The Chief Executive of Sport New Zealand already knows that I am not his biggest fan. In my view he has used the government’s money to produce a sporting welfare state. Day after day I receive emails from people involved in sport; many who depend on Miskimmin to pay their wages. Their message is always the same – we know who the problem is, but what can we do about it?
The formula that Miskimmin has employed to impose centralized management on New Zealand sport is laughably simple. He appeals to the wish in all of us to see things done better and offers sport after sport a fully funded Review. The list of sports that have accepted a Miskimmin Review deal is now pretty long – Surf, Bike, Swimming, League and Athletics are just a few. Once the Review is accepted – and what reasonable person would decline the offer of free help – the Miskimmin trap has been set and the prey is already in the cage. A high powered “Institute of Directors” name, like Chris Moller, is employed to conduct the Review. The final report recommends a new centralized constitution. By this time members of the sport are tired and very aware that hovering in the background is the peril of no more Miskimmin money unless the recommendations of the Review are accepted. Anything is preferable to being caste out of the Miskimmin welfare state. A special meeting of the members accepts whatever is put in front of them. Coerced and beaten, another sport becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Sport New Zealand; another block in Miskimmin’s empire.
The path Miskimmin is taking New Zealand sport will not have a happy ending. Miskimmin has failed the test of the first instruction I received from the man who taught me coaching, Arthur Lydiard. “Always trust your athlete,” he said. Or in Miskimmin’s case – always trust your sport. Miskimmin does not do that. Miskimmin and his Institute of Directors friends believe deeply that they know best. New Zealand’s international results will decline. At the Olympic Games we will win less and less. We will depend more and more on independent athletes like Adams and Willis or minor sports for our success. Eventually, the problem will be exposed; Miskimmin will be replaced. A more liberal management model will be employed and sport in New Zealand will work again.
In the mean time I was interested in finding out how much the man who, in my view, is leading New Zealand sport into a dark place is costing. How much money is being spent on the source of something, I am certain, is wrong? Let’s add it up then.
We know Miskimmin’s wage is in the range of $340,000 to $350,000. So let’s call it $345,000.
We also know that in 2012 Miskimmin had expenses of $60,573.26. He spent $37,779 on airfares, $14,196 on hotels, $139 on meals, $4,792 on rental cars, $1,059 on parking, $1,571 on taxis and $1,077 on undisclosed sundry items. Believe it or not, I don’t think that expenditure on travel is out of the ordinary. It does mean that that in expenses and wages Miskimmin costs us all $405,573; almost exactly the same as the Prime Minister’s basic pay.
The one serious question that Miskimmin’s expenses do raise is – why is it necessary to do all that travel?
But before looking at that question there was one Miskimmin expense that was not disclosed on his expenses declaration. Evidentially Miskimmin incurred a $10,000 data bill and a $1,131 phone bill in September and October during two weeks in Europe. $11,131 for roaming costs is inexcusable. Since it’s clear that Miskimmin spent most of his time in the UK, I am sure he could have purchased some sort of prepaid data SIM and put it into another phone he could use a tethering device. Even if he bought a new phone over there, the savings using that phone and prepaid data would have been huge. It’s hard to comprehend the spectre of a $345,000 executive traveling the world these days with no understanding of international computer costs. Peter Miskimmin has certainly been very naughty.
But, back to the amount of domestic travel. During the year Miskimmin made 53 trips away from Wellington; 28 (53%) were to Auckland. Averaging a trip a week for twelve months is a high travel load by any standard. And it’s based on how Miskimmin sees his job. He told his political bosses and the New Zealand public that he was on a mission to improve the management of national sports organizations (NSO). He treats National sports organizations as though Sport New Zealand owns them. He behaves as though NSOs are his to manage, his to control and his to discipline. Just those NSOs mentioned in Miskimmin’s expenses report include Swimming New Zealand, Bike New Zealand, NZ Hockey, NZ Cricket and Football NZ.
Sport New Zealand’s influence is paralysing New Zealand sport. Obey Miskimmin or perish is a lethal venom. The essential quality of being a New Zealander that motivated the independence of Arthur Lydiard, Fred Allan, Arch Jelley, Duncan Laing, Justin Grace, Edmund Hillary and a dozen others is being lost. Miskimmin and his money are dumbing down talented New Zealanders. At every opportunity Sport New Zealand employ foreigners to fill vacancies in sport. Canadians, English, Germans, Spanish and a flood of Australians are being imported. If New Zealand has a dearth of talented sport’s administrators it’s probably because all the good jobs have gone to imports. Miskimmin’s idea of improving the management of NSO’s appears to be to introduce foreign management at the cost of domestic New Zealand talent. And when the foreigners go home, as they always will, New Zealand sport will be by far the worse for Miskimmin’s meddling. New Zealanders that should have been running the sport of swimming, coaching the national team and managing high performance are left discarded and untrained.
Miskimmin fails to understand that NSO’s do not belong to him. They belong to the membership – that’s you and me. Chris Moller, the man Miskimmin appointed to conduct a Review of New Zealand Swimming spoke to the Special General Meeting called to accept his Report. In his speech Moller called for the CEO of Auckland Swimming and the Auckland Board to be dismissed. The arrogance that allowed Moller to include a call for these sackings had to come from somewhere. It is impossible to believe that an agent of Miskimmin’s organization would publically call for the removal of the CEO and the Board of New Zealand’s largest swimming Region without the knowledge of his boss. Certainly Moller’s demand highlights a pretty sick culture in the fabric of Sport New Zealand. And for that we are paying the boss $340,000. Miskimmin is forever telling us he does not meddle in the management affairs of an NSO. How then does he explain his agents call for the Auckland Board and its CEO to be sacked? Perhaps it’s time to begin a foreign search for an alternative to Miskimmin.
