Binary Australia: New Zealand parliament debates sex and gender
Michael Barnett OAM
New Zealand parliament debates sex and gender
Two political parties in New Zealand are supporting a bill seeking to define “woman” in law.
National and Act have pledged support for the bill in the name of MP Jenny Marcroft.
It would define "woman" in law as "an adult human biological female", and "man" as "an adult human biological male".
New Zealand First vowed to fight "cancerous social engineering" and "woke ideology" with the Bill.
National's deputy leader Nicola Willis confirmed her party would vote in favour.
"Most New Zealanders can see that there are two biological sexes, there are men and there are women, and they have legitimately asked 'why doesn't legislation always reflect that'?" she said.
"We think this is a Bill worthy of consideration by a select committee. We appreciate there are a range of views, we want to hear those views."
Act leader David Seymour said his party supported it because people were "sick of pretending".
"There are two biological sexes. People don't have to believe that, but they don't have the right to tell other people they're not allowed to say it," he said.
"I hear these expressions like 'chest feed'... that is a denial of basic biological reality. It's called breast feeding because we're mammals, because the female of the species have mammary glands, which convert glucose to lactose, which is food for infants."
Seymour said he respected people's right to identify their gender.
"But this is about the rest of us being able to see things and say things and hold our beliefs, think our thoughts and speak our mind, without having to confect ourselves into these riddles as we've been forced to do with 'pregnant people' and 'chest feeding' and all that rubbish."
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said defining the term was important, and the public had told him so.
Unsurprisingly, Labour and the Green Party confirmed they would vote against the bill.