"If something is at the heart of our identity and we allow blatant sexism and under-representation of women to continue, then that will be at the heart of our identity as a country and none of us want that."
His comments came as part of a joint announcement with the Minister for Women, Julie Anne Genter, that New Zealand had just won the bid to lead women's sport internationally for the next four years, through hosting the International Working Group in Women and Sport (IWG) world conference in 2022 and the associated four-year IWG secretariat.
Thinking about his grand-daughter, Robertson said: "I think the legacy that we want to leave her and all the young girls in New Zealand is that we want them to be their own sporting heroes. We want them to be the leaders in our sports journalism, and in our sports administration. And we will do everything we can, not just to take away barriers but to actually encourage and support her to be who she wants to be."
These words are exactly what women's sport advocates want to hear, and the minister appears seriously committed to real change. If he can put money as well as influence behind the push to gender equality, New Zealand might, indeed, be able to lead the world and achieve a lasting legacy.
New Zealand women punch far above their weight at the international level. Sponsors are increasingly seeking sportswomen ahead of sportsmen as brand representatives. Broadcasts of netball internationals attract hundreds of thousands of viewers.
We are making progress towards gender diversity on sports boards. By 2016, just over one-third of New Zealand sports had reached the NZOC target of 40 per cent women on their boards. Overall, almost 60 per cent had at least 33 per cent women around the table.
Veteran sports commentator Melodie Robinson recently launched The Wonderful Group and the It Takes Two mentoring programme to increase the numbers of women in sports broadcasting.
Media coverage of New Zealand women during Olympic and Commonwealth Games is sometimes higher than for New Zealand men. During the 2016 Olympics, the women's silver medal winning rugby sevens team generated a lot of public interest, receiving 60 per cent more comments on news stories than the men.
NZOC digital manager Alex Spence says the NZOC's online stats prove that women are interested in Commonwealth Games and Olympic sport and want to engage.
Over half of the New Zealand Olympic team's Facebook fans are women, and women make up almost two-thirds of people who have engaged with the NZOC's Olympic and Commonwealth Games content.
Yet the overall picture remains less than rosy, so the minister and Sport New Zealand have plenty of opportunities to really make a difference.
Girls drop out of sport at much higher rates than boys, and high school girls' participation rates are persistently about 5 per cent lower than boys. That trend continues among adults.
New Zealand news media still generally ignores women's sport, dishing out on average a paltry 10 per cent to female athletes. Even though the media pay a lot of attention to New Zealand female Olympians, if we look at coverage of all Olympic athletes, sportsmen still end up with twice the overall coverage, mostly because the media doesn't pay attention to sportswomen from other countries.
Recent NZOC research found that female Olympians were 20 per cent more likely to be spoken for by their coach, nine times more likely to be pictured with a male spouse or partner, 67 per cent less likely to be the lead story, and 39 per cent more likely to be referred to as girls, especially by male journalists.
Women don't ring into sports radio talk shows, which is often interpreted as a lack of interest in sport.
But Spence says that's not necessarily true.
"Providing an atmosphere and using language which encourages females to share their thoughts and opinions is vital. They may not feel comfortable ringing into a talk show because the show doesn't cater to how they want to interact or use language which encourages them to pick up a phone."
New Zealand has made significant progress in diversifying sports governance but gender equality remains an aspiration rather than an actuality. Homophobia remains a problem on the sports field and in the stands.
The minister's comments were a refreshing acknowledgement that New Zealand still has some way to go on gender equality in sport, and revealed a commitment to doing something about it.
Watch this space to see how rhetoric turns into reality.
• Dr Toni Bruce is a professor in the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy, at the University of Auckland's Faculty of Education and Social Work.
