How I answered the census ‘gender’ question
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- Date published:
10:44 am, April 13th, 2023 - 77 comments
Categories: gender -
Tags: census, gender, gender identity, gender stereotypes, Laura Lopez, stats nz, transgender
Laura López is the mother of two girls and holds a graduate degree in psychology. She writes Arguments With Friends on Substack. Her work has been featured by Reality’s Last Stand, The Standard, Plain Sight, The Platform, Resist Gender Education, and Speak Up for Women New Zealand.
I don’t have a gender identity – and you probably don’t have one either.
New Zealand’s 2018 census was widely regarded as a failure, leading to the resignation of the Chief Executive of Stats NZ. This year’s census has also become mired in controversy. This time, the controversy is due to a poorly defined and confusing question about ‘gender’.
Outside of those who are well versed in the culture wars, few New Zealanders will have fully understood the meaning and implications of this question. But many people know instinctively that it doesn’t feel quite right. For those who care about responding honestly and accurately, answering this question is a minefield.
The information collected by the census is important, and I’d encourage everyone to complete it. I also support Stats NZ’s goal of collecting more data that can help agencies to serve New Zealand’s transgender population. However, Stats NZ needs to redesign how it achieves this goal.
What the census gets right
Unlike some surveys, the 2023 census asks respondents about their sex. Moreover, there are only two options – male and female. The census correctly asks about differences of sex development (also known as ‘intersex’ conditions) in a separate question. The census design thus avoids promoting the false idea that sex is a spectrum.
However, the census also asks people about their ‘gender’. And there are significant problems with the gender question.
The Stats NZ definition of gender is incomprehensible
The census defines gender as a “social and personal identity as male, female, or another gender”. But what does it mean to identify as “female” (for example) in this context? Clearly, the definition can’t be referring to identifying as biologically female, or else gender would just be a synonym for biological sex (which Stats NZ insists it is not).
Perhaps Stats NZ has defined gender more clearly elsewhere? If you Google, you can find the official Stats NZ definition of gender, which is:
Gender refers to a person’s social and personal identity as male, female, or another gender or genders that may be non-binary. Gender may include gender identity and/or gender expression.
Since this definition refers to ‘gender identity’, I looked up this definition as well. The Stats NZ definition of gender identity is:
Gender identity refers to a person’s internal and individual experience of gender.
These definitions are a complete mess. Gender is defined as a “personal identity” that is somehow distinct from gender identity. Gender might include gender identity, or it might not (as implied by the use of “and/or” in the Stats NZ definition of gender). And the Stats NZ definition of gender identity refers circularly back to gender.
The Stats NZ definition of gender also states that it might be based on your ‘gender expression’. The Stats NZ definition of gender expression is:
Gender expression refers to a person’s presentation of gender through physical appearance – including their dress, hairstyles, accessories, cosmetics, mannerisms, speech, behavioural patterns, names, and personal references. Gender expression may or may not conform to a person’s gender identity.
Read literally, this maze of definitions leaves it unclear whether the census gender question is asking about your “internal and individual experience”, or about your hairstyle. If a woman cuts her hair short, does that make her transgender? The Stats NZ definition of gender suggests that it might.
We should be able to read official statistical definitions literally, and have them make sense. As Stats NZ’s own survey design manual notes, “using language that is hard to understand, or overly technical and full of abbreviations and words that are not defined, makes it difficult for respondents to answer as intended”.
Confused definitions lead to confused data.
Unfortunately, Stats NZ’s confused definitions mean that census results relating to gender will be difficult to interpret. This is poor practice, and Stats NZ should be asked to do better.
The 2021 census of England and Wales should offer a warning to Stats NZ. This census was the first in the world to include a question about gender identity. It produced results that seem unreliable and difficult to believe. For example, it found that “one in every 67 Muslims is transgender”.
This and similar findings were likely due to widespread confusion about what the gender identity question meant. One of the strongest predictors of reporting a trans identity was having English as a second language.
What is gender (identity)?
While Stats NZ doesn’t provide a coherent definition of gender (other than suggesting that it might depend on your hairstyle), we can gain a bit of clarity by referencing other official sources.
For example, the World Health Organisation defines gender as the “norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy”. Similarly, Merriam Webster defines gender as “the behavioural, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex”—in other words, sex stereotypes.
Gender identity refers to the gender role that someone identifies with. For example, having defined “gender” to mean “gender role”, the World Health Organisation proceeds to define gender identity as “a person’s deeply felt, internal and individual experience of gender”. In other words, gender identity refers to an affinity with male or female stereotypes.
Confusingly, gender identity is often referred to as “gender” for short. In keeping with this, the census gender question appears to be asking about gender identity (and it would be a lot clearer if it was written accordingly).
It’s important to understand that adopting a gender identity does not mean identifying with your biological sex (or the opposite sex). Rather, as the World Health Organisation definitions imply, it means embracing a set of sex stereotypes.
If you’re not yet convinced of this, I highly recommend reading philosopher Kathleen Stock’s book Material Girls, which explains the origins of the concepts of gender and gender identity very clearly. Similarly, this article surveys the definitions of gender provided by a range of official sources, and my widely-shared article in Reality’s Last Stand shows how these concepts are explained to children in schools.
My experience has been that any definition of gender identity that claims not to be based on sex stereotypes quickly collapses under close examination.
Do I have a female gender (identity)?
I’m a woman, and I don’t consider myself to be transgender. Given this, I think it’s safe to say that Stats NZ expects me to happily tick the “female” gender box in the census.
Yet, like most women in New Zealand, I don’t embrace rigid female sex stereotypes. I grew up in Latin America, where machismo is still rife. The traditional female role involves sole responsibility for housework and caregiving, and a subservient position to men. I don’t want to define myself by this role.
Nor do I feel any deep inner sense of being female, other than being aware of my female body (i.e. my biological sex). Since I’ve never been a man, I don’t know how being male would feel. And if I was able to magically transform myself into a man, it seems logical that any different feelings I experienced would be caused by having male biology, or by how I was treated by society due to my biology.
