{"id":452313,"date":"2026-02-01T21:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T21:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/452313\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T21:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T21:05:10","slug":"minister-to-get-briefing-amid-boxing-nz-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/452313\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister to get briefing amid Boxing NZ investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sport Minister Mark Mitchell has requested a briefing from the Sport Integrity Commission amid an investigation into Boxing New Zealand and its head coach, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says.<\/p>\n

The commission has been investigating the organisation and coach Billy Meehan<\/a> since May last year over claims of bullying, favouritism, excessive drinking and inappropriate comments. Meehan remains in his role. <\/p>\n

Some boxers have pulled out of Commonwealth Games contention as a result of the allegations and handling of the official investigation, 1News revealed last night.<\/p>\n

Luxon told Breakfast this morning Mitchell had proactively asked the commission for a briefing, which would happen this week.<\/p>\n

“Mark, as sport minister who I hold accountable for it, he’s already asked for a briefing from this commission about it,” the PM said. <\/p>\n

“The issue’s only just come to light. He’s asked the commission proactively to come and see him to provide him with a briefing. Let’s let him go through that process and then take it from there”.<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

Mark Mitchell (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

The PM said the Sport Integrity Commission was an independent Crown entity designed to work with sporting bodies and hold them to account.<\/p>\n

“For me, frankly, as Prime Minister, to get involved in this is sort of not where I need to be focused on,” he said.<\/p>\n

The commission received $10 million in government funding in the last financial year.<\/p>\n

Luxon said Mitchell would ask whether the commission had done everything it should be doing as an independent Crown agency.<\/p>\n

“There’s obviously a series of allegations that are made. There’s obviously a natural justice process that would need to be followed,” he said.<\/p>\n

Despite multiple allegations against him, head coach Billy Meehan has remained in charge. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

1News understands at least four athletes have made complaints to the Sport Integrity Commission<\/a> about Meehan. Coaches and referees have also been interviewed.<\/p>\n

The Sport Integrity Commission was set up in 2024 after a string of damning reviews into the country\u2019s elite sporting environments in the wake of the death of Olympic cyclist Olivia Podmore in a suspected suicide. <\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s role is to \u201censure sport and recreation in New Zealand environments are safe, fair and inclusive\u201d with responsibilities set out in the Integrity Sport and Recreation Act 2023.\u202f<\/p>\n

It opened an official investigation into Boxing New Zealand in May last year.<\/p>\n

Athletes and coaches tell 1News that the length of time the investigation is taking has prompted them to speak out, because the lack of progress is having a tangible effect on this year\u2019s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, with athletes pulling out.<\/p>\n

Both Boxing New Zealand and Meehan have said they won\u2019t comment while an investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including the New Zealander named in the Epstein files, Iran\u2019s warning to the US, and a strip club brawl ended by friendly fire. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sport Minister Mark Mitchell has requested a briefing from the Sport Integrity Commission amid an investigation into Boxing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,44079,85],"class_list":["post-452313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-christopher-luxon","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}