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MEDIA RELEASE
22 April 2025

Family First NZ is calling on both the National Party and the ACT Party to fast-track NZ First’s Member’s Bill that would ensure the biological definition of a woman and man are defined in law, and adopt it as a Government bill.

The What is a woman? campaign last year called for ‘woman’ to be defined as ‘an adult human female’ in all our laws, public policies and regulations and was signed by more than 23,500 people and presented to Parliament last August. We are still awaiting a response from the Select Committee.

An appropriate bill would state that:
● an individual’s “sex” means an individual’s sex at birth, either male or female;
● a “female” means an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova; who has, had, will have or would have, but for a developmental or genetic anomaly or historical accident, the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes eggs for fertilization.
● a “male” means an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to fertilise the ova of a female who has, had, will have or would have, but for a developmental or genetic anomaly or historical accident, the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes sperm for fertilization.;
● “woman” and “girl” refer to human females, and “man” and “boy” refer to human males;
● “mother” means a parent of the female sex, and “father” means a parent of the male sex; and
● with respect to biological sex, separate accommodations are not inherently unequal.

The bill would require and state that distinctions between the sexes be considered substantially related to the important governmental objectives of protecting the health, safety, and privacy of individuals, with respect to the following areas:
● schools;
● sports;
● prisons or other detention facilities;
● domestic violence centers;
● rape crisis centers;
● changing rooms;
● toilets; and
● other areas where biology, safety, or privacy are implicated that result in separate accommodations.

Individuals born with a medically verifiable diagnosis of disorder/differences in sex development should be provided appropriate legal protections.

How do we target specific women’s health issues or target the gender pay gap, or violence against women, or support the Women’s Refuge, or uphold our nation’s history of fighting for women’s rights if we can’t define the target audience in the first place?

A ’woman’ always has been, always will be, our beloved mothers, grandmothers, wives, daughters, sisters, aunts – an adult human female.

Given the recent decision by the UK Supreme Court, it’s time that NZ’s Government also removes the confusion and returns to simple biological reality.

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MEDIA RELEASE

18 December 2024

MPs Should Take A Break & Reject Easter Trading Bill

Family First NZ is calling on MPs to reject ACT’s bill to liberalise Easter trading laws which is having its 1^st Reading in Parliament today.

“We reject any liberalisation of Easter trading laws and also Anzac and Christmas days because workers deserve this special annual break to spend time with their families. If anything, we should have more public holidays around Labour Day, Matariki and Waitangi Day,” says Bob McCoskrie, Chief Executive of Family First NZ.

“Economic improvement needs to be finely balanced with family and community time. Anzac Day, Easter, and Christmas remain as the few times when the whole country stops and takes a break. How long before attempts are made to liberalise trading laws around Anzac Day and Christmas day.”

Significantly, there seems to be a focus in this latest attempt not just on shops in general being able to open but on being able to sell alcohol. The explanatory note to the bill says: “This bill removes the restriction on trading and selling alcohol on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.”

David Seymour originally announced the bill by saying “Easter’s a wonderful time – a long needed break after easing into the new year.”

But not a break for workers in the retail industry.

“Public holidays are a social good – whether they are religious-based or not. Poll after poll has shown that both parents and children want to spend more time doing family things like picnics and holidays together. However, this is becoming increasingly difficult as the retail industry is required to work almost every day of the year, and shoppers focus on the holiday specials. To argue that it is justified because shoppers are able to shop online is a flawed argument. If it was a valid argument, retailers in NZ would have to be open 24/7,” says Mr McCoskrie.

“New Zealanders deserve the break.”

“This is not an issue about choice as has also been argued. For many workers, they don’t have the luxury of choice as to whether they work or not. Coercion to work will be a very real threat.”

“Tourists will cope. Many countries have public holidays with shops closed, and tourists simply plan around it, accepting it as part of the local culture and identity,” says Mr McCoskrie.

“We should keep the Easter culture, for the sake of families.”

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MEDIA RELEASE

16 December 2024  

According to an Official Information Act response from Health NZ / Te Whatu Ora, the taxpayer is funding more than $1 million dollars each year towards enabling people to surgically change their sex via vaginoplasty, metoidioplasty and phalloplasty procedures. The demand is higher for the removal of the penis, testicles and scrotum. Demand for these surgical procedures is predominantly in the 18-25 and 26-35 age brackets.

According to Te Whatu Ora, “Of the 326 patients on the waiting list, 243 have requested a feminising procedure and 83 a masculinising procedure. Therefore, it can be assumed of the sex assigned at birth of these patients 243 were assigned male at birth and 83 assigned female at birth.” (our emphasis added)

Age ranges of the 326 patients are:

18–25               94

26-35               148

36-45               51

46-55               22

>55                    11

Vaginoplasty involves removing the healthy penis, testicles and scrotum to create a vulva and vagina.