The non-binary dilemma
So perhaps I don’t have a female gender identity – perhaps I’m non-binary? After all, I can relate to some female stereotypes and some male ones. And I’d like to think that I have some unique aspects to my personality that don’t neatly fit either male or female stereotypes.
It’s here that one of the central contradictions of gender ideology kicks in. While gender identity is supposedly a purely internal experience, it is also closely tied to real-world physical changes.
If I identified as non-binary, then I’d be expected to adopt non-standard pronouns (they/them, or perhaps zhe/zher). I would also be describing myself as a potential candidate for medical procedures to align my body with my new identity.
These body modifications could involve binding my breasts so tightly I could no longer breathe properly, and eventually having them surgically removed. Or they could involve having my genitals excised. Without these body modifications, it would be (falsely) supposed that I could never be happy, and might even commit suicide.
In identifying as non-binary, I would also be endorsing the idea that everyone else (who doesn’t identify as non-binary) is binary. That is, I would be implying that I expect them to fit rigid gender stereotypes.
None of this appeals to me. This is why I refuse to adopt any gender identity at all.
Am I agender?
So, since we’ve established that I have no gender identity, I can just answer the census gender question by choosing “Other” and writing “No gender”, right?
Unfortunately, if I did this, it could cause some confusion. In gender activist circles, having no gender identity makes you “agender” – neither a man nor a woman.
Like non-binary people, agender people are expected to use they/them pronouns. They are also considered candidates for genital nullification surgery, to “affirm” their lack of a gender identity. This is not really a category I want to put myself into.
When people write “none” in the census, Stats NZ will not know whether they consider themselves to be agender, or whether they reject the concept of gender identity altogether. The failure to distinguish between these two very different groups is a significant flaw in the design of the census.
The census gender question reflects a toxic belief system
The census gender question sits in the context of a broader political push by gender activists to replace biological sex with self-declared gender identity in law and society. One example is the incredibly unpopular drive to imprison male sex offenders in women’s prisons. Another is the offensive practice of forcing women to compete against males in sports. But the most damaging aspect of this political movement has been the needless medicalisation of children who don’t conform to sex stereotypes, with serious and lifelong health consequences. The damage to young New Zealanders has been especially profound.
Gender activism is animated by a toxic belief system known as gender identity theory, or gender ideology. According to this theory, what makes you a man or a woman is not your biology, but your gender identity (i.e. your subjective feeling of maleness or femaleness).
Belief in gender ideology is distinct from being transgender. Most advocates of gender ideology are not trans. And people can choose to medically transition despite rejecting gender ideology. In fact, people started medically transitioning long before gender ideology emerged. So we can (and should) accept trans people, while rejecting gender ideology as a belief system.
https://twitter.com/buttonslives/status/1641841790100570118
There are supernatural elements to some variants of gender ideology. Many adherents believe that gender identity is an ineffable essence or soul that everyone has, but only transgender people are truly in touch with (similar to the religious concept of being touched by the Holy Spirit). Some adherents even believe that a gender identity can transform human flesh, changing men into literal biological women (this is analogous to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation). And true believers seek to damn those who question these doctrines as modern-day heretics.
Because it contains supernatural elements, gender ideology is essentially a religion. No one should be forced to endorse this belief system, in the same way that no one should be forced to endorse the beliefs of any other religion.
Gender ideology is the driving force behind the recent violence against women at the Let Women Speak event in Auckland. Similar incidents have occurred overseas. Many New Zealanders now recognise the alarmingly intolerant nature of gender ideology, and want nothing to do with it.
Unfortunately, the fingerprints of gender ideology can be found all over the census. For example, within gender ideology, biological sex is falsely characterised as arbitrary and changeable. We can see this reflected in the Stats NZ definition of sex, which claims that “a person’s sex can change over the course of their lifetime and may differ from their sex recorded at birth”. Similarly, the 2023 census asks for your “sex at birth”, implying that this might somehow be different from your sex now.
The signal sent by Stats NZ’s ‘Gender by default’ policy is also obvious. Under this policy, statistical reporting is based on people’s gender identities, and information about their sex is hidden most of the time. This policy thus implies that your gender identity is more important than your sex. I disagree with this premise, and I don’t want the data I provide to Stats NZ to be abused in this way.
Meekly completing the census in line with gender identity theory feels like endorsing gender ideology, and the political movement it has inspired. I refuse to do it.
A layer of deception
Whether accidentally or deliberately, the incoherent language and definitions used by Stats NZ serve a purpose.
For example, when the census asks for your ‘gender’, and not for your ‘gender identity’, the word gender feels reassuringly familiar. This is because it traditionally referred to biological sex (and is still understood this way by many people). Gender activists have redefined this word by stealth.
It would be easy for Stats NZ to avoid the ambiguous word ‘gender’, and say either ‘gender role’ or ‘gender identity’ depending on their intended meaning. But that would make the absurdity and radicalism of gender identity theory obvious.
New Zealanders deserve a higher level of transparency and honesty from Stats NZ.
Forcing compliance with gender ideology
The census provides no guidance for people who don’t believe that the concept of gender identity applies to them. I wrote to ask what I should do if I objected to the gender question:
Hi,
How can I respond to the question ‘What is your gender?’ In order for it to reflect that I don’t have a gender? I don’t believe in gender identity, which is the definition you are using for the term gender.
I object to this question, as there’s no option to truthfully answer it when you don’t uphold gender identity as a belief system.
Thanks,
Laura
I received the following response:
Hi Laura,
All census responses are recorded, stored, and output securely, following our confidentiality rules. We would encourage you to respond accurately to all census questions to best inform decision making for New Zealand. However if you prefer not to disclose your gender, we recommend giving a response only to gender, but not sex at birth.
Please do not hesitate to contact us, either via the online General Enquiries form or on the phone number below, if we can be of further assistance.
Kind regards
[Name redacted]
Customer Service Specialist
Toll free helpline 0800 CENSUS (0800 236 787)
This response is obvious nonsense. In my email, I clearly stated that I disagree with gender identity as a belief system. Yet the Stats NZ response presupposes that I do have a gender identity (which they imply that I want to hide). And then for inexplicable reasons, they suggested that I answer the question about gender and not the question about sex!
