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Government commits to help finance women's Rugby World Cup
The government is committed to lifting the profile of women's sport and will contribute financially to New Zealand hosting the women's rugby world cup, but just how much, sports minister Grant Roberston won't reveal.
New Zealand Rugby is one of six bidders hoping to host the 2021 world cup with Australia, England, France, Portugal and Wales also in contention.
The six unions now have until mid-August to formally submit their bids to World Rugby, with the host expected to be announced by the end of the year.
Mr Roberston says he's had some preliminary discussions with New Zealand rugby about government support.
"We are yet to see their full proposal...but I'm very happy to sit down with the rugby union and work out what level of contribution from the government and is needed."
"I think there's a unique opportunity for New Zealand to lift the visibility of women's sport to show that we value it more than we have in the past and to capitalise on the increased interest there is.
Mr Roberston said he would see winning the hosting rights for the women's Rugby World Cup as a priority.
"There are a number of other major women's sports event that are on the horizon for New Zealand to host potentially but the women's World Cup is one that would be very attractive for New Zealanders to support and be a part of," he said.
Mr Robertson is also demanding Sport New Zealand put a greater emphasis on community sport but is adamant it won't be at the expense of New Zealanders performing well on the international stage.
Mr Roberston has appointed three new board member to the Sport New Zealand board- former Black Fern and senior Massey University business management lecturer Farah Palmer, Auckland lawyer Raewyn Lovett and Wellington based investor and founder Rowan Simpson.
He wants Sport New Zealand to widen its focus around community sport and link with other government departments such as the Ministry of Health to work in the area.
But he says that doesn't mean he's downplaying the importance of top level sport.
In 2010 high performance sports funding increased from $40 million to $60 million a year over four years.
It now sits at about $62 million a year.
But to keep winning on the world stage, the view within in the high performance community is that funding needs to increase to keep up with technology and maintain a winning edge.
"The amount of money we are putting into High Performance Sport New Zealand (over the next four year Olympic cycle) has been set and..looking forward to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics has gone up from where we were and we continue to invest in other non-Olympic codes and their elite athletes and that's still very important but it is completely possible for Sport New Zealand particularly working in combination with other agencies and other groups in the community to be more focused on the whole community so that work programme is there and underway for high performance sport, what this is about is getting a bit of balance back into the programme," said Mr Robertson.
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