Geoff Neal against the New Zealand Herald

The New Zealand Herald published an online article on January 11, 2025, headlined Behind the scenes of the battle over transgender inclusion in community sports.

It looked at what prompted Sports Minister Chris Bishop to ask Sport NZ to rewrite its principles on transgender inclusion in community sports after an apparent backdown on a commitment to cut funding for sporting bodies that have gender rules compromising fairness.

The article reported the minister received blowback from NZ First leader Winston Peters, an open letter from former Olympians and over 40 emails including some purportedly from National Party supporters threatening to vote elsewhere.  These responses contrasted with the stances of Sport NZ and other sporting bodies.

Geoff Neal complained about one line in the article which said the emails received by Mr Bishop were not representative of the population.

Mr Neal said that was inaccurate and the Herald provided no evidence of that. He said two public polls showed an overwhelming number of New Zealanders did not want transgender athletes in female sports.

In response NZME said the focus of the story was the correspondence received by Chris Bishop around transgender inclusion in community sport and what may have influenced a change in approach or thinking from him. 

The comment that the email views were not representative of the population was clear – 40 emails should not be taken as the views of the entire population.  A self-selecting sample size of about 40 people who emailed the minister in response to media stories about transgender inclusion in community sports was not a statistically nationally representative sample.

This was true regardless of what similarities the views in the feedback might have with polling results. It added the Herald was not obliged to report all poll results, such as those mentioned by Mr Neal. 

The Media Council saw this article as balanced reporting about a Minister’s change of position, quoting various concerned and interested parties.  It was not a summary of the much reported wider issue, and it did not pretend it was. 

It was not wrong to say the emails were not representative of the population. The story refers to 40-odd emails to the minister, and although no statistical breakdown is reported it appears they were all expressing similar views against transgender participation in female sports. However, the poll results referred to by Mr Neal showed that the public are not all of one mind on the issue.  The polls indicated around 20-25 percent were not against transgender participation in female sports.

In relation to a particular piece of news about a long-standing issue, every development and every poll released does not have to be re-reported.

Mr Neal also complained about Sport NZ advice cited in the story and raised a statistical argument. The Media Council was pleased to see these issues were resolved between Mr Neal and the NZ Herald and did not require further consideration by the Council.

Decision:  No grounds to proceed.