The census needs to change
Because the gender question in the 2023 census is confusing and poorly defined, data resulting from this question is likely to be misleading. It should be discarded, or at least interpreted with extreme caution. Data from the question about sex is likely to be much more meaningful and reliable, and it is this data that should guide important public policy decisions.
In future surveys and censuses, Stats NZ should avoid the use of the ambiguous term ‘gender’, replacing it with ‘gender identity’. It also needs to provide a clear, non-circular definition of what it means by gender identity. And it needs to provide meaningful advice on how people can respond to questions about gender identity if they disagree with gender ideology.
Ideally, future censuses would include a yes/no question asking whether people consider themselves to have a gender identity. Only those who say ‘yes’ should be asked to describe what that gender identity is. At the very least, Stats NZ needs to provide an explicit option for people to select if they don’t buy into gender ideology (e.g. “I don’t believe the concept of gender identity applies to me” or “I refuse to answer”).
Stats NZ has also said that if people leave the gender question blank, then they will fill in a response for them without their permission. This practice violates people’s right to ensure that data held about them is accurate. For people who reject the concept of gender identity, a blank response may be the most accurate answer. Stats NZ needs to find a different way around this problem (e.g. by classifying the person as non-transgender, without making any assumptions about their gender identity).
Future surveys can also obtain more useful information about the transgender population by asking directly about past and current use of cross-sex hormones – not just about gender identity. Asking about medical treatments received will provide data that is far more helpful for healthcare planning than subjective and ambiguous questions about identity (especially given the numerous health problems associated with taking cross-sex hormones).
Finally, the ‘gender by default’ policy needs to end, so that census data can easily be analysed by sex. We cannot just assume that gender identity is more important for outcomes than sex – only data can tell us that. To hide this data from researchers is enforcing ignorance in the name of protecting a sacred ideology. Such a policy has no place in a free, open, and secular society.
How I responded to the gender question
My response to the census gender question was “The concept of gender identity is not relevant to me”.
It is my hope that Stats NZ will not violate my rights, and corrupt the census data, by changing my response to mean something different. I believe the census is important, so I’ve put my faith in the system and completed it as best I can, despite my misgivings. Time will tell whether I’ve made the right decision.
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Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...3 days ago - “Feel good” school is outEducation Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...3 days ago
- 6 Months in, surely our Report Card is “Ignored all warnings: recommend dismissal ASAP”?
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy. Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...4 days ago - Bread, and how it gets buttered
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...4 days ago - Bryce Edwards: Why Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating in the countryPolling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...4 days ago
- Justice for Gaza?The New York Times reports that the International Criminal Court is about to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over their genocide in Gaza: Israeli officials increasingly believe that the International Criminal Court is preparing to issue arrest warrants for senior government officials on ...4 days ago
- If there has been any fiddling with Pharmac’s funding, we can count on Paula to figure out the fis...Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...4 days ago
- FastTrackWatch – The case for the Government’s Fast Track BillBryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...4 days ago
- Bernard’s pick 'n' mix for Monday, April 29
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...4 days ago - Gordon Campbell on Iran killing its rappers, and searching for the invisible Dr. Retispan class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...4 days ago
- Auckland Rail Electrification 10 years oldYesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...4 days ago
- Coalition's dirge of austerity and uncertainty is driving the economy into a deeper recession4 days ago
- Disability Funding or Tax Cuts.
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...4 days ago - Of the Goodness of Tolkien’s Eru
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...5 days ago - 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #17A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...5 days ago
- Pastor Who Abused People, Blames People
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...5 days ago - Vic Uni shows how under threat free speech isThe new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...5 days ago
- Winston remembers Gettysburg.
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...5 days ago - 25
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...5 days ago - Fact Brief – Is Antarctica gaining land ice?Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...6 days ago
- Policing protests.Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading ...6 days ago
- Release: National gaslights women fighting for equal pay
National has scrapped the pay equity taskforce that fights for equal pay for women and looks at ethnic pay gaps. ...22 hours ago - Release: More job cuts, fewer houses under NationalThe Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...23 hours ago
- Release: Children fall deeper through the cracks in Govt cutsWith Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...1 day ago
- Release: Labour honours memory of Sir Robert MartinThe Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...1 day ago
- Release: 130,000 cattle saved from live exportLabour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...2 days ago
- Central Bank makes clear Government is pouring fuel on housing crisis fire
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...2 days ago - New unemployment figures paint bleak pictureThe Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...2 days ago
- Release: National’s job cuts already starting to bite as unemployment risesUnemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...2 days ago
- Release: National hiking transport costs for families and young New ZealandersWeekly expenses will grow for more than 1.6 million New Zealanders as the Government ends free and half price public transport fares tomorrow. ...3 days ago
- Release: Labour welcomes EU free trade agreementThe New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...3 days ago
- Surprise: Landlord tax cuts don’t trickle downThe Green Party is renewing its call for rent controls following reports of rental prices hitting an all-time high. ...3 days ago
- Release: $1.7b for no increase in access to medicineThe National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...3 days ago
- Release: National should heed Tribunal warning and scrap coalition commitment with ACTThis afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...4 days ago
- Release: More accountability for preventable workplace deaths this Workers’ Memorial DayLabour is calling for more accountability for preventable workplace deaths because everybody who goes to work deserves to come home safely. ...4 days ago
- Gaza: Aotearoa Must Support Independent Investigation into Mass GravesTe Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...1 week ago
- Release: Working together on consistent support for veterans this Anzac DayOur two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...1 week ago
- Release: Penny drops – but what about Seymour and Peters?Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...1 week ago
- Another ‘Stolen Generation’ enabled by court ruling on Waitangi Tribunal summonsTonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...1 week ago
- Release: Budget blunder shows Nicola Willis could cut recovery fundingIt appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...1 week ago
- Further environmental mismanagement on the cardsThe Government’s resource management reforms will add to the heavy and ever-growing burden this Government is loading on to our environment. ...1 week ago
- Release: RMA changes will be a disaster for environmentThe Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...1 week ago
- Release: Labour supports urgent changes to emergency management systemLabour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...1 week ago
- Release: Labour calls for New Zealand to recognise PalestineThe Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Three strikes law political posturing of worst kindThe Government is bringing back a law that has little evidential backing just to look tough, Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Government cuts unbelievably target child exploitation, violent extremism, ports and airpor...Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...2 weeks ago
