2023

On 7 February 2023, the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, resigned.

The New Prime Minister is Chris Hipkins. The Deputy Prime Minister is Carmel Sepuloni.

6 March was NZ Census Day. Everyone was required to answer questions about their gender, and the gender of people in their households. Many women conducted a boycott of the census, or at least of the gender questions.

On 25 March, a Let Women Speak event at Albert Park, Auckland, with the UK women’s rights campaigner Kellie -Jay Keen, was violently shut down by protestors. 2,000 anti-woman protestors invaded the space of 150-200 women’s rights supporters. An elderly woman was punched in the face and several women were assaulted. Kellie-Jay Keen’s life was at risk and she had to be helped out through the crushing mob by her marshals and security guards.

The police did nothing to protect the women or Kellie Jay Keen, until she was already out of the crowd.

This followed a week of failed efforts to keep Kellie-Jay Keen out of the country, and wall to wall attacks on her by the media and the establishment. Kelly-Jay Keen was labelled an anti- trans rights activist and accused of being a Nazi, because some Nazis had crashed a Let Women Speak event in Melbourne a week before.

Banner created by Linda Sutton, lost at the women's event on 25th March at Albert Park.

On 25 March and subsequently, the New Zealand media mostly ignored the violence, calling the event peaceful and celebratory. However multiple vidoes and livestreams were shared in New Zealand and internationally, causing outrage.

On 28 March, Shaneel Lal, a leader of the protest, won Young New Zealander of the Year award.

On 3 April, NZ’s Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, struggled to define what a woman is.

By April, many more groups had sprung up in response to the violence against women on 25 March and the silencing of women. On 15 April, they held rallies across the country in support of women’s rights.

For a more detailed report, with links to videos and media reports about the 25 March event at Albert Park, please see the attached document

Download the latest report from New Zealand, Jan - April 2023

Upcoming events:

In June 2023, the Birth Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Act (the Sex Self ID law) comes into force,

On 14 October there will be a General Election

For more information from New Zealand, see the WDI Australia and New Zealand facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/WDIANZ

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2022

  • The Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Act, which allows Sex Self ID, was passed on 9 December 2021. S 79 (2) means that the birth certificate doesn’t need to be taken as the sole determinant of a person’s sex.
  • In 2022, the Department of Corrections received submissions about changing its Regulations. In November it placed a male triple stabber in a women’s prison.
  • The Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Act was passed on 18 February 2022.
  • In April, the Ministry of Education announced its Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) Resource Pack.In May, the Resist Gender Education website was created.
  • Around July, the LGB Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand was formed.
  • In August, the Child and Adolescent Therapists Association (CATA), who do not support the affirmation approach, held a conference.
  • In September, The Ministry of Health removed claims that puberty blockers are safe and reversible from its website.
  • On 20 September, the Media Council upheld a complaint about a report about the CATA Conference.
  • On 7 November, The New Zealand Midwifery Council, announced its intention to eliminate words for Mother and Woman from its literature.
  • On 6 December, Sport NZ announced its Guidelines on Inclusion of Transgender People in Community Sport.
  • On 23 December, The Media Council upheld a complaint about a report about a protest about pronoun posters.

Download the report from New Zealand, December 2022

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2021

  • Sex self-ID passed into law, 9 December 2021
  • Conversion therapy bill will hear oral submissions into 2022
  • Select committee members were revealed to be extremely hostile to those submitting evidence
  • Informal submissions were sought around hate speech, adoption and surrogacy but no formal legislation has been drafted yet
  • Green Party minister launched an initiative to end domestic and sexual violence
  • Many new gender critical feminist groups have launched to protest against government legislation
  • Several street actions took place on International Women's Day, Women's Suffrage Day and others
  • Speak Up For Women NZ organised a number of public meetings
  • The Media Council found that calling SUFW 'anti-trans' was an opinion and must not be reported as a fact
  • Laurel Hubbard competed in the women's weightlifting competition at the Olympics
  • Rainbow Midwives Alliance demanded the NZ Council of Midwives cancel feminist birth campaigner, Milli Hill
  • NZ media continues to promote gender ideology
  • High Court found that Speak Up for Women was not a hate group and was entitled to hold meetings in public spaces
  • Women's Liberation Aotearoa  launched their website: https://womensliberationaotearoa.org.nz/    and their youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6oyAfyRXeQco8u4ydB-4yA
  • Mana Wāhine Kōrero launched their youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTBLB0CizsFTu-oLb_Onq0g
  • Lesbian Action for Visibility Aotearoa launched their website: https://www.lava.nz/

Download the report from New Zealand, December 2021

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2020

The Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Act (BDMRRA)

The BDMRR Act 1995 has a category of "Nominated sex" which allows the idea in some cases that a person can be born a different sex to what they really are and have their birth certificate changed accordingly.

The Human Rights Act

The Human Rights Commission wants to include gender in the Human Rights Act as a category of discrimination.

The Statistics Survey

The government proposes to change the way statistics are collected under the leadership of James Shaw from the NZ Green Party. The changes they want to make about sex and gender are concerning. They propose to have two categories - sex and gender; and to make gender the default category. They are utterly downplaying the importance of collecting accurate information about sex, stating that gender is much more important. Many women, both from the Women's Liberation Aotearoa (WLA) and Speak Up For Women (SUFW) as well as other individuals, have sent in submissions expressing concern about and opposing this idea.

Women's Economic and Social Rights

Regarding women's economic and social rights, it is worth noting that the Labour led government raised benefits by $25 per week and increased a winter fuel allowance. However, it ignored most of the recommendations of the Welfare Experts Advisory Group, which recommended doubling most benefits, which need at least $100 per week increase. There is extreme poverty in NZ which badly affects women and children.

Prostitution

The government said that "sex workers" would be eligible for the various forms of income support it offered during the COVID crisis. In response Wahine Toa Rising, a group led by survivors of prostitution, wrote to the government, asking for funding for women to exit prostitution. More recently, Kiwibank, a (partially?) state owned bank, first refused to do business with brothel owners; then changed its mind due after pressure from the NZ Prostitutes Collective. Wahine Toa Rising wrote to the bank, congratulating them on their original stance, and asking them to maintain it. They published this on social media.

Abortion Legislation

Legislation making abortion much more freely available and taking it out of the Crimes Act was passed on 23 March 2020.

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