Photo: timhester/123RF
New Zealand's independent sports watchdog has fielded hundreds of complaints in its first year, many about bullying and abuse.
The Sport Integrity Commission was established in July 2024, after a decade of damning reviews exposed serious gaps in how high performance sport addressed athlete welfare and integrity concerns.
Among the commission's core roles is providing impartial resolution of complaints and disputes. The agency also has the power to investigate sports bodies in cases of "complex or systemic threats to integrity".
According to figures released under the Official Information Act, the commission received 283 complaints in the year to 30 June 2025, across 70 sports and recreation organisations.
Of those, 73 complaints remain active, while 210 have been resolved. In 45 cases, the issues raised were found to fall outside the commission's scope.
Te Kahu Raunui chief executive Rebecca Rolls told RNZ the volume of complaints was slightly higher than early predictions.
"When we were trying to figure out what we needed to build inhouse, we had to do a bit of modelling," Rolls said. "Some of that was based on the numbers that the [Sport and Recreation Complaints and Mediation Service], which was funded by Sport NZ, had been receiving.
"Then we had to factor in our legislation and how that affected scope, so I guess [the increase] is not unexpected. The numbers continue to rise gradually, but we're not seeing a steep climb."
The most commonly reported threats to integrity were matters that fall under section 5(d) of the Integrity Sport and Recreation Act 2023, including abuse, bullying, harassment, intimidation, violence and sexual misconduct.
"I think what that means is that people are having poor experiences based on other people's behaviour, which is disappointing," Rolls said.
"However, it doesn't surprise us that that's where most of them sit, as that section of our legislation does cover off quite a broad set of behaviours and there's a lot of things that fall under that definition."
Sport Integrity Commission chief executive Rebecca Rolls is a former cricket and football international. Photo: Supplied
The commission declined to name which sports bodies had drawn the most complaints or even identify the highest number of complaints any one organisation had received, but its data showed 97 - or 33 per cent - related to elite-level sport.
Rolls said this also represented an increase on early modelling.
"Looking at the numbers previously, it was around one quarter elite sport, and three quarters at the community or grassroots end, so that is a bit of a shift. It is probably too early to say if that's a part of a bigger statistical trend or just where things have landed in the first year."
The agency also declined to provide information on how complaints had led to a formal investigation being launched, citing a requirement to "protect information, which is subject to an obligation of confidence".
However, at least one major inquiry is underway.
As first reported by RNZ, the commission launched an investigation into Yachting NZ late last year, after a raft of cultural, athlete welfare and conduct complaints.
That probe - initiated under section 32 of the act - is considered the first high-profile test of the agency's powers and is being closely watched across the sector.
A former football and cricket international, Rolls said the public spotlight had not changed how her agency approached its work.
"I think we would feel the same amount of pressure to get something resolved, whether it was in the media or not," she said.
"I think, for any [sports] organisation, we have to be really mindful of what it means for them to be going through a process, whether it's one that's happening now or one that happens in the future - that's an important consideration for us."
She declined to comment on the current status of the Yachting NZ investigation.
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