Larry Williams Drive

On this matter of the Rugby Union losing $280,000 because they don’t have enough women on the board. If you haven’t caught up on it, news came through yesterday that Sport NZ has ordered all the sports governing bodies to have at least 40% women on their boards and if they don’t, they’ll lose funding. NZR is the only organization out of 65 not to have enough women. It has 9 spots on the board, three are women. If they have one more they’ll be sweet, but they don’t yet. So they’ve lost money. This is a stupid policy, let me tell you why. Number one- that money was meant for community rugby initiatives including funding women’s rugby. So Sport NZ has decided having one more woman sitting at the board table is more important than funding women’s rugby. So worst case scenario would be a bunch of female rugby players out there going without whatever it is they need. Because Sport NZ is more worried about getting a nice middle class lady a board position than it is about them.  Funny priorities for an organization