Two Māori have been appointed to the Sports Tribunal of New Zealand which assists in resolving sports disputes.
Lawyer and former National Party MP, Harete Hipango (Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Apa, Ngā Rauru Kītahi, Ngāti Tamakōpiri), and Tauranga City Council general legal counsel, Sam Fellows (Ngai Tahu), are part of four new appointments to the tribunal announced by Sports Minister Chris Bishop on Friday.
Queenstown sports physician Dr Sarah Beable and Cambridge solicitor Andrea Twaddle are the other appointees.
“These four appointments ensure that collectively the Tribunal will continue to have excellent and relevant knowledge and skills, including an appropriate mix of governance experience, sports law, sports participation and administration,” Bishop said in a release.
“The Sports Tribunal of New Zealand does important work to ensure that national sport organisations and other parties to a sport dispute, such as athletes, have access to an affordable, just and speedy means of resolving a sport dispute.”
The main types of disputes the tribunal hears are:
- anti-doping violations
- appeals against disciplinary decisions or not being selected for a national team
- other sports-related disputes referred by agreement of all the parties
Brief bios
Harete Hipango has recently completed six years as a parliamentarian. She was the MP for Whanganui from 2017 to 2020 and a list MP from June 2021 but was not re-elected at the 2023 election, standing in Te Tai Hauāuru as National’s first candidate in 20 years to run in a Māori electorate.
Prior to this, since 1991, she practised as a lawyer, with considerable involvement in mediation, arbitration and tribunal work.
Hipango has a lifetime involvement and interest in sport. This includes her own participation at representative level, as well as coaching, managing, event organising and parent support in a wide variety of sports, including netball, rowing, rugby, tennis, athletics and basketball.
Sam Fellows is the general legal counsel and manager legal, risk and procurement for Tauranga City Council.
He was previously a solicitor with Tauranga’s Holland Beckett and leading NZ law firm Simpson Grierson, and also taught sports law at the University of Waikato.
Fellows has considerable knowledge of tribunal decisions and integrity in sport issues. He has also had a lengthy involvement in sport as a participant, official and in sports governance.
Dr Sarah Beable is a sports and exercise physician at Axis in Queenstown and the medical director for Snow Sports NZ. She was previously the medical director for Cycling New Zealand.
Beable has worked with a wide range of athletes and sports, taking her to multiple Olympic and Commonwealth Games and touring with the Silver Ferns.
She has a good understanding of the role of the tribunal from a sports medicine perspective.
Beable still regularly participates and competes in a variety of sports.
Andrea Twaddle is a director of Hamilton legal firm DTI Lawyers. A long-serving solicitor, her specialties include sports law and employment law.
She is a member of the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association and Association of Workplace Investigators.
Twaddle has served as the selection review and appeals commissioner for NZ Rowing and has considerable legal experience within the sports sector.
A former age-group representative hockey player, Twaddle has been involved in many sports as a participant, coach, administrator and support person.