The Government has quietly issued a legally binding Ministerial Direction ordering Sport and Recreation New Zealand to prioritise fair sex-based competition in publicly funded sport.
The Direction, issued under Section 103 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 and effective from 1 July 2026, requires Sport NZ to ensure publicly funded sporting bodies do not compromise fairness through gender-related rules. It also hands decision-making over transgender participation to individual sporting organisations.
Save Women’s Sport Australasia spokeswoman Ro Edge said, “This is a clear and long-overdue victory for female athletes,” adding, “Sport NZ can no longer use its funding power and influence to push guidelines that allow biological males to compete in female categories”.
Edge said female athletes had waited years for clarity. “This Direction sends a strong message across Australasia and internationally that women’s sport is not up for negotiation. We urge all national sporting organisations to review their policies immediately,” she said.
The policy change comes as the Government’s ban on puberty blockers for children with gender dysphoria faces a High Court judicial review in Wellington this week. The Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA) is challenging the ban, announced in November but not yet enforced. The group called it a “Trumpian” anti-trans culture war tactic with no medical basis.
Counsel for PATHA Victoria Casey KC said the medication had been used for 40 years with no recorded adverse impacts and remained available for non-gender-related conditions such as epilepsy and short stature. She claimed trans children were being singled out by the ban. “It is shocking in its irresponsibility,” Casey said, adding that society should “allow children access to the wonders of modern medicine to help them realise their full potential”.
The UK banned puberty blockers for under-18s two years ago, following the now-famous Cass report by paediatrician Hilary Cass. Casey said the report was “generally regarded outside the UK as not sound”.
The case is due to be heard over three days this week and is expected to conclude on Thursday.
Read more at Save Women’s Sport, Scoop, Gazette.govt.nz, Law News and PATHA. And for further background listen or watch Ro Edge and Genspect NZ Spokeswoman Jan Rivers on RCR, and explore our full gender ideology coverage with over 250 hours of dedicated coverage on gender ideology, sex-based rights and women’s sport since 2023.
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