Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ro Edge: Save Women's Sport Australasia NZ Spokesperson on NZ First's bill aiming to legally define gender
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Write. A New Member's Bill by New Zealand First will
- 0:02Speaker 1: aim to define men and women. The bill wants to
- 0:04Speaker 1: codify sex based language, defining a woman is an adult
- 0:09Speaker 1: human biological female and a man as an adult human
- 0:12Speaker 1: biological male. It comes as Britain's highest court ruled that
- 0:17Speaker 1: only biological and not trans women meet a definition of
- 0:20Speaker 1: a woman under equity laws save Women's Sport Australasia. New
- 0:24Speaker 1: Zealand spokeswoman wrote Edge joins me now, good morning, Row,
- 0:26Speaker 1: thanks for your time, Well, good morning. Are you happy
- 0:30Speaker 1: with this bill? Is there anything you'd change?
- 0:33Speaker 2: No, I think it's much needed, you know. The Zealand
- 0:36Speaker 2: First Members Bill aims to ensure legal clarity on the
- 0:38Speaker 2: definition of a man and a woman, but in reality
- 0:41Speaker 2: its purpose is to protect the sex based rights of women.
- 0:44Speaker 2: Now globally, it's been recognized, and we saw this in
- 0:46Speaker 2: the UK last week that gender identity should not override
- 0:49Speaker 2: sex based provisions and protections. And so what this bill
- 0:52Speaker 2: does is it reinforces the urgent need for the likes
- 0:55Speaker 2: of support New Zealand to prioritize and protect venus and
- 0:57Speaker 2: safeties of biological females because we place thought with our
- 1:00Speaker 2: bodies not our identities.
- 1:02Speaker 1: Okay, so we make this definition, but we don't actually
- 1:04Speaker 1: know how this bill would apply to other legislation yet,
- 1:07Speaker 1: do we know.
- 1:09Speaker 2: I think what it's about is ensuring that there is
- 1:12Speaker 2: that when women are referred to and men are referred
- 1:14Speaker 2: to in legislation and policy, that it is the biological
- 1:18Speaker 2: reality that is referred to. So you know, we see
- 1:21Speaker 2: with our Ministry for Women at the moment the definition
- 1:23Speaker 2: of woman as anyone who identifies as one. Well, it's
- 1:26Speaker 2: circular reasoning. I mean, what is a woman? Even Chris
- 1:29Speaker 2: Hipkins couldn't answer that, and why he might not deem
- 1:32Speaker 2: this as being a priority. Males competing and female thought
- 1:35Speaker 2: was actually the most of post social issue leading into
- 1:37Speaker 2: the last election, according to Labour's own posters. So would
- 1:40Speaker 2: suggest that given when he was asked as High Prime Minister,
- 1:44Speaker 2: like what is a woman and he couldn't answer it,
- 1:46Speaker 2: it's a great example of why this legislation is so
- 1:48Speaker 2: desperately needed.
- 1:50Speaker 1: What does this mean for trans people? I mean you
- 1:51Speaker 1: can't just ignore them.
- 1:54Speaker 2: No, this isn't about being anti anyone. It's about ensuring
- 1:57Speaker 2: the rights of women and girls are protected in law,
- 1:59Speaker 2: and these rights thoughtful by women over many generations and
- 2:02Speaker 2: some very valid reasons. We want everybody to be included,
- 2:05Speaker 2: like for instance, in sport because of the mental and
- 2:08Speaker 2: physical health benefits it brings, but it needs to be
- 2:10Speaker 2: in the category of their biological sex because otherwise it
- 2:13Speaker 2: raises fenness and safety issues.
- 2:15Speaker 1: But couldn't we have that discussion without having to go
- 2:17Speaker 1: through this sort of process of throughing this definition into legislation.
- 2:23Speaker 2: We have been trying to have this discussion for over
- 2:25Speaker 2: five years now and we've got absolutely nowhere. And what
- 2:28Speaker 2: we've seen is gender ideology completely capture our bureaucrats, our
- 2:33Speaker 2: policy and everything, and so women have had no rights
- 2:36Speaker 2: to speaking up. Now we've tried to, we've been labeled
- 2:38Speaker 2: bigots and TERFs and every other thing under the sun,
- 2:41Speaker 2: including Nazis. We haven't had this conversation. So you know,
- 2:45Speaker 2: this legislation is all being all about getting back to
- 2:48Speaker 2: some common sense.
- 2:49Speaker 1: Right, what are some of the current issues with women
- 2:51Speaker 1: in sport at the moment.
- 2:53Speaker 2: So we have males participating in women's and girls' sport
- 2:56Speaker 2: from while we're aware from intermediate level and above what's
- 3:00Speaker 2: happening as women are either self excluding, which is appalling
- 3:03Speaker 2: because we already have such a dramatic drop off rate
- 3:06Speaker 2: of females participation in sports through their teenage years. We're
- 3:10Speaker 2: seeing it in club sports and community sorts across the board.
- 3:14Speaker 2: You know, if this was really just about allowing everyone
- 3:17Speaker 2: to participate, there are mixed sex teams in nearly every
- 3:20Speaker 2: sport available in most communities, and so anyone can participate
- 3:24Speaker 2: in that. But what we're seeing is male advantage in
- 3:27Speaker 2: female sport, and when you include that, it excludes women.
- 3:32Speaker 1: Mett's members, Bill Rowe, do you think you know there's
- 3:34Speaker 1: a chance that this will never be heard.
- 3:37Speaker 2: Well, I hope it will be, and I hope if
- 3:39Speaker 2: it's told from the ballot that National and Act will
- 3:43Speaker 2: support it, given by far the majority of their voters
- 3:46Speaker 2: according to our polling. Do but mind you Soda, Labor
- 3:48Speaker 2: and Green voters. So this is the irony. It's not
- 3:51Speaker 2: a left versus right issue, despite what the politicians say.
- 3:56Speaker 2: This is a right versus wrong issue, as by far
- 3:58Speaker 2: the majority of New Zealand is every political persuasion know
- 4:02Speaker 2: that males competing in female sport is wrong, Males and
- 4:04Speaker 2: female changing rooms is wrong. We just need to get
- 4:07Speaker 2: back to some common sense and make sure that we
- 4:09Speaker 2: create spaces where everyone feels welcome and comfortable ro.
- 4:12Speaker 1: Each Thanks so much for your time this morning. For
- 4:15Speaker 1: more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to
- 4:18Speaker 1: News Talks at B from five am weekdays, or follow
- 4:21Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio