New Zealand could follow Britain in defining sex as biological
Winston Peters, the country's deputy prime minister, put forward draft legislation in parliament 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.
His New Zealand First Party, which has campaigned to ban transgender women from using women's toilets or participating in women's sports, 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, Mr Peters said in a statement.
'These definitions in law fight back against the cancerous social engineering we've seen being pushed in society by a woke minority,' he said.
'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, and it is not clear that it would have the support to pass the draft law.
The bill was lodged by a member of parliament, not the government, making it less certain that parliament would allot time for it to be debated.
It faces a struggle to become law as it has to be selected at random from a ballot and then garner a majority support in parliament.
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 don't really have a coherent programme and they're certainly not focused on the things that are required to lead New Zealand forward.'
The proposed law follows a ruling by Britain's highest court last Wednesday that only biological and not trans women meet the definition of a woman under equality laws. It was a landmark decision welcomed by the Government as bringing clarity.
The ruling centred on whether a trans woman with a gender recognition certificate (GRC), a formal document giving legal recognition of someone's new gender, is protected from discrimination as a woman under the Equality Act.
Transgender rights have become a highly political issue in many countries, with some critics saying the conservative Right has weaponised identity politics to attack minority groups, while others argue that liberal support for transgender people has infringed on the rights of biological women.
In the United States, legal challenges are underway after president Donald Trump issued executive orders that include barring transgender people from military service.
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