Integrity Sport and Recreation Bill

I present a legislative statement on the Integrity Sport and Recreation Bill.

SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I move, That the Integrity Sport and Recreation Bill be now read a second time.

I want to acknowledge the Social Services and Community Committee for its excellent consideration of this bill. I was very pleased to see the committee report the bill back early, and that it has unanimously recommended that the bill be passed with some amendments to clarify and strengthen the bill. I also want to thank members of the public, including those from the sport and recreation sector, that submitted on the bill. The committee did receive a large range of submissions, and has taken them all into account.

I am acutely aware of timings this evening, so my contribution in this second reading will be relatively brief in order to cover off a few of the changes that have been made. We will then obviously discuss them further in the committee of the whole House and the third reading stages that follow on.

It is just worth noting for colleagues in the House the functions of the Integrity Sport and Recreation Commission that this bill establishes. It is to promote, advise, and educate on integrity issues and threats to integrity within the sports and physical recreation sector; develop and issue integrity codes; prescribe policies and procedures for complaints management and dispute resolution; implement the World Anti-Doping Code and facilitate compliance with New Zealand’s international obligations with respect to doping in sport; investigate suspected breaches of integrity codes and threats to integrity, and advise the Minister for Sport and Recreation on the state of integrity in sport and organised physical recreation.

The purpose of putting this legislation before the House is to modernise the way that we deal with issues in our sport and recreation sector that are threats to integrity. That does include doping in sport, competition manipulation, bullying, sexual misconduct, racism, and other behaviours that undermine sport and recreation in Aotearoa New Zealand.

It is worth noting that the bill does disestablish Drug Free Sport New Zealand, and shift all of its functions, powers, responsibilities, and staff to the commission. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the excellent work that Drug Free Sport New Zealand does. The fact that it is being absorbed into this commission is no statement on that work. It remains important, and the people who do it do a great job—on behalf of us and on behalf of sportspeople—to keep our sport clean.

The committee did make a number of changes, and I just want to briefly highlight those. First, they have recommended that the definition of “threat to integrity” in clause 5 is amended to include attempted competition manipulation. This better aligns with what is done internationally, including by the Olympic movement. There were several submitters who noted that illegal sports betting was not referred to in the threats to integrity. In light of this, clause 5 is being amended to refer to sports betting activity associated with competition manipulation. This recognises that while the commission is not a betting regulator, certain prohibited betting activity can be captured by the bill.

Clause 5 is also amended to refer to unlawful discrimination as defined by Part 2 of the Human Rights Act (HRA). This clarifies, for the avoidance of doubt, that the commission will need to interpret discrimination consistently with the HRA, which sets out those prohibited grounds on discrimination.

The committee did receive a lot of feedback from sporting organisations around how codes should work. As a result, the committee has recommended changes to clause 19 of the bill, to articulate a clear purpose for the codes, which is “to provide for minimum standards of integrity that would be consistent across the parts of the sport and physical recreation sector” that they apply to. Clause 19 is also amended to clarify that codes cannot apply to a single sport or recreation activity. These changes make clear that the intention is for codes to promote consistency across the sector, and address concerns about multiple codes leading to greater complexity.

There was a strong theme in the submissions that we should make sure of a focus on safeguarding children, given the particular harms that children can experience in sport and recreation environments. As a result, the committee has recommended changes for the commission to be set up to appropriately handle integrity matters involving children and young people. There is a new clause 54B requiring the commission to have a child protection policy.

Finally, the committee has proposed to clarify a range of consultation requirements for the commission in clauses 16 and 20.

This is a good bill. This is an important piece of legislation to ensure that all sport and recreation in New Zealand is clean and free from cheating, from drug manipulation, from competition manipulation, but it is also an important place for people to take their concerns and complaints. There have been many brave people—particularly women—who have taken complaints about how they have been treated in the sporting arena. They do not always feel that they have been heard properly. There will now be a place and a commission that does that. I strongly recommend this bill to the House.

The question is that the motion be agreed to. It is probably unfair to start a 10-minute speech at this stage and then interrupt it in less than two minutes.

Debate interrupted.