- Three strikes has failed before and will fail againResurrecting the archaic three-strikes legislation is an unwelcome return to a failed American-style approach to justice. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Environmental protection vital, not ‘onerous’The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...2 weeks ago
- Ferris – Three Strikes targets those ‘too brown to be white’The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Govt cuts doctors and nurses in hiring freezeCuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...2 weeks ago
- Fast-track submissions period must be extendedThe Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Progress on climate will be undone by GovtNew Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Dark day for Kiwi kids as a third of Govt cuts affect themNews that 1000 jobs at the Ministry of Education and Oranga Tamariki could go is devastating for future generations of New Zealanders. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Alarm as Government signals further blow to school lunchesMore essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...2 weeks ago
- Oranga Tamariki cuts commit tamariki to state abuseTe Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Quick, submit – stop Govt’s dodgy approvals billThe Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...2 weeks ago
- Government throws coal on the climate crisis fireThe Government’s policy announced today to ease consenting for coal mining will have a lasting impact across generations. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Public transport costs to double as National looks at unaffordable roading project insteadCancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...3 weeks ago
- Release: Cost of living in Auckland still not a priorityA laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...3 weeks ago
- Te Pāti Māori to visit Queensland to strengthen ties with Māori in AustraliaTe Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...3 weeks ago
- Decision allows for housing growth in Western Bay of Plenty
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...3 hours ago - Speech to New Zealand China CouncilThank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...6 hours ago
- Modern insurance law will protect Kiwi householdsThe Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...22 hours ago
- Government recommits to equal payThe coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...1 day ago
- Transforming how our children learn to readStructured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...1 day ago
- NZ not backing down in Canada dairy disputeTrade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...1 day ago
- Stronger oversight for our most vulnerable childrenThe rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...1 day ago
- Streamlining Building Consent ChangesThe Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...1 day ago
- Minister acknowledges passing of Sir Robert Martin (KNZM)New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...2 days ago
- Speech to New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, Parliament – Annual Lecture: Challenges ...Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...2 days ago
- Accelerating airport security linesFrom today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...2 days ago
- Community hui to talk about kina barrensPeople with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...2 days ago
- Kiwi exporters win as NZ-EU FTA enters into forceKiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...2 days ago
- Mining resurgence a welcome signThere are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...2 days ago
- Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill passes first readingThe return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...3 days ago
- Government to boost public EV charging networkEnergy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...3 days ago
- Residential Property Managers Bill to not progressThe coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...3 days ago
- Independent review into disability support servicesThe Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...3 days ago
- Justice Minister updates UN on law & order planJustice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...3 days ago
- Ending emergency housing motels in RotoruaThe Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...3 days ago
- Trade Minister travels to Riyadh, OECD, and DubaiTrade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...4 days ago
- Education priorities focused on lifting achievementEducation Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...4 days ago
- NZTA App first step towards digital driver licenceThe new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...4 days ago
- Supporting whānau out of emergency housingWhānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...4 days ago
- Tribute to Dave O'SullivanRacing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...4 days ago
- Speech – Eid al-FitrAssalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...4 days ago
- Government saves access to medicinesAssociate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...4 days ago
- Pharmac Chair appointedHon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...5 days ago
- Taking action on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum DisorderHundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...6 days ago
- New sports complex opens in KaikoheRegional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...6 days ago
- Diplomacy needed more than everForeign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...6 days ago
- Anzac Commemorative Address, Buttes New British Cemetery BelgiumAmbassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...1 week ago
- Anzac Commemorative Address – NZ National Service, Chunuk BairDistinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...1 week ago
- Anzac Commemorative Address – Dawn Service, Gallipoli, TürkiyeMai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...1 week ago
- PM announces changes to portfoliosPaul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...1 week ago
- New catch limits for unique fishery areasRecreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...1 week ago
- Minister welcomes hydrogen milestoneEnergy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...1 week ago
- Urgent changes to system through first RMA Amendment BillThe coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...1 week ago
- Overseas decommissioning models consideredOverseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...1 week ago
- Release of North Island Severe Weather Event InquiryEmergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...1 week ago
- Access to documents about Australia’s political history is fraught and inadequate. It needs to cha...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...49 mins ago - Greens have 'historically bad' start to the year – political scientist
The party has had faced a challenging set of circumstances over the past five months, Lara Greaves says. ...1 hour ago - HWPL Calls For Peace Amid Rising Tensions Between Israel And Iran
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...1 hour ago - The Friday Poem: ‘Mātou’ by Tessa Keenan
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...2 hours ago - The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending May 3The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25) The masterful Irish writer ...2 hours ago
- Marriages, Civil Unions, And Divorces: Year Ended Dec 2023Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...2 hours ago
- Marriages, Civil Unions, And Divorces: Year Ended December 2023Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...2 hours ago
- How effective are domestic violence advertising campaigns for preventing violence against women?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Waller, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney shutterstock Cristina RasoBoluda/Shutterstock Domestic violence is a significant personal, community and social issue attracting much attention. After several recent horrific cases, media discussion, calls for a royal commission to end the violence and ...2 hours ago
- Taiwan is experiencing millions of cyberattacks every day. The world should be paying attentionSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...2 hours ago
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I left it blank.
I put a note that reliable information for NZ planning purposes such as education, health can not come from the results of such a question.
I wish I had added Visubversa's comnent on here that the question should have been put in the area of beliefs such as religion.
Or added some thing like cat gender, luna gender, flower gender
I saw the SUFW ideas too late.
https://www.speakupforwomen.nz/post/so-you-don-t-want-to-fill-in-the-census
I am aware I will have a gender assigned to me.
We are likely to get a result commensurate with garbage in and garbage out.
Sorry Guest Post but I saw the question as a simple question . How do I see myself?
