John MacDonald: What do sport gender guidelines have to do with the price of butter?

There will be no shortage of people today thinking that it's a brilliant move by the Government to ditch official guidelines for including transgender people in community sport and leaving it to the sporting organisations themselves to handle it.  

But I think it’s just going to open a can of worms, and these people who think it’s great might think differently if they were on the committee of one of their local sporting clubs.  

Because this is not elite sport we’re talking here, this is all about community sport.  

And, however you might feel about transgender people competing in sport, you’ve got to admit that having guidelines on how to handle what can be a pretty fraught issue can only be a good thing.  

Tell that to the Government though. Or, more specifically, tell that to NZ First.  

Since 2022, sporting organisations and clubs have had these guidelines to work with, which say: “Transgender people can take part in sports in the gender they identify with”.   

But now sporting organisations and sporting clubs are going to be left to handle it on their own.  

NZ First wanted these guidelines ditched and, as a result of its coalition deal with National, Sports Minister Mark Mitchell wrote to the head of Sport NZ yesterday telling her to pull the plug on the guidelines.  

The objective being to ensure that everyone competes on a level playing field and things aren’t compromised by gender-based rules.  

Mark Mitchell says, when it comes to sport, the Government has a role to play in creating sporting opportunities for people, but it's not up to the Government to decide who should be included and how.  

Which I think is a rather elegant way of describing it.  

But it ignores the fact that, whether people like it or not, this is something that isn’t going to go away. Transgender people wanting to play sport and compete in the categories they want to compete in isn’t going to go away.  

NZ First might not want to hear that. And anyone who thinks that someone born a male, for example, should only be allowed to compete against other males won’t want to hear that either.  

But taking away these guidelines helps no one. Because, surely, something is better than nothing.   

If you’re on the committee at your local rugby club or cricket club, for example, and someone who is transgender signs up to play and, let’s say they identify as female but are biologically male, what are you going to do?  

For the past three years, you would have had these guidelines to refer to. Not that they were explicit rules, but they were guidelines – better than nothing.  

Now the people on the committees at rugby clubs and cricket clubs and all sporting clubs and organisations up and down the country are going to be flying blind. And with everyone having their own personal views, it’s going to be a headache.  

Mark Mitchell reckons “fair-minded New Zealanders” will be in favour of these changes, which he says are based on safety and fairness.  

But all we’re seeing here is politics and if I was running a sporting organisation or a sporting club, I’d be saying “thanks for nothing” to the Government. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald
from News TALKSB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
I reckon there will be no shortage of people today,
there will be no shortage of people thinking that this
is a brilliant move by the government ditching official guidelines
for including transgender people in community sport and leaving it
to the sporting organizations and the clubs to handle themselves.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
But I think it's just going to open a can
of worms. And these people who think it's great, they
might think differently if they were on the committee of
one of their local sporting clubs, because this is not
elite sport we're talking here. This is all about community sport.
And however you might feel about transgender people competing in sport,

(00:51):
however you feel about it, you've got to admit that
having guidelines on how to handle what can be a
pretty fraught issue, that's only a good thing, isn't it.
Tell that to the government though, or more specifically, tell
to New Zealand first. But a background, Since twenty twenty two,

(01:12):
sporting organizations and clubs have had these guidelines to work
with which say, quote, transgender people can take part in
sports in the gender they identify with that suggests of
the guidelines, but now sporting organizations and sporting clubs at
community level are going to be left to handled it

(01:33):
on their own, deal with it on their own. So
New Zealand first wanted to see these guidelines are ditched
and as a result of the coalition deal with National
Sports Minister Mark Mitchell wrote to the head of New
Zealand's bort Or, Head of Sport New Zealand yesterday telling
you to pull the plug on the guidelines. They're over
their history. The objective being to ensure that everyone competes

(01:57):
on a level playing field and things aren't compromised by
gender based rules. Here's how Mark Mitchell explains that. He says,
when it comes to sport, the government has a role
to play in creating sporting opportunities for people, but it's
not up to the government to decide or dictate who
should be included and how, which I actually thought was

(02:20):
a rather elegant way of describing it, but it ignores
the fact that whether whether people like it or not,
whether you like it or not, whether I like it
or not, this is something that isn't going to go away.
Transgender people wanting to play sport and compete in the
categories they want to compete in. It is not going
to go away. You know, Mark Matchill can write as

(02:40):
many letters to Sport New Zealand as he wants. Nothing's
going to change now. New Zealand First might not want
to hear that. And anyone who thinks that someone born
a male, for example, should only be allowed to compete
against other males, they won't want to hear that either.
They'll be covering There is no no, no, no no.
But taking away these guidelines helps no one. Why is that, Well,

(03:02):
surely something is better than nothing. You know, if National
really wanted to keep New Zealand First suite, consider this
may be a better option for the government would have
been to just tell Sport New Zealand to turn the
guidelines on their head and say no self identifications allowed,
full stop. The people can only take part in community
sport on the basis of the biological gender they were

(03:24):
assigned at birth. By the way, this doesn't apply to
elite sport, just applies to community sports as we're talking about.
And that's why I see problems coming. Because if you're
on the committee at your local rugby club or your
cricket club, for example, and someone who has transgender signs
up to play, and let's say they identify as female

(03:46):
but are biologically male, what the hell are you going
to do. For the past three years you would have
had these guidelines to refer to, Not that they were
explicit rules or anything, but they were guidelines. Guidelines are
better than nothing. Now though, people on the committees at
rugby clubs and cricket clubs and all sporting clubs and
sporting organizations up now in the country, they're going to

(04:07):
be flying blind and with everyone having their own personal views,
it's going to be a headache. You mean nightmare and
Mark Mitchall, sports minister, he says, yep, there'll be a
lot of debate, but he thinks generally speaking, people he
describes as quote fear minded New Zealanders will be in

(04:27):
favor of these changes, which he says are based on
safety in fairness. Mike asked him, you might have heard
heard this when he was on earlier. Mike asked him
if he actually believed what he was saying or whether
he was just greezing to New Zealand first, was just
a sop to New Zealand first, but He said he
believed it, that he's played sport in his time and
he's all for safety in fairness, which is all all

(04:48):
very well, sounds brilliant, but always saying here is petty politics,
and if I was running a sporting organization or a
sporting club, I'd be saying thanks for nothing to the government.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
For more from Caterbory Mornings with John McDonald, listen live
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