Metoidioplasty involves creating a penis about 4 to 6 centimeters long using the clitoris, which may be enlarged by hormone therapy. The surgery can be completed in stages, each performed a few months apart, depending on the patient’s objectives.

Phalloplasty uses a tissue flap from the arm or thigh to create a larger phallus that can accommodate a penile prosthesis and penetration. Phalloplasty is a multistage operation, with urethroplasty to enable standing urination performed later. Phalloplasty is complex and has a higher risk of complications, including infection, scarring, and narrowed urethra.

Despite the relatively small number of surgeries actually performed, the cost is significant.

[Where the number of individuals is less than five, Health New Zealand used <5 to avoid revealing sensitive information about potentially identifiable individuals in the data. It is also important to note that some patients may require more than one procedure.]

Health NZ were unable to quantify the costs of mental health assessment, psychiatric support or counselling – if these even occurred.

A Swedish study followed a transgender group of adults from 1973-2003. This study found:

Persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population. Our findings suggest that sex reassignment, although alleviating gender dysphoria, may not suffice as treatment for transsexualism, and should inspire improved psychiatric and somatic care [restore the natural balance within the body-mind system to resolve physical and mental stress) after sex reassignment for this patient group.

And a recent Finnish study said:

… “Although the rate of suicide [in the Finnish study] is just over four times higher among trans young people than their peers, this is explained by their more serious psychiatric problems. When these psychiatric problems are taken into account, there is no evidence that transgender people have a higher rate of suicide.”

This Finnish study vindicates their decision four years ago to adopt a more cautious treatment policy which first targets psychiatric, social and educational problems among gender-distressed youth before any assumption of a stable trans identity justifying “experimental” affirmation with hormones or surgery.

The researchers say in their BMJ Mental Health paper; “It is of utmost importance to identify and appropriately treat mental disorders in adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria to prevent suicide; in addition, health policies need to ensure that accurate information is provided to professionals along these lines,”

A study published in April entitled “Risk of Suicide and Self-Harm Following Gender-Affirmation Surgery” evaluated patient data from nearly 60 U.S. health care organisations, comprising millions of patients. The study concluded: “Individuals who underwent gender-affirming surgery had a 12.12-fold higher suicide attempt risk than those who did not.” Those who had undergone gender-transition surgeries were nearly five times more likely to attempt suicide than those who had undergone tubal ligations or vasectomies, the study found. It warned: “Gender-affirming surgery is significantly associated with elevated suicide attempt risks, underlining the necessity for comprehensive post-procedure psychiatric support.”

What is most concerning is that the demand for these unnecessary operations here in New Zealand is only likely to increase.

According to Official Information Act data gained by Family First from the Department of Internal Affairs, almost 900 people in total have changed their birth certificates to their ‘self-identified gender’ since the new birth certificate law came into force last year. Children are changing the sex on their birth certificate, including 47 children 15 years or younger.

Demand to be recognised as a female was greatest with 445, followed by male 302, and non-binary 142.

Health NZ say that since 2020 the service has been publicly funded to deliver up to 14 gender affirming genital surgeries (either feminising or masculinising) per year.

In a poll at the end of 2018, 63% opposed taxpayer funding for hormone treatment and surgery for people who wished to change their sex. 27% supported it, and a further 11% were unsure or refused to say.

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MEDIA RELEASE

13 December 2024

Family First has written to the Director-General of Health Dr Diana Sarfati requiring the Ministry of Health to remove the reference to the PATHA Guidelines in the Position Statement on the Use of Puberty Blockers in Gender-Affirming Care issued by the Ministry on 21 November 2024.

Family First has been legally advised that such a reference may be illegal.

The Guidelines for Gender Affirming Health care for Gender Diverse and Transgender Adults in Aotearoa New Zealand written by activists from PATHA makes statements on puberty blockers which are not supported by the findings from the Ministry’s own evidence brief, as summarised in the Position Statement on the Use of Puberty Blockers in Gender-Affirming Care, nor by other probative evidence.

The consent forms in the appendices to the PATHA guidelines also state: “Blockers are a reversible medication used to stop the physical changes of puberty. It can be started in early puberty (Tanner stage 2–3). This position is reinforced by the reference in the Health NZ website to PATHA under “Resources for transgender New Zealanders and their whanau”.

Not removing the reference to the independent PATHA Guidelines is also inconsistent with the Position Statement stating that “Clinicians will continue to provide careful guidance to and follow up for people and families considering gender-affirming care.”