Male or Female or Other. Tick. End of story.
To over think the question invites a wormhole entry. Just my view of course.
Not showing post on mobile
ah, will let Lynn know, thanks for the headsup. Can you see it on the desktop version on your mobile?
Yip
I can't see on mobile either, even in desktop mode. Ta.
Women having no gender ID will be news to those organisations consisting entirely of women that fought for gender equality.
you seem to be conflating gender identity and sex. Please clarify what you mean by 'gender identity', and what you mean by 'gender equality'.
The latter to me sounds like you are using gender as a synonym for sex and women who fought for women's (sex based) rights. Women didn't right for the right to be treated as stereotypes.
No. Women's organisations literally talked about gender equality. This is a fact of history. At the time women identified as the female gender.
The US Civil Rights Act 1964 refers to sex.
But after the book The Feminine Mystique and then the founding of NOW by the writer in 1966 – in 1967, Lyndon Johnson's executive order on the affirmative action hiring of employees by federal government – referred to gender.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_women_in_the_United_States
I don't know how old you are, but you have been in the gender/sex debate long enough to know this: gender is a word that historically has been used to mean sex. In the last decade it's become used to mean gender identity. Gender/sex and gender/gender identity are two different things.
This was even mentioned in the post.
Did you read the post?
It's not that simple.
Our passports and drivers licences have on them
gender m/f/x
do they not?
And people put on it their birth sex, or if not "cisgender", something otherwise (because National in 2009 passed legislation enabling this).
So it's an all in one meaning, is it not?
The idea that people born female, and who clearly believe that no one but a person born female can be a woman, are not themselves female by gender is a logical absurdity. And that is cult-like.
[please explain clearly what you mean by the word ‘gender’. I asked you above, now I’m insisting, for the clarity of the debate – weka]
NZ institutions and laws have also used gender to mean sex. This predates gender identity.
You'll have to rephrase that word salad, because I can't make any sense of it. Whose idea is that?
mod note.
That's because, almost 60 years ago, they were using gender to have a different meaning then it has today. People separated into groups by sex or gender gave identical groupings but sex was related to their physical being while gender related to their social/political being. It was a way of framing the context of the discussion.
Sure, which is why I posted 4 – it would be news to women of that time that they had no female gender identity.
But I would bet the writer has on her DL and passport – gender female.
can you please give some examples from 60 years ago so we know what you are referring to?
Wikipedia has a nice page on how gender evolved from it's meaning as terminology in describing language to it's use in academia to talk about the socio-political roles of women rather than the use of sex, as in the science/medical sphere, where it's about the biological nature of women. It's a more recent to talk about gender and sex being different ways of grouping people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender
I'll get grief but I didn't do my census this year because of the sexuality question.
If the government wants to know I'm gay they can ask me on Grindr.
But seriously, I'm openly gay but I felt disgusted that the government would ask me this question.
The human rights act says I don't have to tell any government agency what my sexuality was and I'm unwilling to give up that right just so the media can say x number of kiwis aren't straight.
For those who say the question is for funding programs to help LGBT+ people, I say so what?
Im in my 20s, I've used some of those LGBT organizations and they are some of the most toxic, dehumanizing bullying organizations I've ever been apart of full of upper middle class people who live in bubbles (and one org "accidentally" outted me while I was in high school, and I went to a very low decile high school and was bullied ruthlessly) I'd rather those organizations get less money, not more.
I wasn't willing to leave it blank either because then I'd be counted as "did not say" which LGBT+ orgs would assume was closeted and include in their stats.
I know so many people who just refused to answer for the same reasons, we didn't feel comfortable with our sexuality being asked, we didn't wanna get LGBT+ organizations more funding.
Keep the government out of the bedroom.
Does your approach mean the percentage of the population accepted to be gay will be down a smidgen?
Do you think there should there be no questions about gender?
I selected "prefer not to say", because I'm such a govt toady. Keep 'em guessing
Why do you think “government” has access to individual form records?
https://www.census.govt.nz/your-info/protecting-your-info/
It's the same misconception that the writer has – she also seems to believe that this is personal information held about them.
Misconceptions and (false) beliefs rule discourse, nowadays.
People who point this out are ignored, marginalised, ridiculed, smeared, vilified, or attacked but seldom listened to in a constructive and progressive manner.
Pundits and shock-jocks rule!
For my thoughts on SPC’s comment (5.3.1.1), please see my reply to Incognito below. My reply is comment number 11.2.2.
I just heard from a friend's female to male transtioning grandchild and he has refused to answer the gender question as well. 'What's this stuff going to tell us?' he said.
'What's this stuff going to tell us?' That's sort of funny really.
The stuff that they're going to get is going to tell them stuff. The stuff they don't get isn't going to tell them anything because they haven't got it.
I don't remember what was on the form but if there was a question asking if one was transgender and all the transgender people didn't answer that, 'they' would say "See, there are no transgender people, that there are is a myth."
Or, "We know there are transgender people but they've obviously haven't said so, so we'll take a punt. We reckon there are 61." Or if someone with a particular agenda is involved they might say there are 4, 321 or 43,210.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-does-the-census-say-there-are-more-trans-people-in-newham-than-brighton/
This article about the British census and gender question shows that Muslim and people with English as a second language have higher rates of transgenderism that people living in Brighton……
I think the English example exemplifies the garbage in garbage out concept I mentioned above.
Then for those who answered Luna gender
https://gender.fandom.com/wiki/Lunagender
How much further forward would they be……I sense nowhere in terms related to health, welfare, education, funding for anything?
Sociologists and other researchers will have lots of material to interrogate though while exploring this strange place we have got ourselves to.
An illuminating PoV on gender and gender ideology ("essentially a religion").
Up front, I (would prefer to) view 'anti-gender' and 'gender critical' as distinct PoVs, while acknowledging that there may be some overlap.
Surely most 'gender critical' people understand the concept/meaning of gender, and so would be able to answer the (census) question “What is your gender?” accurately, if they chose to do so. [Note that the 2023 NZ census did not force people to endorse the concept of gender.] Likewise 'anti-gender' people, although perhaps to a lesser extent.
