Bathroom bill on NZ First agenda
New Zealand First wants to fine people who do not use the public bathroom of their designated sex if a new member’s bill passes.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has announced the bill to ensure all non-domestic publicly accessible places have “clearly signed unisex and single-sex bathrooms”.
Peters said the Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill would be about “finding a balance between fair inclusion and fairness for all”.
“We have seen a similar move in the United Kingdom this month, with building regulations due to change later this year, making it compulsory to provide separate facilities for men and women for all new restaurants, bars, offices and shopping centres.
“NZ First campaigned to defend the right to privacy, personal safety, and freedom from harm for all New Zealanders, and this Bill demonstrates a much-needed commonsense solution to an issue that has often been overshadowed by ideology.”
Peters tweeted in support of his bill, saying “It’s not difficult . . . Men’s toilets for men, Woman’s toilets for woman (sic). If you want to use a unisex toilet you can. PS. Mr Hipkins, Woman = Adult. Human. Female.”
If passed, the Bill will introduce a fine under the Summary Offences Act for “anyone who uses a single-sex toilet and is not of the sex for which that toilet has been designated”.
The member’s bill was not part of the coalition agreement, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon saying NZ First’s policies on transgender people in bathrooms are “on another planet”.
LGBTQ+ charity InsideOUT’s managing director Tabby Besley said the whole thing was ridiculous and an attack on transgender people.
“We need to be supporting (them) to feel safer in Aotearoa, not threatening blatantly discriminatory legislation and arrests for people using public facilities,” she said. “Something as simple as being able to pee. It’s something everybody should be able to do freely.”
Besley also said NZ First has not thought how this bill would be enforced.
“It assumes you can tell who a transgender person is by looking at them.”
According to Stats NZ, around between 0.5 per cent and 0.8 per cent of New Zealand’s adult population identify as transgender.