Family First has advised the Director General that there are four reasons why failure to remove reference to the PATHA Guidelines may be illegal:

• the findings of the Evidence Brief mean that the PATHA Guidelines include fundamental mistakes of fact. Those Guidelines confidently state that puberty blockers are safe and reversible (and effective). Yet the Position Statement found that there is no quality evidence to support any of these findings. This leads to a lack of informed consent
• the Ministry of Health is effectively advising Doctors, parents, and young people over 16 that the PATHA Guidelines are safe and factually accurate guidelines to use in the interim while the Ministry works with Health NZ to devise clinical guidelines.
• the consent form does not set out the risks of harm due to the lack of quality research about lack of harm and reversibility. The PATHA Guidelines say puberty blockers are safe and reversible as does the consent form you sign to start “treatment.” The potential breaches of sections 8-10 of the Bill Of Rights Act (BORA) must be viewed in the factual context that the Court of Appeal in the UK has found regarding puberty blockers: “the clinical interventions involve significant, long-term and, in part, potentially irreversible long-term physical, and psychological consequences for young persons.
• the reference to the PATHA Guidelines in the Ministry’s Position Statement breaches the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC). The misinformation in the PATHA Guidelines and included consent forms are not in the best interests of children under UNCROC.

Family First believes for these legal reasons alone, it is critical that the Ministry act immediately and make regulations under the Medicines Act to stop the prescribing of puberty blockers for delaying puberty in gender incongruent or gender dysphoric young people because there is insufficient quality evidence that puberty blockers are both safe and reversible and efficacious in the treatment of gender dysphoria.

The letter has also been sent to the Minister of Health Dr Shane Reti and Associate Ministers of Health Matt Doocey, Casey Costello and David Seymour.

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Warnings of Wild West Of Medicinal Cannabis

Family First is calling for caution around the use of medicinal cannabis which, when loosely regulated, can result in mental and behavioural disorders due to use of cannabinoids and psychotic episodes.

According to data obtained under the Official Information Act by Family First in August, New Zealand health authorities say that 461 patients have had a primary diagnosis of Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of cannabinoids, psychotic disorder in the last recorded 12-month period (22/23) – rising from 376 in 2019/20 – an increase of 23% over four years.

According to a recent report in Australia, “doctors are warning of a significant increase of people ending up in hospital with psychosis after being prescribed the drug. Their concerns come amid a proliferation of “single-issue” cannabis clinics setting up in Australia, some of them willing to prescribe via telehealth consultations with few checks. Brett Emmerson, Queensland chair of the Royal Australian and New Zealand’s College of Psychiatrists, says the college wants stronger regulations of medicinal cannabis products and prescribing practices.”

This is now a prospect for New Zealand, as reported in Newsroom today. Telehealth provider Dispensed which offers medical cannabis to patients through questionnaires and online appointments wants to set up shop in New Zealand.

It appears that Big Marijuana wants to sneak into New Zealand via the smokescreen of medicinal cannabis – which we always warned would happen. Combined with high-THC products, we are setting up the perfect storm of health and social problems associated with the drug.

The prescriptions for ‘medicinal’ cannabis is increasing in New Zealand, increasing from 22,506 in 2021 to 108,000 last year and 160,000 in the most recent period.

But it appears that the industry is becoming the wild west with high potency THC products being made available. During the Referendum in 2020, Patrick Gower found growers who were manufacturing a concentrated cannabis resin (dab) with an incredibly potent 81 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Dr Marta Rychert, a senior researcher at Massey University who with co-author Associate Professor Chris Wilkins have just published NZ Medical Journal: Implementation of the Medicinal Cannabis Scheme in New Zealand: six emerging trends warn about the increasing prevalence of products high in THC, and the rise of private cannabis clinics.

Dr Rychert says “My hope is that cannabis clinicians prescribe responsibly.” But medicine should never be based on ’hoping’ that clinicians do the right thing, especially when it comes to such a controversial ‘medicine’.

Just last week, two men in Australia with mental health conditions were prescribed medical cannabis by a pharmacist who founded a medicinal cannabis company . One was hospitalised with psychosis, the other took his own life.

There are justified concerns about the prevalence of online prescriptions without adequate patient-doctor interactions. The report says that while medicinal cannabis is legal in Australia for certain conditions like severe childhood epilepsy and cancer-related vomiting, it’s often prescribed for anxiety and insomnia despite lacking evidence of effectiveness.

In 2021, the Faculty of Pain Medicine at the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) said that there is no robust evidence from gold-standard studies that proves cannabinoid products effectively treast chronic non-cancer pain.

A significant study released at the time of the referendum found that “people who smoked marijuana on a daily basis were three-times more likely to be diagnosed with psychosis compared with people who never used the drug. For those who used high-potency marijuana daily, the risk jumped to nearly five-times.” By “high-potency” the researchers meant marijuana with THC content of just 10%+.

A study released in 2017 in the US and published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry found that marijuana use and marijuana use disorders – in which people use the drug in unhealthy or abusive ways – increased at a “significantly greater rate” in states with medical marijuana laws than in states without the laws.

Family First has always supported the expansion of further quality research into the components of the marijuana plant for delivery via non-smoked forms (‘medicinal cannabinoids’ products), and the establishment of a programme that allows seriously ill patients to obtain other non-smoked components of marijuana approved and listed by the Ministry of Health via their GP – but with appropriate regulation around safety and efficacy.

The Health Ministry needs to step up and ensure robust monitoring and enforcement of this new industry.
ENDS