Hmm; 'anti-gender (ideology)' people who accept trans people (and some rights?) may be a larger group than I imagined.
That's a good idea – then social and health planners could get a handle not only on the number of people who have a (religious?) belief that their gender identity is incongruent with their biological sex, but also what proportion of that minority population has used medical treatments to mitigate that (self-perceived) incongruency.
what do you mean by anti-gender?
It's pretty clear at this point that gender means a bunch of different and conflicting things and everyone is confused by its usage. I wrote about Kathleen Stock's explanation of the word gender and how it is used a while back,
.https://thestandard.org.nz/what-is-gender/
In fact the 2023 census allowed three options,
So technically, yes no-one was forced to say they had a gender, but there is no choice to have one's concept of not having a gender recorded. Self ID is only for some people.
Thanks for your question. The answer, given my limited and evolving understanding (as someone who is not 'anti-gender', nor a trans rights activist), is in two parts:
1. Definition of gender that makes sense to me; draws on some of Stock's definitions.
This definition is consistent with reality, and compatible with universal human rights (including rights of minorities), not to mention (at least some) gender critical PoVs.
2. "Anti-gender" then means: (a) a view that gender (as defined above) is not real, i.e. not evidence based, but rather is an imaginary set of human qualities/characteristics that cannot be perceived by any way of knowing (because they're not real.)
Also (narrower): (b) a view that specific consequences of belief(s) in gender and how it is constructed (see 1), particularly those that might undermine traditional and/or 'normal' sex-based characteristics, social roles and behaviours, are unnatural and so must be opposed and/or eradicated, as advocated by various anti-gender movements.
So I suppose that I mean more than one thing by 'anti-gender', which is hardly surprising given the range of meanings that have attached to 'gender.'
thanks for clarifying. Who would be some people that are anti-gender?
Some archetypal figures named in Wikipedia’s ‘anti-gender movements’ link, plus a couple of high-profile (US right-wing political) opportunists spring to mind:
Farida "year of the skirt" Belghoul
Jair "Trump of the Tropics" Bolsonaro
Ron "we fight the 'woke'" DeSantis
Andrzej 'the LGBT movement is "a foreign ideology"' Duda
Eva "working is a 'masculine' attribute" Herman
Donald "blood coming out of her wherever" Trump
These people are wedded to sex-based stereotypes – strict adherence to traditional gender roles is the ideal, with limited exceptions if any. Their views seem anachronistic, more in line with the Taliban than liberal democracies.
ok, but I think you are confusing things there.
If the anti-gender movements are that broad range of people organising in opposition to gender identity ideology, then there are two problems with your argument.
The wikipedia piece also is problematic because it used the term anti-trans feminist movement. If someone were making that argument here they'd be expected to provide evidence and make an actual argument, rather than starting with the a priori statement. I didn't click through though.
Thanks weka, I had previously questioned whether there was much overlap – seemed unlikely to me, and your first point reinforces this.
I'm sure you're right, and can see how my poorly-chosen link (for Trump) would be viewed as conflation. Fwiw, I'm currently clear in my own mind about the meaning(s)/definitions(s) of gender (see 8.1.1), gender identity, and (biological/genetic) sex in humans, and also clear that these words may mean different things (and possibly more than one thing) to different people. I have comments on TS to thank for this clarity.
As to the idea that there are anti-trans feminists, I don't think that there's much doubt that some trans people and trans activists hold that PoV. Certainly hope that it's (still) possible to find, if not common ground then at least a little middle ground as the culture wars grind on.
I liked the relatively brief period of time when feminists were using 'gender' for the stereotypes a society applies to the sexes. That was actually a useful distinction, in that it gave you a handy way to distinguish between differences that were a result of biological differences between male and female, and differences that were social inventions (eg "men don't breastfeed" vs "men don't cry"). There was plenty of room for dispute about the extent to which particular behaviours are social rather than evolved, but it was still a handy distinction.
Thanks to the postmodernists, 'gender' now mostly serves to try and obfuscate sex, hence the confusion described in the OP about what Stats NZ is asking and what it's trying to achieve. The circular definitions Stats NZ offers for its gender terminology are par for the course in govt depts now.
Well look at the goon that is the Minister responsible ( stats nz )…no surprises there
Agree with this
The confusion is also evident when the PM cannot answer 'What is a woman'. It has become a name that shall not be mentioned, or where the meaning will be erased altogether.
Perhaps there should have been two questions – what sex do you think you are and what sex do others think you are. Seriously, each census that comes out outdoes it's predecessor in b.s. ness. A road of old cobras, as a now deceased British comedian used to say.
You can think you are anything you like, but the truth about your sex is in almost every cell in your body. One drop of blood tells the truth, one smear of saliva, one hair bulb. They have done so since your conception and will do so until you death, and even after. The truth is in your bones, and even in your cremains.
Your phony, made up "gender identity" (Moongender anyone?) dies with you.
Human are very good at perceiving the sex of others. Especially female humans, it is a survival mechanism.
Thank you Laura for your write up.
From some reactions I take it they just thought census must mean -gender- as in sex
Not even wondering why would census ask the same question twice ? as in the census question: what sex is on my birth certificate.
Fact: NZ passport ask: Tane-Wahine/Sex
DL: has no sex on it (mine hasn't.)
SPC and Incognito: this is not about (concern of Laura for) personal information collection (if you had read it whole) its what the collection of information with confusing /can't answer questions does to data collection and its reliability (as the UK census has now shown).
This is data on which future governments make (budget) decisions.
And when you don't answer this specific question the computer programme does it for you….
One has to sign the census form at the end to confirm that one has answered it truthfully, and if you don't there is a considerable fine. I suspect it really depends how serious or not you take filling out the census.
that was the one for me. I take the census seriously and Stats were basically ensuring that people lied or Stats would lie for them.
