Robertson Grant; Salesa JennyINTEGRITY SPORT AND RECREATION BILLFirst ReadingHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister for Sport and Recreation): I present a legislative statement on the Integrity Sport and Recreation Bill. DEPUTY 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 first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the bill and at the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 10 August 2023.It is a great honour to be able to bring this bill to the House. It is the end result of a significant amount of work in the sport and recreation sector over the last few years and I want to pay a special acknowledgment to all of those who have been involved in that work—in particular the Play Active Recreation and Sport Integrity Working Group. That working group has spent a lot of time over the last couple of years consulting widely across New Zealand to be able to come up with the recommendations that are what fills up this piece of legislation today and I want to thank them for their work and the transition group that has also been working most recently and those who will continue to support us in this important endeavour.Participating and competing in sport and recreation is fundamental to the wellbeing of New Zealanders. From grassroots to the elite level sport and recreation positively impacts health and wellbeing it strengthens our social connections in our communities and it is an expression of cultural and personal identity. For children and young people in particular physical activity is essential to wellbeing and development and as we all watch our elite athletes compete on the world stage it's also an immense source of pride for New Zealanders and also one that draws our communities together.But the benefits of sport and recreation are only truly realised if those activities are safe inclusive and fair. Both here in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world reviews of sport and recreation environments have shown that more needs to be done to protect athletes and participants at all levels from harm and to ensure a level playing field. Athletes at all levels have spoken up about how difficult and isolating it can be to raise integrity issues. This can be exacerbated by complex processes which lack transparency and independence. In New Zealand in recent times we have seen sadly a number of sports where reviews have needed to be undertaken into areas such as athlete welfare bullying abuse and inappropriate behaviour. All of these are regrettable but it has been across a number of sports and also sadly not just at the elite level. We have also seen inquiries undertaken where there have been concerns about bullying and abuse at grassroots sports level as well. We need to do better to ensure that our people can participate but also in doing so ensure that they are treated fairly and they are kept safe.The bill in front of us today will help protect the wellbeing of participants and the fairness of competition by establishing a new independent Crown entity the Integrity Sport and Recreation Commission to lead a strengthened and more participant-focused integrity system for the sport and recreation sector. The commission's independence is important. This was raised with us numerous times over the consultation period. While I applaud the work that Sport New Zealand High Performance Sport New Zealand and other sporting organisations do to support athlete wellbeing it is clear that for athletes and participants to be able to raise integrity issues without fear that their funding selection or participation will be impacted we need an independent body. Integrity in the context of this Act refers to how we keep sport safe and recreation safe fair and inclusive for all New Zealanders.To that end the bill empowers the commission to target behaviours and practices that threaten integrity including competition manipulation and match fixing the use of prohibited substances and doping methods bullying abuse harassment sexual misconduct violence intimidation racism and other discrimination and the failure to safeguard children. The use of prohibited substances and doping methods in sports will be addressed through the current sports anti-doping regime which gives effect to New Zealand's obligations under the World Anti-Doping Code. All other threats to integrity will be addressed through a new integrity framework introduced in this bill. The commission will have a comprehensive role to provide education advice and independent dispute resolution processes to set integrity standards for the sector and to investigate and resolve integrity issues.The commission will also become New Zealand's national anti-doping organisation taking on the functions of Drug Free Sport New Zealand and will be responsible for ensuring we continue to meet our obligations under the World Anti-Doping Code. The bill disestablishes Drug Free Sport New Zealand and transfers its powers and functions to the new commission. I want to ensure that the anti-doping regime can continue uninterrupted during this transition and that the commission retains the expertise and knowledge that currently sits within Drug Free Sport New Zealand. I want to make a special point of noting the excellent work done by Drug Free Sport New Zealand and the approach being taken in this bill in no way speaks to any concerns that we have with the operations of Drug Free Sport New Zealand. We are disestablishing it because we want it to be part of a wider integrity body but the skills and knowledge and expertise that have been built up will be utilised and I thank Drug Free Sport New Zealand for their cooperation in the work that we have done to put this bill together.The bill requires that the commission will have a strong Te Ao Māori capability and Māori representation on the board. This will help ensure that Māori perspectives are understood and represented at a governance level and that the commission can provide culturally appropriate services. Its processes will also need to respect human rights promote the best interests of children and be responsive to the needs and participation of participants including disability needs and the needs of rainbow communities. Currently the quality of response participants receive varies tremendously depending on the resources and capability in their sport or activity. Grassroots organisations and administrators who are mostly volunteers often lack the time and expertise to prevent and resolve complex integrity matters. Organisations will still have the primary responsibility for resolving integrity issues. However the commission will provide expert advice and support to raise the capability of the sector to deal with integrity matters. It will also provide independent pathways for resolving issues when they cannot be dealt with by the relevant organisation.While sports doping is governed by an international framework there is no similar approach for other broader integrity issues. Standards vary considerably across the sector as does awareness of those standards. To address this the bill establishes a new integrity framework. The commission will issue integrity codes that set minimum standards for conduct for participants and organisations and will prescribe the policies and processes that organisations must have to protect participants. Like the anti-doping regime the integrity framework will be based on sport and recreation organisations adopting an integrity code. We will take a collaborative approach to both the adoption of integrity codes and building capability. Careful consideration has been given to what protections are required for people that make a complaint or provide information to the commission. This is particularly important as athletes and other participants have told us they have been reluctant to raise issues for fear of retaliation. The bill requires the commission to keep the identity of complainants confidential with some exceptions including where disclosure is required to enable the investigation to proceed. Additionally if an organisational person retaliates against a participant for making a complaint or providing information to the commission then this will constitute a breach of an integrity code that could be sanctioned.Importantly the bill gives the commission powers to investigate integrity issues either in response to a complaint or on its own initiative. The commission can also investigate integrity issues involving New Zealand organisations that occur outside New Zealand and this reflects the international nature of sport and recreation particularly at the high-performance level. Consent and cooperation will be the preferred means of information gathering for investigations and where information cannot be obtained by consent from the organisation the bill provides reasonable and proportionate information-gathering powers. The bill provides that the commission can establish an independent disciplinary panel to determine and apply sanctions for the breach of an integrity code. The commission will also be able to hold organisations accountable including through making public its findings and recommendations and requiring an organisation to take remedial action such as making an apology or improving its processes and policies.I expect the new integrity framework and the commission's function and powers will be of significant interest to submitters and I am particularly interested in hearing from submitters whether or not we are targeting the right behaviour and conduct through the definition of threats to integrity and whether we have struck the right balance in terms of investigative and disciplinary powers for the protection of participants. Overall I believe that this bill does respond to what we have heard time and time again from athletes: that they want their wellbeing to be upheld that they need to be comfortable that they are safe when they are involved in sport and recreation and that they are involved in a fair sport and recreation system. I believe that this bill takes significant steps forwards to ensuring we achieve all of those goals and I look forward to its passage through the House and to hearing the submissions that we get. I commend the Integrity Sport and Recreation Bill to the House. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The question is that the motion be agreed to.