Swimming: Showdown looming for governing body

Murray Coulter, chairman of Swimming New Zealand. Photo / Supplied

The standoff between Swimming New Zealand's governing body and its eight regions seeking wholesale resignations at the top shows no sign of easing.

And that points towards a showdown between the SNZ establishment and a large chunk of its constituents next month.

If there is no change at SNZ's annual meeting in Wellington on September 25 - and only chairman Murray Coulter is up for re-election by rotation, the rest roll over another year - those eight regions, out of 16 altogether, have sufficient voting muscle to follow through on their threat to call a special general meeting within weeks of the AGM.

Coulter had asked the eight - with the swimming coaches' association who support their call - to withdraw their written request for the board to resign en masse in the wake of the Ineson report into the efficiency and effectiveness of SNZ's operations.

SNZ's board aren't resigning, so a stalemate is in play. The eight aren't budging. Their spokesperson, Bronwen Radford of the Bay of Plenty region, insists there is nothing personal in their position.

"It's not about individuals. It's quite obvious our sport is in a bit of a mess, so to fix it let's get a board with a brand new mandate the membership is 100 per cent supportive of."

Board member Dominic Toomey is not standing as he is moving overseas.

Coulter said yesterday that he was still undecided whether to stand. Nominations have closed, his name is in the hat, but Coulter could withdraw at any point before the meeting. His view was that sorting out the dispute between SNZ and the eight regions was the first order of business.

"Until that single issue is resolved, or at least has some clarity on the path forward, there's not much value in any of us making any further statements about what we're going to do, or not do," Coulter said.

The eight regions' stance is clear. "We want them to resign, take accountability for what's happened to our sport," Radford said. "If they still feel they've got something to contribute they can put their names forward again and we will have an absolutely transparent election process."

The other seven regions calling for the resignations are Auckland, Canterbury, Taranaki, Southland, Manawatu, Nelson-Marlborough and Hawkes Bay/Poverty Bay.