Here you go:
It is an inaccurate statement based on a misconception. The Guest Author clearly did not do her fact-checking properly. This is not a ‘crime’, just something that can do with a clarifying correction, which is what SPC and I have attempted. SPC has gone silence, for some reason …
While it is not personal information that is the type directly covered in the Privacy Act it is personal information that is amalgamated up & down by/to mesh block into data that is often used in the formulation of govt & local authority policy and therefore the subsequent allocation of finance. At the time it gets to mesh block this personal information not assigned by name but you can get quite detailed info about age, occupation, time in NZ, ethnicity, religion etc.
https://datafinder.stats.govt.nz/layer/106729-meshblock-2022-generalised/
There are around 53,500 mesh blocks in NZ. Each mesh block contains 30-60 households.
I thought author felt, as I do, that this is a badly worded question likely to produce information that is not fit for purpose or what some call garbage. A person should have a remedy if personal information sought is misleading when sought and so is likely to mislead once it is amalgamated . A person concerned about giving one bit of information that may be wrongly construed in the making of Govt or local body policy as a whole should be commended and not chastised.
I am not expecting that you will accept with this but others may be interested in the relatively small numbers that are in a mesh block and how easily misleading questions, can become misleading answers leading to misleading data.
In times gone by WCC gave (generous) insulation subsidies around my suburb based on mesh block plus data from the property files. Sociologists/historians often work in mesh block size.
SPC did their explanations no good by seeming to conflate sex and gender which rather misses the point of what the Guest Poster was saying. SPC when asked did not define what gender was in their terms.
People also had to sign it as being correct and if it is not why should be do this. If it is then forced on one by another (ie Stats) then this is bad.
I first posted on 4 that feminists of the past had no problem recognising themselves as of the female gender. This is a simple fact.
I did so because, regardless of the "war" between the only those born female can be women group and those who seek access to women's spaces without being born female, most people have no problem with birth sex female/gender female and birth sex male/gender male and thus filled out the census form with scarce a thought to the war between two minorities going on around them.
Hi Incognito,
Thanks for raising this interesting point.
First up, a couple of points for clarity:
That said, on their website, Stats NZ makes it very clear that your responses to the census are personal information.
https://www.census.govt.nz/your-info/
The fact that they are able to provide you with your personal information is a pretty clear indicator that they hold it on file with your identity attached. As is this:
https://www.stats.govt.nz/methods/security-privacy-and-confidentiality-of-census-data
And this:
https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/how-stats-nz-looks-after-your-information
It’s thus possible that people’s identifiable census information could be released, either maliciously or accidentally (although I’m confident that this risk is very small). Stats NZ seem to acknowledge this:
https://www.stats.govt.nz/methods/security-privacy-and-confidentiality-of-census-data
Finally, Stats NZ also say:
https://www.census.govt.nz/your-info/
I read this as a polite way of saying that if you provide incorrect information in the census, or it becomes outdated, you don’t have the right to go back and correct it. This seems reasonable, since having multiple different versions of the census data floating around could cause all sorts of issues.
However, you could make a case that for Stats NZ to add unverified and/or inaccurate information into someone’s census record against their will is mishandling their information, at least from an ethical point of view.
Again, I’d emphasise that I’m not a lawyer, and my comments relate to the ethics of Stats NZ’s actions rather than their legality. However, I’d be interested to hear the views of people who do have relevant legal expertise.
👏
your comments are still getting caught in the first commenter filter (I can’t see any typos in your name or email, which would also trip the filter). I will let lprent the sysop know. It’s an occasional bug although I haven’t seen it in a long time.
Thanks weka for looking into this.
I wonder if the system is having trouble with the accent in my name. When I try to leave a comment, it defaults to:
Laura López
…as my name, and then I manually correct it. Maybe if I just left it alone it would work better? But then I'm not sure whether it would display correctly.
Thank you Laura for the original article and the clarifcation.
In some jurisdictions UK/USA after 80/100 years the census returns are made public. This is for genealogical purposes. You can find a name, click on it and see a transcript of the reply and usually see the completed forms. At the moment you can access the US 1940 census and a 1939 habitation index in the UK. Work is being done on transcribing censuses from the 1920s UK & Ireland.
US quote from
https://www.familysearch.org/1940census/
"Index and images of population schedules listing inhabitants of the United States in 1940. This was the sixteenth census conducted since 1790. There were 134 million individuals enumerated this census year. The schedules cover the 48 states as well as Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Panama Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The index is being created by FamilySearch, BrightSolid, and Inflection."
1939 Register UK
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/1939-register/
There are deletions made on this register as it was used by UK NHS and access is closed to data on individuals born less than 100 years old unless these folk have died.
NZ has never allowed (from memory) this census data to be sold. In some cases the original papers have been pulped/destroyed once the data has been collected. It does allow greater access to current electoral roll data than some jurisdictions though with current copies available at libraries for genealogists. Many Govt depts use data from electoral rolls, valuation indices in their day to day work.
My hope is that census questions will be relevant and clear. Stats seemed to have captured themselves with current trends without being especially clear on the rationale for doing this.
Once again thank you.
p.s. I still can't see my article on my phone (unless I switch from 'Mobile' to 'Desktop' view, which makes it very difficult to read). I know you asked someone to look into this yesterday. It'd be great if it could be fixed.
I've tried leaving my name as "Laura López" to see what happens.
Your name had the accent typo in it. I’ve edited it to without hte accent to see what happens on your next comment.
The mobile bug is an ongoing issue without an immediate fix I’m afraid. I’ll email Lynn when I get the chance.
Thanks weka for looking into this. A lot of people prefer to read on their smartphones these days, so The Standard is probably missing out on a fair bit of traffic due to this issue.
This time, my name defaulted to:
Laura López
I've tried entering it without the accent.
Source:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/265782/devices-of-choice-for-receiving-online-news-in-the-us/
afaik, it's a periodic known issue. Sysop fixes it as it arises. In this case, it wasn't all posts, so I'm not sure what is going on. Lprent, the sysop has been notified.
The post should be visible on the mobile version now. Please let me know if it's not on your device.
ok, it turns out the problem is with the wordpress editor when it embeds tweets. There's not short term fix for this other than to not embed the tweet. I've made a screenshot of the tweet and put that in the post and put a plain, clickable link for the tweet under it. Best I can do at this point (Lprent will find a better fix long term as he works on the site).
