Nine months down the track, Sports NZ have made no visible signs of updating their ‘trans inclusion’ guidelines as instructed.

When comparing like for like, men consistently outperform women at sports, whether we like it or not. Elite female athletes can sometimes even be outperformed by both younger and older male athletes!

Sports NZ appears to be playing the age-old game of dragging the chain. Despite being directed nine months ago from the Minister for Sports and Recreation to update their guidelines about allowing men who say they’re women to play in female sports, there are no visible signs that Sports NZ has even begun.

I would go so far as to surmise that behind closed doors, the only sign they’ve made is to flip the finger at the Minister about this.

The aim of the dragging-the-chain game is to hope that by dragging the chain, whatever it is the player doesn’t want to do will eventually go away. However, like many other organisations which have blithely prioritised men who say they’re women over actual women, Sports NZ have underestimated their opponents.

Save Women’s Sports Australasia are not going away. They have written an open letter to the Hon Mark Mitchell, Minister for Sports and Recreation, pointing out that the only action by Sports NZ to his directive seems to be to have been to ignore it. The time for niceties is over – now there’s no call to ‘update’ the guidelines, but to dump them.

Open Letter to Hon Mark Mitchell:

Time to Dump Sport NZ’s Guiding Principles for Transgender Inclusion

8th July 2025

Attention: Hon Mark Mitchell

Minister for Sport and Recreation

Dear Minister,

We are writing to express our deep concern regarding the ongoing delays in updating Sport New Zealand’s Guiding Principles for the Inclusion of Transgender People in Community Sport, and to request that you act decisively to dump these guidelines as they are no longer necessary.

On 7 October 2024, the former Sports and Recreation Minister, Chris Bishop, directed Sport NZ CEO Raelene Castle to update the guidelines to prioritise fairness and safety. However, as of 7 July 2025— nine months later—no updates have been released, nor has consultation with stakeholders, including Save Women’s Sport Australasia, commenced. This delay persists despite Sport NZ’s assurance in their recent OIA response that the finalised guidelines would be released last month, which you will find attached.

We are concerned that Sport NZ’s inability to revise the Guiding Principles in a timely manner stems from the document’s ideological foundation, which prioritizes transgender inclusion and affirmation above all else. We believe this framework is fundamentally incompatible with the directive to prioritise fairness and safety, as it cannot adequately address the need to protect the integrity of the female category while ensuring equitable and safe participation for all athletes.

The landscape of transgender inclusion in sport has evolved significantly since the Guiding Principles were first introduced. At that time, they aimed to provide guidance to sports grappling with inclusion policies. However, most international sporting federations have since updated their eligibility criteria to balance inclusion with fairness and safety, typically enabling transgender athletes to compete in the category aligned with their biological sex or in mixed-sex teams. Last month the International Olympic Committee announced they will take a leading role in protecting the female category. Given this global shift, Sport NZ’s Guiding Principles are now outdated and redundant. 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.

Dumping the Guiding Principles would empower New Zealand’s national sporting bodies to adopt their international federations’ guidelines, ensuring consistency, fairness, and safety across all levels of sport. This step would also align with your government’s coalition agreement with NZ First, which commits to ensuring that publicly funded sporting bodies support fair competition uncompromised by rules relating to gender. With your term now halfway through, and despite Minister Bishop’s commitment in June 2024 to uphold this agreement, we are concerned that progress remains stalled. Retaining the Guiding Principles risks undermining this commitment, leaving female athletes vulnerable to unfair and unsafe competition conditions.

Fairness, safety, and the integrity of the female category are critical at every level of sport. We urge your government to act decisively by dumping Sport NZ’s Guiding Principles for the Inclusion of Transgender People in Community Sport, thereby enabling national sporting bodies to align with global standards and fulfil your coalition’s promise to prioritise fair competition.

We look forward to your response and to working with your office to ensure that New Zealand’s sporting policies reflect the values of fairness and safety for all athletes, particularly female competitors.

Kind regards

Ro Edge & Candice Riley

New Zealand Spokeswomen, Save Women’s Sport Australasia

www.savewomenssport.com

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