Debate on Crown entities, public organisations and state enterprises

Minister for Sport and Recreation: ‘Sport and Recreation New Zealand’

Rahui Katene, MP for Te Tai Tonga

Tuesday 29 June 2010; 5.36pm

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 that Maori Football New Zealnad 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, who have spoken of their desire to return home to inspire Maori and Polynesian youngsters to follow football?

Yet if we were to talk to the manager of Maori Football New Zealand, Phil Pickering Parker, he would tell us that the All Whites had, in the past, "been invisible'' to New Zealand youth, who lacked "some visible role models, whether Maori or non-Maori''.

Nowadays roughly 50-60,000 Maori youth, across both genders, are playing football. And 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 Phil Parker, who have done so much to generate energy for the new growth sport of football.

Phil Parker, of Ngati 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 mentoring and development to our young players – something that one might have thought would have been an appropriate role for Sport and Recreation New Zealand to take on.

There are other notable omissions from the 2008/9 financial review. Yes, Rugby World Cup is there –with its $1.5 million for volunteers.

But there’s nothing in there to support the Aotearoa Maori Women’s 7’s team, who took out the Roma 7’s final, against France, in Italy just twenty days ago. These young women are great ambassadors for their country, family, and culture. They are seven time international winners, having won the Women’s rugby sevens championships in 2002, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 2010.

What is even more exciting is that the women’s sevens rugby is now an Olympic sport in 2016. The opportunity to compete internationally and enjoy world class success is an amazing experience for our young Maori women and provides automatic career openings for many of them.

Yet although it is supported by the New Zealand Rugby Union through its Maori Board, Whakapumautanga, no funding has followed. The team is celebrated across Aotearoa. It has received support from Te Puni Kokiri; from the New Zealand Community Trust and the New Zealand First Sovereign Trust over the years. And yet nothing from Sport and Recreation New Zealand. It is hard to fathom out why.

Third time lucky – perhaps I’ll try basketball. We have been aware of young Maori players, selected for the Young Tall Blacks, yet struggle to attend the tournaments due to a lack of funding. Again, nothing in the 2008/09 review indicated support for this high growth area of sporting excellence.

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

Mr Speaker, every year the National Maori Sports Awards show that Maori sportspeople are demonstrating their incredible talents and abilities in every sporting area across the world.

We see Maori World Champions represented in sporting areas as varied as wood-chopping and wood-sawing; cue ball; rowing; Tae Kwon Do or Body Boarding.

And yet the only reference that we see in the Sport and Recreation New Zealand that addresses Maori and Pacific communities is one which describes the need to invest in Maori and Pacific Island participation in sport because SPARC is worried about the prevalence of inactivity and obesity.

Or we see justification for SPARC involvement in schools being that they want to support schools in responding to an increasingly risk averse attitude.

I refer the Committee to the amazing initiative in my electorate, the Aranui Sports Academy at Aranui High School and its mission to motivate Maori and Pacific Island students leaving school with no employment or training prospects.

At Aranui, twelve academies have been developed which aimed to keep students at school by providing content areas, such as sports, that related to their interests such as basketball, carving, hospitality and tourism, music, sports development, or outdoor adventure, to name a few.

It is about success; it is about meaningful engagement; it is about academic and sporting ability; and it is about investment. It is exactly the sort of programme that SPARC should have been supporting.

ENDS

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