One consequence of the change of government in New Zealand is the possibility that the sport’s bureaucracy could be in for a major shakeup. During the election campaign, Labour and the Greens expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of Sport New Zealand and High Performance Sport New Zealand. There were signs that a Labour led government might push for an end to the independence High Performance Sport has enjoyed since its foundation in 2011.

Labour’s shadow-spokesman for sport Trevor Mallard was frequently critical of the Miskimmin empire. It is likely Mallard summarized Labour’s position when he recently said, “It’s time the sector was put under the microscope and that includes scrutiny right at the top – across the Crown’s recreational arm, Sport New Zealand, and its elite partner, High Performance Sport New Zealand.” And now Grant Robertson has accepted the Minister for Sport and Recreation portfolio. When a Minister of his seniority gets involved in a minor portfolio it is a fair bet that change is not far behind.

If that is the plan, it is long overdue. For ten years Swimwatch has argued that the influence of Peter Miskimmin has been bad for sports such as swimming and track and field athletics. I have argued that Miskimmin has ruthlessly followed a policy of centralized preparation that is wrong and has hurt individual sports.

In that time two generations of young swimmers have committed themselves to the Miskimmin model and have been used and abandoned without reward. Type Miskimmin’s name into the Swimwatch search facility and you will find a flood of references to the hurt caused by Miskimmin’s policy. That hurt arises out of two problems intrinsic to the Miskimmin centralized model.

First the government’s money combined with Miskimmin’s aspiration to build an empire has encouraged the growth of sporting bureaucracy at the expense of the performers. A few years ago swimming was administered by one part-time lady called Donella Tait from a two room office in the Dominion Building in Wellington. And the performers in the Tait era were not too bad. Names like Moss, Kingsman, Loader, Jeffs, Simcic and Langrell were winning international medals and breaking world records. Wind forward through the Miskimmin years and the Swimming New Zealand website tells me that Donella Tait has been replaced by a staff of nineteen. And for a couple of years now New Zealand swimming has no one winning international medals. In my opinion, that failure is a legacy of the Miskimmin policy. In my opinion his policy has caused the failure.

It is not just swimming that has been affected. The same bureaucratic creep has happened everywhere. Cycling, rowing, athletics, kayaking – everywhere Miskimmin has gone has added another trophy to the Miskimmin empire. No wonder government funding of sport has increased from $6.2 million in 2002 to more than $80 million in 2013. Eighteen extra bureaucrats in swimming repeated over a dozen sports don’t come cheap.

But it is not only the increase in numbers that Miskimmin’s policy has encouraged. Centralisation has given bureaucrats the power to set themselves up with cushy and bloated contracts. For example in Sport NZ and High Performance Sport NZ right now there are eighty-five employees paid in excess of $100,000 per year. Did you get that number – 85 of them sit in Wellington or Antares Place living like kings.

And in case you are thinking that the athletes must be paid a lot more too, consider this. An Olympic gold medallist is paid a maximum of $60,000. That drops down to $25,000 for top twelve in the world. Miskimmin’s centralised policy says clearly that the best in the world at track or swimming is only worth half as much as one of his bean-counters in a Wellington office; and only 14% as much at Alex Baumann’s obscene salary of $420,000. In order to buy the basic requirements of life swimmers ranked in the top twelve in the world are working second jobs while the Baumann family speed by on their new Kawasaki jet ski. To say there is a priorities problem would be a serious understatement. To say that there is much for Grant Robertson to put right would be stating the obvious.

Second those attracted to Miskimmin’s centralized version of sport’s management are in it for their wages, as career bureaucrats, with little or no product knowledge. The effect of this on swimming has been very obvious. Decisions get taken on when to hold national championships, on when and where to spend money on altitude training, on who should coach New Zealand’s best swimmers that are just flat out wrong. Wrong, because those making the decisions have little or no knowledge of the product. Swimming in the Gisborne Bodle Shield interclub or creating “The 7 Principles of Profit” does not equip you to manage the career of an athlete like Lauren Boyle. But that’s the problem she faced.

I would argue that Miskimmin has not invested in sport. His policy has spent the minimum amount possible on Boyle, or Snyders or Mains or Donaldson. They were expendable. Miskimmin’s empire involved investing heavily in bureaucracy: with an open cheque book he pursued the biblical mission of “tearing down barns and building bigger ones.”

I am sure that Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson are more than capable of managing a leftish change in sport, away from a centralised empire and towards those who run and swim and row for their country. But even Ardern and Robertson will need to show determination. Miskimmin and the eighty-four others know their way around Wellington. They are living on the fat of the land. They are paid handsome salaries and are not to be taken lightly.

They will be using their vast experience in order to resist change. They will pander to the Opposition in order to resist the large-scale changes that are needed. Miskimmin will not want to see his centralised training policy replaced by a sharper more responsive athlete focused program. Eighty-five bureaucrats paid $100,000 a year will not want to see their bureaucracy dismantled and replaced by a leaner consolidated administration. Miskimmin will not want to hear the news that his grand scheme of empire makes him an inappropriate choice to lead sport in a new direction. And sports like swimming will not want to see their bloated, overstaffed, centralised offices dismantled. But that’s the scale and nature of the changes required in New Zealand sport.

There is hope. The Labour, NZ First and Green government has rightly promoted the importance of change. Those of us involved at the coal face of sport will be watching and expecting, praying that the long night of Miskimmin excess is about to end.

Share via email Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Show more Bookmark this article