Hon Mark Mitchell
Minister for Sport and Recreation

An independent rapid review into the effectiveness and efficiency of Sport New Zealand has been released today.

“I am very pleased with the findings of the review,” Sport and Recreation Minister Mark Mitchell says.

“The review highlights the effectiveness of Sport New Zealand as a Crown Entity, and I remain supportive of their priorities to ensure young people become and remain physically active.

“The main recommendations from the review focus on potential changes to institutional and governance arrangements.

“The key action I am taking as a result of this review is to move Sport New Zealand’s strategic policy function to the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. The review highlighted the anomaly of Sport New Zealand being both a policy advisor to government and a decision-maker on funding.

“Shifting the strategic policy function to a government agency will ensure a more consistent and integrated approach on government priorities and other policy decisions across portfolios like education and health.

“Sport New Zealand will continue to play an important role to deliver on the Government’s priorities and on opportunities to work collaboratively alongside my other portfolios, particularly in relation to priorities to reduce youth offending and recidivism. I am pleased that Sport NZ have identified some dedicated funding to support these initiatives,” says Mr Mitchell.

“The Ministry will gain additional capability to understand and advise on sport and recreation policy issues across the wider public service system, including clear measures of performance.

“I’ll continue to engage with Sport New Zealand and the Ministry on progressing minor amendments to governance arrangements relating to the appointments of High Performance Sports NZ and Taumata Māori Board members.”

The strategic policy function is intended to move to the Ministry by 1 October 2025.

The independent rapid review was undertaken by Brendan Boyle from November 2024 to January 2025.

The review is available at: Independent Rapid Review of Sport New Zealand

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