Rights Aotearoa Newsletter #7
Critiquing the Government's decision to ban blockers, defending the HDCA and a Podcast appearance.
Last week, the Government crossed a line. They haven't just made a bad health policy; they have created a two-tier system of citizenship for New Zealand children. At the same time, we are seeing a dangerous narrative emerge around the Harmful Digital Communications Act that threatens to strip protections from the most vulnerable.
Here is where we stand on both. Plus details about a podcast I just appeared in.
1. Government Bans Trans Youth, Protects Cisgender Access
Last week, the Government banned the prescription of puberty blockers for new patients with gender dysphoria. They claimed this was about "safety" and "precaution."
They lied.
We know this wasn't about safety for one simple reason: they didn't ban the drug.
As we highlighted in our media release, the Government has explicitly protected access to puberty blockers for cisgender children with precocious puberty. If a cisgender child needs this medication to pause their puberty, the state trusts their doctors and parents. If a transgender child needs the exact same medication to pause their puberty, the state steps in and says "no."
The safety profile of a drug does not change based on the gender identity of the child taking it. To ban it for one group while allowing it for another is textbook discrimination under Section 19 of the Bill of Rights Act.
We are calling for the immediate reversal of this discriminatory policy. The state has no business laundering political prejudice through the Ministry of Health.
Read the full Media Release here
2. The Tool Isn't Broken – The Wielders Were Corrupt
The IPCA report into the Ms Z case—where a victim of sexual assault was arrested and charged under the Harmful Digital Communications Act (HDCA) while the senior officer she accused faced no investigation—is a stain on our justice system.
But in the anger that followed, some commentators have called for the HDCA itself to be repealed. They argue the law is a weapon against free speech.
In our latest opinion piece, I argue that this analysis is dangerously wrong. The injustice against Ms Z didn't happen because the HDCA is flawed; it happened because senior police officers corrupted the process to protect one of their own.
The HDCA provides essential protections for victims of intimate image abuse, doxing, and relentless cyberbullying. Repealing it would strip these protections from women, trans people, and minorities, effectively punishing victims for the corruption of the police.
We must demand accountability for the corrupt officers, not the destruction of the laws that protect the vulnerable.
Read the full Opinion Piece here
3. Podcast Appearance
When does free speech become hate speech? It is the defining debate of our time, and one that is often dodged in polite company.
I joined Miriama Kamo and Mark Crysell on the NZ Herald’s new podcast series, The Elephant, to tackle this head-on. We discussed the tension between trans rights and free speech, and why I believe that dignity and safety for minority groups are not "cancel culture"—they are fundamental human rights.
It was a frank, difficult, and necessary conversation. We cannot leave these spaces to those who wish to silence us; we must be in the room making the case for a rights-based Aotearoa.
Support the Fight
We are up against a Government that is actively rolling back rights and a political environment that is increasingly hostile to difference. We don't have corporate backers. We have you.
If you value a voice that doesn't just ask for compassion but demands compliance with the law, please consider supporting our work.
Ngā mihi nui,
Paul Thistoll CEO,
Rights Aotearoa
