NZ Rugby forms 'cultural change' panel stacked with women
KATARINA WILLIAMS
Last updated 18:36, October 13 2016
Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Jackie Blue has welcomed a move by New Zealand Rugby to introduce a cultural change panel.
New Zealand Rugby has quietly set up a "cultural change" panel, due to hold its first meeting on Friday, as it grapples with a succession of scandals involving players.
The panel, understood to have about eight members, more than half of whom are women, will meet in Wellington, with its members bound by secrecy clauses.
Rugby has been rocked by a series of high-profile incidents, which have raised questions about player behaviour, and the game's attitude to women.
Former Black Fern, Labour MP Louisa Wall, believes New Zealand Rugby won't be truly gender sensitive until a woman is given a place on its board.
Foremost was the Chiefs' Mad Monday celebrations, involving a stripper named Scarlette. Claims that she was abused by the players were investigated in-house and rejected.
Then Wellington Lions player Losi Filipo was revealed to have been given a discharge without conviction after admitting to the assault of four people, including two women. His contract with Wellington Rugby was ended by mutual consent after the revelations caused a public outcry.
All Black halfback Aaron Smith received a one-match suspension after his encounter with a woman in a Christchurch Airport toilet.
Last week, All Black halfback Aaron Smith was suspended after an encounter with a woman in a Christchurch Airport toilet. And on Wednesday it was revealed a Mid Canterbury club rugby player was charged with assault with intent to commit rape.
That was followed on Thursday by the conviction of Southland player Dylan Halaholo, 23, for masturbating in public.
After the Chiefs incident in August, the Human Rights Commission penned an open letter to New Zealand Rugby, entitled "Love Rugby. Respect Women".
Aspiring rugby player Losi Filipo had his Wellington Lions contract terminated by mutual consent after a decision to discharge him without conviction was publicly scrutinised.
Among the signatories was Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Jackie Blue, who called on NZR and chief executive Steve Tew to "address the culture issues within the organisation and the sport".
When approached for comment on Thursday about the establishment of the cultural change panel, Blue said she wanted to wait until preliminary work had been completed before making any comment "on this great initiative".
Labour MP Louisa Wall, a former Black Fern, who also signed the commission letter, commended NZR on taking what she described as a "concrete" and "positive move".
New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Tew, whose handling of the Losi Filipo case prompted calls for him to step down.
"I think this has been through a lot of critique and analysis. It's something the board has decided to act on immediately."
However, she believed the union could not be considered gender-sensitive until a woman was granted a place on its board.
"It's pretty distressing when women have now, for many years, put their names forward and they can't even get an interview. That says there's something wrong with the process."
Chiefs boss Andrew Flexman was forced to face the media amid allegations of sexual assault levelled at members of the Super Rugby franchise.
She believed rugby had a problem with the way it viewed women.
"I absolutely do, and I am speaking as a woman who played rugby.
"The way that women have traditionally been viewed, they're in the kitchen preparing the food, they wash the uniforms. We're not seen as the administrators, the coaches, the umpires."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/8...ked-with-women
