomia might say, we are seeing centres of excellence being set up. There is an amazing initiative going on in the North Shore, in Wayne Mapp’s electorate and in Jonathan Coleman’s. There is a centre of excellence for sailing and water sports, and we will soon see what will happen there. In the Waikato, David Bennett’s area, there is the rowing on Lake Karapiro, and it is absolutely fantastic to see what is going on there. We are seeing centres of excellence being set up. We are investing money into these sports to make sure our sportsmen and sportswomen continue to be on the international stage, up where Kiwis want to see them. I am fully behind what Minister McCully has done. The appropriations for Sport and Recreation New Zealand are absolutely sensational. There is a cycling bid out there that I know a number of regions are bidding for. Hawke’s Bay will be giving that one a damn good shot. Kia ora.