Published September 05, 2020 11:58AM

Pay parity and cost were hot topics tackled by East Coast electorate candidates at the Sport Gisborne Tairawhiti-organised sports collective this week.

The event, held at Waikanae Surf Life Saving Club, was an informal affair, with the three candidates — Labour’s Kiri Allen, National’s Tania Tapsell and the Greens’ Meredith Akuhata-Brown — respecting one another and having some fun while campaigning for their party.

SGT chief executive Stefan Pishief started the “interrogation” with a round of quick-fire questions that included each candidate’s stance on socks with jandals, setting the tone for the evening.

The “nitty-gritty” subjects produced a civil discourse between the three.

They were asked questions on topics ranging from “noisy sports” (pistol shooting and speedway) to how to combat declining participation in sport.

Among the highlights were the answers to a question on supporting wahine (women) in sport after Covid-19.

Ms Tapsell shared a personal story on how the gap in pay affected her promising sports career.

She won national age-grade titles in cross-country and gymnastics and was selected for the New Zealand Maori under-21 touch team, but gave up her sporting ambition because of lack of opportunity.

It was a subject she had not really talked about, she said.

“When I decided what I wanted to do for my career, the sad reality is that despite being selected for New Zealand teams all the time, I couldn’t afford to go.

“For me, a really big one is pay equity . . . there’s no pay parity.

“I thought there’s no point having a career in sport because I’d never get paid enough to do it professionally.”

The candidates agreed there was a massive financial barrier to a lot of sports, particularly for larger families with children in different sporting codes.

Ms Tapsell said coming from a large family, she had had personal experience of this.

“The focus needed to be supporting the people on the ground,” she said.

“We need a ‘by local for local’ approach.”

Mrs Akuhata-Brown said changing lifestyles had contributed to the decline in participation, with a lot of children doing their “sports” in front of screens.

“But the biggest reason is the cost. In the sports I play, the subs are huge . . . they’ve become elitist with costs.”

Ms Allen said the need for engagement came first and the Government was concentrating on broadening the focus to encourage people to be “active and moving”.

“There’s a range of issues in declining levels — an ageing demographic, ageing infrastructure . . . but the cost barriers are prohibitive.”

Recent announcements of funding for sporting projects would not end there, said Mrs Allan.

“This is an ongoing discussion.”

File picture