Gender exclusivity in Invercargill’s Splash Palace’s changing rooms will no longer be raised in council following a public meeting last week.
The rules around changing room use at the pool will remain unchanged, although updated signs will be introduced in the coming weeks to more accurately reflect "family change rooms" being available for all to use.
Mayor Nobby Clark said with his support the issue had now become an operational rather than a governance issue and no report would be presented during next month’s community wellbeing committee meeting as was previously stated.
Last Thursday, Invercargill City Council leisure and recreation group manager Steve Gibling and aquatic services manager Stephen Cook attended a meeting with members of the public, expecting only five people to be present but encountering more than 100.
Mr Clark said council management attended the meeting in good faith and but unfortunately met significantly more people than anticipated.
"It was a bit of a set-up, I guess, in some ways and they were yelled and screamed at.
"If it had been me I would have walked away but to their credit they stayed."
Local woman Rachel Jackson, who attended the meeting, said the updated changing room signage was a "fraudulent Band-Aid", and her desired outcome was for the women’s pool changing rooms not to allow male genitalia.
Miss Jackson said this was not about transphobia, but purely fighting for the protection of girls in the changing rooms.
Council chief executive Michael Day said the council and Splash Palace were reviewing health and safety processes and practices at the pool, including a full risk assessment.
While it was previously stated a report would be taken to council’s community wellbeing committee on June 13, Mr Day said the decision has now been made to address these concerns as an operational matter and as such there will be no report presented to the council.
Mr Day said if the council’s review of health and safety indicated necessity in reconfiguring pool change rooms, it may be considered as part of the long-term plan 2024-34.
He said the council had not received any formal complaints regarding males in the female changing rooms at Splash Palace, but the concerns raised by members of the public were not taken lightly.
Earlier this month, independent research group The Disinformation Project published a paper indicating hatred towards transgender people in New Zealand had risen this year.
A spokesperson for Chroma, the LGBTQIA+ Initiative for Southland, said LGBTQIA+ people, trans and nonbinary people "are members of our community and deserve respect just like anybody else".
