We've dodged a bullet - 'transgender’ and ‘nonbinary’ categories will NOT be added to NZ’s Human Rights Act.

So far, so good - but the recommendations haven't quite been consigned to fires of hell, yet.

In good news, the New Zealand Government has decided against adding protections to the Human Rights Act for “people who are transgender, people who are non-binary, and people with innate variations of sex characteristics (i.e. Disorders of Sexual Development (DSDs))”. I’d have liked the decision to have been a robust “get out of here!”, but it was more along the lines of a polite “not today, thanks”. As announced by the Law Commission on 24 Feb, the Government stated that “as the Government currently has significant commitments and priorities in the justice portfolio, progressing the Commission’s recommendations is not a priority at this time.”

Back in 2022, the then Minister of Justice, Kiritapu Allan, asked the Law Commission to do a review on adding protections to the Human Rights Act for “people who are transgender or non-binary and people with innate variations of sex characteristics”. In my blogpost where I wrote about making a submission on the Law Commission’s initial recommendations, I said –

“The Law Commission has put together what they call an ‘issues paper’ to review a proposal to put the ‘word’ gender’ into legislation. It’s a nightmare of blood-boiling bollox to any sensible-thinking person, and a wet dream for transgender lobbyists. Submissions from our delegation on this issues paper are published on the Women’s Rights Party website, with Mana Wāhine Kōrero’s submission published on their own website. The submission I made is also published at the bottom of this blog-piece.”

The final 450-page report, which the Law Commission presented to the government six months ago, was much worse.

Although that report has not been thrown in the fire yet, it has been put in a box and consigned to the basement. On ‘our side’ – i.e. those opposed to the additions - it’s a victory that the recommendations haven’t been accepted; and for the ‘other side’ – i.e. TQI-Alphabet lobby groups – there hasn’t been an outright rejection of the report and its recommendations.

When a left-wing government comes into power in place of our current centre-right government, and sooner or later it will, they’ll have the ability to dust off that box in the basement, resurrect the Law Commission’s report, and implement the recommendations should they wish to. TQ+ lobby groups will use all the influence they have inside Parliament to try and make that happen - and they have a disproportionate amount of influence.

What might be a saving factor, is that there is a waning appetite amongst even left-wing political parties to use their time and resources to put gender ideology front and centre anymore. They may be willing to let that box collect dust in favour of the old tried and true excuse of “more important things”, like the current Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith has done. The longer the report languishes there, the less likely it is that it will get dusted off and resurrected. Nothing’s certain, of course, and as long as there are TQ+ lobby groups around, they will push to install gender ideology into legislation. But, then there are also the terfs …….

Neither am I entirely sure if this ‘parking’ of the Law Commission’s report will put the kybosh on its recommendations being cited in legal proceedings, or if it will still be viewed as an authority that can be referred to. It may well be considered additional ammunition to be used in conjunction with the Human Rights Commission’s deceptive and misleading advice about ‘gender’.

Talking of the Human Rights Commission (HRC), according to the Disability Rights Commissioner and Rainbow rights spokesperson Prudence Walker “the commission would continue to respond to complaints about discrimination against transgender and intersex people.” Er, so they should, because it’s their job to act on complaints of discrimination, but I suspect what she really means is that the HRC will continue with it’s deceptive and misleading advice.

Prudence goes onto say that “As the Law Commission report notes, current data indicates increasing acceptance of transgender and non-binary people in our families and in our working lives.” I think that perhaps none of them get out of their rarified atmospheres enough, because the “data” Prudence refers to is definitely not gathered from the general public, who are increasingly over gender ideology.

If no decision had been made at all on whether the report was accepted or rejected, and it was left unaddressed in no-man’s land, the situation would be worse and definitely open to misuse, from what I’ve heard. Hopefully, this decision by the Minister of Justice, Paul Goldsmith, stymies any quoting of it, or citing of it, as long as it stays in its box gathering dust.

What’s not talked about much, is the huge amount of time and resources it would take to insert those unnecessary protections into the Human Rights Act. It’s not a matter of simply popping in a few extra words, and Bob’s your uncle - it’s a massive undertaking. Combined with political parties’ waning enthusiasm to make gender ideology a hill they’ll die on, it might be enough to make future governments shy of opening up that box ever again.