A populist party in New Zealand’s governing coalition has proposed a law to enforce a biological definition of men and women. The party condemned the existing “woke ideology” of “cancerous social engineering”.
The New Zealand First Party said it had lodged the draft legislation in parliament. The party has campaigned to ban transgender women from using women’s toilets or participating in women’s sports.
It launched the anti-“woke ideology” bid barely a week after Britain’s Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on a person’s sex at birth.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who leads the party, said events at home and internationally showed “the pendulum is swinging back towards common sense and proving us right”.
The bill defines a woman as an “adult human biological female” and a man as an “adult human biological male”.
It would move the country away from “woke ideology” that had undermined the protection and safety of women, Peters said in a statement.
He said the law’s definitions directly challenge the cancerous social engineering a woke minority has been pushing in society.
“The need for legislation like this shows how far the deluded left has taken us as a society. But we are fighting back.”
New Zealand First is the smallest member of the three-party coalition government. It is not clear it would have support to pass the draft law.
A member of parliament, not the government lodged the bill. This makes it less certain that parliament would allot time for it to be debated.
Centre-left opposition leader Chris Hipkins said Peters was pursuing “any populist cause” to maintain support.
“They’re interested in one headline after the next,” the Labour Party leader told public broadcaster Radio New Zealand.
“They lack a coherent programme and clearly ignore the key priorities needed to lead New Zealand forward.”
