Thomas Coughlan: NZ Herald political editor on New Zealand First calling for the definition of 'woman' to be etched into law

New Zealand First wants the definition of a woman and a man etched into the law.

Britain's Supreme Court has ruled the legal definition should relate to biological sex - excluding transgender women.

Leader Winston Peters says the Bill would define a woman as an adult human biological female, and a man as an adult human biological male. 

NZ Herald political editor Thomas Coughlan says it's unclear if a Bill of this nature will come to pass.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political editors with Say Thomas. Now, okay,
so why does Winston wanted to find define what a
man and a woman is in law?

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Well, he's been on this issue for for quite some
time now. I think it's been been raced at the
top of the agenda again after that UK Supreme Court
ruling last week which which which redefined in British law
the term woman is basically being an adult, a biological female.
So he's Winston's always been been quite hot on the

(00:31):
sort of transgender issues. Uh. He was in favor of
a bit of a crackdown on transgender people in Sport
and uh and today, of course I'm probably enlightened that
Supreme Court ruling. He well, his party has put up
this members bill which will redefine a woman in New
Zealand law as an adult human biological female. And and

(00:53):
it's in the name of Jenny Marcroft. So, I mean,
the New Zealand First is doing a lot of these
members bills. The chances of it being drawn from ballods
are small, but yeah, it could. It could be quite dumb,
it could be quite bigger if it were drawn. Orthough
I'm not sure it would pass.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Why not?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
It would be what would be one of the interesting
things to be whether it be a conscience vote. It's
it's some of these issues do go down to a
conscience vote. If if that were the case, it would
be quite interesting. If not, however, I do wonder where
the nets would go. Then I think the parties of
the left would obviously be voting down, voting it down.
And if it were a national, if it were a national,

(01:31):
if it were a conscience vote, then you might see
some of the Nets join them when you think about
the way that the gender self id law with.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Okay, so Thomas, this is why they've gone for a
member's bill and not a government bill because they cannot
be sure that they've got their own coalition party support
right precisely.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
And I don't think, you know, if if you want
a government bill, you have to get it through cabnet
and I don't I don't think. I don't think they
would have they would have been able to get the
whole National Party.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
I mean, so this is how they're going to differentiate
themselves come come next year an election to is they
going to say we start up for the stuff and
the rest of the Coalition didn't.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, precisely, And I think this is the third, the
third set of quite I suppose, you know, like headline
grabbing members bill of recent times. They had the anti
de I won a few months ago, and then and
then before that or around the same time as that,
they had the one about woke banking, which was a
crack down on banks and that sort of stuff. So
they usually these members bills to to kind of differentiate

(02:25):
themselves from the other two parties, and they're getting somewhere
with it. The banking bill was a major talking point
at the Finance and Expenditure so that the committee and the
bank chief executives with you, so they are working for them.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Oh yeah, okay. So what what is Luxeon going to
talk with when he talk about when he meets with
kir Starmer later today.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
He's been the British Prime minister overnight our time. The
I think the big the big thing two things on
the agenda are the government's big trade agenda. There's a
big push to make sure that New Zealand and the
UK are harnessing those trade links. We obviously got that
that trade agreement with the with the EU. Part of
me with the UK gosh prebix at times, which is

(03:06):
one of our best trade agreements. So he's going to
talk about that and try to build those trade lengths.
And obviously the Ukraine support. I think our total support
to Ukraine now is over one hundred and fifty two
New Zealand million million New Zealand dollars. Sorry, And one
of the big things that we do in the UK
with in regard to Ukraine as we're training Ukrainian troops

(03:27):
that we've trained nearly fifty thousand troops as part of
the mission in Ukraine. So that's big on the agenda too,
because obviously that's on their doorsteps.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Okay, I've got a weird one for you. Why has
Chris Hopkins been meeting with this gaming developer? What's going
on there?

Speaker 2 (03:38):
It's an interesting one. And in Later's last budget they
announced these subsidies for gaming companies, much like the film subsidies.
They have been quite successful. It means the gaming companies
have stayed in New Zealand. So that's a good thing,
but obviously it comes at a massive cost to the
crown in terms of the subsidy that's paid out. Much
like the film subsidy, so it's a controversial topic. It
comes from the taxes we pay and it goes to

(03:58):
companies that are that are doing pretty well. But the
gaming companies say, and they're telling the truth, that if
these subsidies didn't exist, that all that all upsticks and
move to Australia. So that's a real catch twenty two.
If we want them here, we have to pay, but
can we afford it. Well, the numbers would say that
it's a bit of a struggle.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah too, right, Thomas, Hey, thanks very much mate, you
really appreciate its. Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political editor. For
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