Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister.

“New Zealanders believe strongly that sporting competition should be based on athletic excellence rather than performance-enhancing substances. We are held in high regard internationally for our principled and ethical stance on clean competition, and rightly so,” Mr Bishop says.

“Attending the WADA Executive Committee meeting and Symposium is particularly timely as New Zealand’s Integrity Sport and Recreation Commission, a new Crown entity established under the Integrity Sport and Recreation Act 2023, will officially commence on 1 July this year.

“I look forward to meeting formally and informally with sports integrity colleagues from other countries at the meetings and bringing back any ‘lessons learned’ to help us get the new Integrity Commission up and running effectively from day one.

“I will then travel on to London for several days of engagements in my capacity as Housing and Infrastructure Minister and Leader of the House.

“My engagements in London will include meeting representatives of the United Kingdom Government such as Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Housing and Levelling Up; and Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons.

“I will also be spending time with leading policy thinkers like the Centre for Cities and the Adam Smith Institute, and undertaking infrastructure visits including to the National Infrastructure Commission and CrossRail.

“I look forward to applying new knowledge and ideas from these engagements to our housing and infrastructure challenges here in New Zealand.”

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