Lifting the lid

NZ First's bid to regulate toilet use should be flushed away, but adolescents' access to transgender medicine deserves serious attention.

- Danyl McLauchlan

It's the bitterest debate in modern politics. Fights over transgender rights have contaminated political debate in the US, UK and Australia but they've mostly passed New Zealand by. In 2021, a self-ID law making it easier to alter sex records on birth certificates and other documentation was passed unanimously. A small number of doctors and academics, including emeritus professor Charlotte Paul, have spoken up about the exponential growth rate of prescriptions for puberty blockers - allegedly 10 times the rate per capita of the UK. But in the past 10 years, the political, media and health establishments have generally taken the side of the transgender community and supported their right to healthcare and legislation that affirms their identity.

That bipartisan consensus is unravelling. The coalition government has agreed to "ensure publicly funded sporting bodies support fair competition that is not compromised by rules relating to gender", a demand made by New Zealand First aimed at restricting transwomen athletes from competing in women's sports categories.

National's coalition agreement with NZ First also contains a provision for "the removal and replacement of the gender, sexuality, and relationship-based education guidelines". And after a series of poor poll results, NZ First leader Winston Peters recently announced his intention to introduce a member's bill to "protect women's spaces".

It will ensure that every new non-domestic, publicly available building contains unisex and single-sex toilets, and introduce a new fine "for anyone who uses a single-sex toilet and is not of the sex for which that toilet has been designated".