The new nine-member New Zealand Rugby board is in place, elected under a policy called 'positive discrimination'.
What this means is the best people who applied to run our national game were not necessarily ALSO the best people selected, and that was down to largely biological reasons.
Biological? Yes, by decree, biological.
You see, four of the nine member NZR board HAVE to, by NZR’s new governance rules, be women. This is true.
Why? I don’t know. Less than 20% of the people who play the sport are women.
The majority of those that watch, fund and support rugby in this country are also men.
Enforcing this is as idiotic as demanding at least half of those who run netball in this country must be men.
Again, why? What would be the point of that? The answer is there is none, it would be stupid, unnecessary, and everyone knows it.
There is also, by decree, one Māori representative on the board and one Pasifika person leaving just three places available for anyone else who applies.
Meaning, if you happen to be a white male, regardless of your experience, suitability or acumen for the job, you have a three in nine chance of being chosen, as opposed to six in nine simply because you are born with a vagina rather than a penis.
My question being: Does this, in terms of what you are being tasked to actually do, make sense?
Or, is it in fact complete and utter nonsense?
I think most reasoned and fair-minded people know the obvious answer to that, but also, most of those people are probably too reluctant to say so publicly for fear of facing some sort of cancel culture backlash as a result.
Me, I don’t give a rats about that. I’d prefer to tell the truth - which is that this is a complete crock. It is a joke and seriously undermines an organisation crying out for the best people possible to serve on it.
Now, if all nine of the best candidates applying happened to be women, then all well and good. But if there aren’t enough qualified suitable females to fill those roles then, just to tick some ridiculous pre-determined quota box, they shouldn’t be given them.
Rugby in this country is in a real state of flux. We all know that.
I know of many many good people who applied to be on the board who were turned away simply because they are men.
Yes, our national game needs fixing. Yes it needs big changes in the way it is both organised and governed. But whatever the solution is, it doesn’t start with positive discrimination.
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