The inspiration and history of NZ First's transphobic definitions bill

Published on 2026-05-24 by Brooke Hart

This document is intended to provide background information on the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill, to assist in writing submissions.

I have made an effort to avoid linking to hate material. The effect this bill has already had on the lives and health of trans people in Aotearoa is not to be understated, and I believe it's important to avoid placing an increased burden on people who may feel obligated to submit on this bill out of a sense of self-preservation.

However, this approach means some information I present here is un-referenced. If you require more information, I suggest you search for it at your own risk.

This is not an exhaustive document, for example I have not explored NZ First's earlier member's bill proposing to ban transgender people from public bathrooms, or links to recent events in the United Kingdom. However this background document does describe the inspirations behind and history of the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill.

1. Family first petition
2. Speak Up for Women petition
3. Tu Chapman petition
4. Law Commission review of the Human Rights Act 1993
5. "Adult human female"
6. Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill
7. Timeline
8. What's next

Family First petition

Family First is a New Zealand-based far-right Christian lobby group, founded and operated Bob McCoskrie since 2006. For decades, he has been lobbying against queer rights in Aotearoa, including:

• opposing same sex marriage in 2012
• opposing a ban on conversion practices in 2021
• "featured" members of PATHA (the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa) on their blog, leading to some of them needing to take safety measures
• contributing to the moral panic against Rainbow Storytime events at public libraries
• participating in the public harrassment campaign of nonbinary member of parliament Benjamin Doyle in 2025, which led to their resignation from parliament out of concern for the safety of their child
• opposing relationship and sexuality education (RSE) in schools because they found it too trans-inclusive

In 2024, Bob McCoskrie brought a petition to parliament:

Petition of Bob McCoskrie on behalf of Family First: Define "woman" as "adult human female" in laws, public policies and legislation

Petition request: That the House of Representatives define "woman" as "an adult human female" in all New Zealand laws, public policies, and regulations; and note that 23,531 people have signed a similar online petition.

The petition did not propose a definition for "female".

The petition on the parliament website had a single signature, presumably McCoskrie's. The online petition he refers to is described in a Family First media release from 7 August 2024, which says:

The What is a woman? petition will be received by Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of NZ First Winston Peters and NZ First MP Tanya Unkovich.

A Family First campaign website details the online petition, claiming it had 23,783 signatures. There is no information about how those signatures were gathered, but given past history of oversees interference (particularly from the UK) by anti-trans campaigners it seems likely a considerable proportion of them came from people with no link to New Zealand.

The petition was referred to the Minister for Women, Nicola Grigg, on 15 November 2024. During the second reading of the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill on 11 August 2021, Grigg said:

I rise, as the National Party’s spokesperson for women, to take a call on the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill, which National is pleased to support tonight. Can I start by acknowledging the trans community of New Zealand who we welcome, we embrace, and I commit now that, so long as I am a member of this House, I will work to advance their rights and protections—and I say that to every single woman in New Zealand, irrespective of the sex marker on their birth certificate.

McCoskrie's bill received a government response on 9 May 2025. That response said:

the request of the petitioner to define ‘woman’ as ‘an adult human female’ in all New Zealand laws, public policies and regulations would be both resource-intensive and not have the desired impact as legislation does not frequently use this term.

We believe the resources required to fulfil the petitioners’ requests in-full would create more positive impacts for women and girls in New Zealand by way of direct investment in areas like in health, education and employment.

The Law Commission published an Issues Paper on 27 June 2024 and invited submissions from the public. It anticipates publishing a final report with its recommendations in mid-2025.

The Government will consider these issues further as part of its consideration of the Law Commission report, which is expected in mid-2025.

Speak Up for Women petition

In 2018, anti-trans hate group "Speak Up for Women" (SUFW) was founded by Ani O'Brien, Georgina Blackmore, Beth Johnson, and Daphna Whitmore specifically to oppose the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill. The BDMRR bill proposed to amend the process for updating sex markers on birth certificates to make it easier for trans people to correct their documentation.

The BDMRR bill was passed unanimously at its third reading on 9 December 2021. During this 53rd parliament, there were no NZ First MPs. All ten ACT MPs and 33 National MPs in this parliament voted for the bill.

O'Brien later went on to start a harrassment campaign against non-binary Green party MP Benjamin Doyle in 2025, which NZ First leader Winston Peters became heavily involved in and which eventually led to Doyle resigning from parliament out of concern for their child's safety.

In 2022, SUFW leadership changed from the original founders to Katrina Biggs and Suzanne Levy.

On 2 December 2024, SUFW started a petition with the request:

That the House of Representatives defines that "sex" in the Human Rights Act 1993 and any other legislation has the biological meaning.

The petition did not propose a "biological meaning" for "sex".

Over the four months that this petition was active, until 5 March 2025, it received 2,245 signatures. It was presented to NZ First MP Tanya Unkovich on 25 March 2025.

On 22 April 2025, NZ First MP Jenny Marcroft introduced the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill currently before select committee.

In the Petitions Committee's report, published on 25 July 2025, it noted that:

[Speak Up for Women] is particularly concerned that trans women not be permitted to use services designated for women.

They referred SUFW to the Minister for Women's response to McCoskrie's petition.

Tu Chapman petition

In response to the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill, Tu Chapman started a counter-petition to parliament on 24 April 2025. The petition asked:

That the House of Representatives order that the proposed members’ bill Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill, or any bill that is the same in substance, may not be introduced.

This petition surpassed the number of the SUFW petition's signatures within eight days, eventually reaching 10,602 signatures.

