Media Releases

As of 31 December 2025, less than half of currently incorporated community sport organisations (ICSOs) nationally, are registered under the 2022 Act. There are only 13 weeks for all ICSOs to take the necessary steps to register under the 2022 Act or otherwise experience involuntary dissolution and loss of incorporated status on 5 April.

Overall, based on publicly available Companies Office data, just over half of all currently registered incorporated societies, (of all types), are registered under the 2022 Act.

With only 100 business days remaining until “dissolution day” (5 April 2026), less than one-half (43%) of all currently incorporated societies nationally, have re-registered under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022.
 
Nearly 13,000 incorporated societies still need to re-register, (at an increased average daily rate of over 125, every business day) to maintain New Zealand’s invaluable network of not-for-profit entities. (Over the past 7 weeks, the actual average daily re-registration rate was only 41).

A landmark new report titled ‘Stronger Communities Through Sport’ has just been released. It’s the most  comprehensive analysis ever undertaken of the role that sport clubs play in New Zealand’s community life. The result of seven years of research, the pioneering report draws on findings from the National Sport Club Survey (NSCS), a joint initiative of the New Zealand Amateur Sport Association Inc. and Auckland University of Technology.

The report provides a totally unprecedented insight into the challenges, opportunities, and shifting landscape of grassroots sport in New Zealand from 2018 to 2024. From declining volunteer numbers to evolving partnerships and the impact of legislative reform, the findings presented in the report are both sobering and inspiring.

The New Zealand Amateur Sport Association Inc. is pleased to announce that the 2025 Te Tohu Tiketike o Matariki award has been made to the Te Aroha Softball Club, Waiwhetū, Hutt City. The award was announced today by Association Patron, Andy Leslie, ONZM who convened the award selection panel.

The award, decided in collaboration with Te Upoko o te Ika, Aotearoa’s first te reo Māori radio station, acknowledges a community sport organisation which has embraced te reo Māori as part of its kaupapa. The award also acknowledges National Volunteer Week (Te Wiki Tūao ā-Motu), with the recipient reliant on volunteers to deliver sport.

On 14 April 2025, Parliament’s Governance and Administration Committee suggested that the Association’s issues concerning the Incorporated Societies Act 2022, which were raised in the Association’s written and oral submissions on Part 20 of the  Statutes Amendment Bill 2024, are “further investigated”. We encourage all Members of Parliament to insist that this investigation now be undertaken without further delay.

Without alleviating the compliance obligations for small societies: (1) the voluntary and involuntary dissolution of incorporated sport entities will accelerate; (2) the recruitment of volunteers to govern and administer sport clubs will be impaired; (3) the ability of sport clubs to deliver the physical and social benefits of organised amateur sport to local communities will reduce; and as a result (4) the overall level of participation in sport clubs nationally will decrease.

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And community sport volunteers are not company directors. Yet the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 and the Incorporated Society Regulations 2023 place new obligations on volunteers equivalent to those placed on directors of public companies.

For example, under section 47 of the new Act, those who volunteer to undertake statutory governance roles with a local incorporated sports club are required to make a similar declaration concerning their qualification to act in their role, as would be made by the director of a public company.

The New Zealand Amateur Sport Association Inc. is pleased to announce that the 2024 Te Tohu Tiketike o Matariki award has been made to the Papuni Boxing Ōtautahi Trust, a registered charitable trust. The award was announced today by Association Patron, Andy Leslie, ONZM who convened the selection panel.

The award, decided in collaboration with Te Upoko o te Ika, Aotearoa’s first te reo Māori radio station, acknowledges a community sport organisation which has embraced te reo Māori as part of its kaupapa. The award also acknowledges National Volunteer Week (Te Wiki Tūao ā-Motu), with the recipient reliant on volunteers to deliver sport.

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There’s only 28 months for incorporated community sport organisations (ICSOs) to re-register under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022, or otherwise face involuntary dissolution at the dispassionate hand of the Registrar of Incorporated Societies. For all ICSOs, the most important thing to do right now is to engage with their members, to inform them of what’s changed and what’s required to be done to comply.

Given the work required to re-register under the new Act, time is of the essence. The Association again warns Government that community sport is facing an “extinction event” unless the law (as currently enacted) is modified to meet the capabilities of volunteer-led community sport organisations.

The 2022 National Sport Club Survey (NSCS) reveals that clubs nationally appear to have coped with the COVID pandemic, but face new challenges as they look ahead to a changing regulatory environment.

2022 is the fifth year for the project, which is undertaken in collaboration between the New Zealand Amateur Sport Association (NZASA) and the Sport Performance Institute New Zealand based at Auckland University of Technology (AUT SPRINZ).

Parliament's Economic Development, Science and Innovation Select Committee has agreed to a material Association recommendation concerning the Incorporated Societies Bill, resulting in small sport clubs being spared the pain of comprehensive financial reporting.

The Select Committee has now recommended that the Bill proceed to a Second Reading. The Association will continue to closely follow the progress of the legislation and continue to lobby political parties to ensure that the debate on the Bill is in the best interests of all community sport organisations and the health and well-being of all New Zealanders.

The New Zealand Amateur Sport Association is calling out the Government for creating a law of unintended consequences with reforms to the Incorporated Societies Bill.

In a submission to the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee, Association Chairman Gordon Noble-Campbell said the Bill in its current form would seriously disadvantage incorporated sport entities. Incorporated sport entities were not specifically considered in the drafting of the legislation and this has put sport clubs around New Zealand at risk.

New Zealand’s Children’s Commissioner has reported that 21% of New Zealand children (236,048) live in low-income households, with over 13% (146,125) experiencing material hardship. It is government policy to halve these statistics over the next seven years.

The Association knows that low-income families experiencing material hardship are less likely to enrol their children in club-based community sport, owing to the financial barriers created by membership fees, costs of equipment to play and the costs of travel to regional sporting facilities, or out of community sporting hubs.

The Association and AUT’s Sport Performance Research Institute New Zealand are working in partnership to deliver the 2020 NSCS, which launches on Monday, 31 August. This is the third year of this important national study. Sport Clubs across more than 90 separate sporting codes, from all around New Zealand, have received an invitation to participate.

Recent media reports indicating that the rights to broadcast certain student sport competitions have been sold by New Zealand secondary school sport’s governing body, underscores the increasing alarm over decreasing teenage participation in sport and the flow-on impact for community sports clubs.

The Association encourages National Sporting Organisations (NSO)to adopt a new Code which places youth at the centre of decision-making involving their sporting participation. The Code, which NSOs are invited to voluntarily adopt, has been developed in response to increasing concern over the promotion of high-performance-development relative to life-long-participation.

Media reports  that New Zealand children of 14 or 15 years of age are now being targeted for contracts by sporting franchises, should prompt New Zealand authorities to review laws preventing the exploitation of children. 

The New Zealand Amateur Sport Association Inc. fully endorses the outcome of a recent survey of current and past players undertaken by the Otago Rugby Football Union, which revealed that local amateur clubs are where players feel most connected to the game.

Recent media reports indicating a decrease in sport participation by New Zealanders, is not news to the newly formed New Zealand Amateur Sport Association.

A new organisation has been established by well-known sporting names and community leaders to promote and support amateur sport in New Zealand.