This matters for posts going forward too (use images of tweets and supply a link). I will have to get used to this myself because I use a lot of tweets in post 🙁
Legislation from 2009 came into effect in 2012 as the NZH reported in 2012.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/x-marks-the-spot-on-passport-for-transgender-travellers/OAH7D5ETJDSUKUTDL5C452CLGQ
https://privacy.org.nz/tools/knowledge-base/view/498
Note the use of sex/gender
PS
Te Aka Maori dictionary
Tane – husband, male, man.
Wahine – female, women, feminine.
https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan=&histLoanWords=&keywords=wahine
yes, the NZ government is conflating sex and gender and causing a lot of confusion.
According to wikipedia, the current NZ passport uses the word sex.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_passport
Allowing trans people to choose which sex marker is recorded is a social/legal fiction to make the lives of trans people easier. It doesn't mean that sex = gender, and it doesn't mean that someone literally changed sex.
The passport using the word sex after tane/wahine, and allowing people to make a gender change declaration to change this from their birth sex seems to be part of a pattern – it has been around since the 2009 legislation and into effect 2012.
The 2008 legislation (updated 2021 to allow something closer to self ID) allowed Declarations of Family Court to determine the sex to be shown on birth certificates issued for adults.
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2008/0048/latest/DLM1250720.html
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/131421129/georgina-beyer-an-outstanding-example-of-the-potential-of-humanity
"…Crown Law determined it was already included as discrimination based on sex."
An excellent illustration of "the NZ government is conflating sex and gender and causing a lot of confusion."
It also helps explain why Weka and I had someone on Twitter the other day trying to tell us men can use female-only spaces because the HRA prevents discrimination against their gender identity. The confusion is real.
Found the Crown Law advice:
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/default/files/SG%20Opinion%202%20Aug%202006.pdf
How things have changed in the last 17 years! CLO considers "discrimination" against trans-identified people in the usual terms, eg can't be dismissed from your job if you transition. The idea that expecting male adults claiming a feminine identity to keep out of female-only spaces is "discrimination" doesn't feature, presumably because people at the time would have recognised it as batshit crazy.
I did like this bit:
Funnily enough, no-one seems to mention that opinion.
The DSM does provide a way to catalogue society change in attitudes towards issues such as homosexuality and gender identity.
Homosexuality is in DSM 1 and 2, then in 3 and 4 in another form and goes entirely by DSM 5 in 2013.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_the_DSM
But in the change in categorisation of homosexuality they did this in 1980
Instead of just eliminating homosexuality they did this
Then it was on its own
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_dysphoria
I didn't sign my Census forms. I wrote a letter saying that I could not sign it because it did not permit me to tell what I believe to be the truth.
I said that as a retired Justice of the Peace with nearly 30 years service, I know that signatures on an official from mean something and that is why I had not signed it,
💜
Good on you Visubversa.
Perhaps the different ways that people have chosen to address this issue will keep Stats on their toes ie they won't be able to formulate a date extraction policy without some difficulty as different people have chosen not to answer this in different ways. Dealing with exceptions often focusses the minds of those having to do it on why are they incurring additional costs and could we do better next time.
Hopefully Stats will be able to competently review itself on the census and this won't be repeated. I live in hope.
Whatever they do it should be aimed at ensuring that Corey and my friend's transtioning grandson can clearly see the benefits of being part of the census answering community.
Having woolly questions such as the gender one, this was the one that the grandson got as far as answering before putting it to one side.
Is this Kiwiblog? Just wondering, because we are talking here about a single question on the Census as if it's a nefarious conspiracy by a far left cabal.
Rather that a simple botch of a complex issue, as demonstrated by Chippy the other day when he was asked "What is a woman?"
The wider question IMO is what is happening in society that the last 2 censuses (censii??) have had such poor response rates. That could be a fruitful avenue for statistical enquiry.
I surmise that trust in government and social cohesion have been on a downward trajectory for 40 years and now we are reaping the ugly fruit of Rogernomics. The worst affected being Māori and Pasifika communities.
Confusingly worded questions are annoying but homelessness and poverty and social dislocation are probably the main drivers. Conspiracy thinking is an understandable response to the trauma of living in deeply unequal society where the poor are routinely abused and despised
I wish it was a single botched question. It doesn’t have to be a conspiracy, it’s just the government quietly shifting from sex stars to gender as default, enforcing gender identity ideology, and upholding No Debate that undermines women’s sex based rights.
see also https://thestandard.org.nz/should-the-government-replace-sex-data-with-gender-identity-data/
yes, there are a lot of important issues. I’m not sure we can win them if we give up material reality.
roblogic,
Excuse me weka,but it’s gone weird again.
looks like you inadvertently clicked on one of the tag buttons in the comment editor.
Sorry,you can delete the orginal mess,Ta
roblogic,
Please forgive me weka. Why didn't the then minister of Stats James Shaw not fill out the census on or before the 5th of march 2017,yes I know and will try and link to a truncated news item view on RNZ. He was in the Cook Islands with the then PM,but his department where going around rest homes telling anybody who would or could listen "that the form/s could be fill anytime up to that date,as for this year as well.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018634834/statistics-minister-shaw-confident-of-census-success
Agree with Weka above. It is not a conspiracy and neither is it a 'war between two minorities going on around them.'
The Govt has much longer reach and most/many would accept unquestioningly the word or the right by the Govt to word (skew) things as they chose.
However the quote generally ascribed to Thomas Jefferson 'the price of freedom is eternal vigilance' is apt. I like to think that TS plays a role in this.
I cant remember what I amswered now. I do know that under race I entered homo sapiens sapiens. the fracturing of sexuality and politicisation in post modern life is nauseous.
Yes RP Mcmurphy you are correct.
My concern is also that the ability to use the census as a high quality tool for population based data for health, education and MSD planning is being jeopardised by ill-thought out questions that just irritate people so much that they cannot be bothered answering.
Then, despite objections, we have personal data assigned to us naughty ones by Stats. So possibly inaccurate and definetly not personal info is agglomerated by Stats from the genders they have assigned to us.