The Petitions Committee's report noted that:

Between April 2025 and April 2026, the bill was entered into the members’ bills ballot three times and withdrawn from the ballot twice. We received a written submission from the petitioner suggesting that because the bill had been withdrawn, the petitioner did not wish to make a formal submission. However, the bill had been re-entered into the ballot, and it was subsequently drawn from the ballot and introduced to the House on 2 April 2026.

As the Petitions Committee can't determine whether or not a bill can be introduced, no matters were brought to the attention of the House. However, the 10,602 signatures received by the petition served as an indication of popular support for trans people, and a contrast to the 2,245 signatures on SUFW's petition.

Law Commission review of the Human Rights Act 1993

The issues paper mentioned in the government's response to McCoskrie's petition was Ia Tangata - A review of the protections in the Human Rights Act 1993 for people who are transgender, people who are non-binary and people with innate variations of sex characteristics.

Following the submissions period, the Law Commission published its report on 4 September 2025. The report itself is 457 pages, much of which deals with specific sections of the Human Rights Act where discrimination under otherwise prohibited grounds may be permitted. To quote from its executive summary:

The central recommendation we make in this review is that section 21 of the Human Rights Act should be amended to clarify that the Act covers discrimination that is due to a person being transgender or non-binary or having an innate variation of sex characteristics. We recommend there should be two new prohibited grounds of discrimination:

(a) ‘gender identity or its equivalents in the cultures of the person’; and
(b) ‘having an innate variation of sex characteristics’.

The government response (PDF link) to this report was published on 24 February 2026, essentially saying "thanks but no thanks":

The Government acknowledges the Commission’s findings and recommendations. As the Government currently has significant commitments and priorities in the Justice portfolio, progressing the Commission’s recommendations is not a priority at this time.

"Adult human female"

The phrase "adult human female" appeared in McCoskrie's 2024 petition, and the variation "adult human _biological_ female" appears in Marcroft's bill.

In 2023, Scottish publication The National credited Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (also known as Posie Parker) as having coined the phrase "adult human female". Keen-Minshull founded British anti-trans hate group "Standing for Women" in 2018.

Whether she truly coined this phrase or not, she certainly had a large role in popularising it. In 2018, she paid £700 to put up a billboard providing those three words as though they were a dictionary definition for the word "woman". Since then, the phrase has been commonly used as a dog whistle by anti-trans hate groups across the English speaking world.

Keen-Minshull visited New Zealand in March 2023. Gender Minorities Aotearoa, Inside OUT Kōaro, and Auckland Pride organised legal action to attempt to bar her from entering the country out of fear of her inciting transphobic violence. The High Court ruled to allow her in.

Keen-Minshull attempted to hold a rally at Albert Park in Auckland, but left without speaking due to thousands of protesters showing up to support trans people.

Keen-Minshull later posted on Twitter saying New Zealand was "the worst place for women I've ever visited", referring to the opposition she was met with due to her anti-trans views.

Keen-Minshull's visit to New Zealand was supported by Speak Up for Women and promoted by Family First.

Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill

On 22 April 2025, NZ First proposed the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill as a member's bill. The bill had Jenny Marcroft's name on it, but she already had a member's bill at the time, so this caused her Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill to be dropped.

On 4 November 2025, the night before Guy Fawkes, the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill was dropped in order for Marcroft's name to go on a new member's bill - the Fireworks Prohibition Legislation Bill. On 3 June 2025 Marcroft, alongside National MP Greg Fleming, had accepted a petition with over 90,000 signatures to ban the public sale of fireworks.

On 6 November 2026 the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill reappeared, this time with NZ First MP David Wilson's name on it. This required dropping his prior member's bill, the Identification (Protection of Physical Identification Methods) Bill.

On 27 February 2026, the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill was dropped in order for Wilson to propose his Financial Markets Conduct (Preventing Payment Scams) Amendment Bill.

On 3 March 2026, NZ First once again proposed the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill under Marcroft's name, this time scrapping her Fireworks Prohibition Legislation Bill in order to do so.

On 6 November 2025, the Spinoff published an opinion piece detailing NZ First's approach to member's bills. The Wikipedia page for the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill also says (without citation):

According to NZ First chief of staff Darroch Ball, the withdrawal of the "bathroom legislation" was part of the party's tactic of submitting, withdrawing and replacing member's bills as a means of "generating headlines."

On 20 May 2026, Fox Meyer writing for Newsroom noted that

NZ First has only four MPs eligible to submit members’ bills, but has entered 19 of them since the coalition Government took office.

The Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill was drawn from the ballot on 2 April 2026. It had its first reading on 20 May 2026. All 48 National, 11 ACT, and 8 NZ First MPs voted for it, including National MP Nicola Grigg. All 34 Labour, 15 Green, 4 Te Pāti Māorī, and 2 independent MPs voted against it.

Timeline

What's next

The bill has now been referred to the Social Services and Community Committee, whose members are:

• Joseph Mooney (National, committee chairperson)
• Dana Kirpatrick (National, committee deputy chairperson)
• Jamie Arbuckle (NZ First)
• Kahurangi Carter (Green)
• Laura McClure (ACT)
• Willow-Jean Prime (Labour)
• Maureen Pugh (National)
• Helen White (Labour)

This select committe will consider your submissions and write a report making a recommendation to parliament. If you are invited to make an oral submission, these are the MPs you will be speaking to.

Submissions are open until 2 July 2026. The committee's report is due on 20 November 2026. This is after the date of the 2026 general election on 7 November 2026, so it's very unlikely this bill will be returned to parliament prior to the election. That means your vote, as well as your submission, can have an impact on this bill.

You can make make a submission via the parliament website.