Will’s Word: Another day, another culture war bill

New Zealand First is back with another culture war bill, this time trying to legally define the word “woman” as an “adult human biological female”.

On the surface it sounds like they’re trying to bring clarity to legal terms but is it actually that simple? Or is this another move that risks splitting the country even more?

Let's not ignore the timing, this follows a similar court ruling in the United Kingdom so it feels very strategic. Winston Peters says it’s not anti-anyone but more about “facts and biology”.

Still, when you’re throwing out phrases like “cancerous social engineering” and “woke ideology”, it’s hard not to feel like it’s meant to trigger a very specific reaction. They’ve even quietly dropped their bathroom bill, remember that?

This is when they wanted to fine people for using the wrong public loo, which, to me, felt very nanny state. So instead, they’ve replaced it with this definition bill, which Peters says is more comprehensive

But comprehensive how? Does it change how people live their lives or just the way we write laws? It perhaps feels like this is less about legal clarity and more about drawing a line in the sand.

Maybe some people do want that line drawn, but every time we go down this route of “us vs them”, whether it’s about gender, race or identity, it seems to pull us further apart.

Are we creating laws to solve real-world problems or just to whip up a cultural war? Social cohesion in this country is very fractured. You only need to turn your attention to the recent Treaty Principles Bills debate.

Why are we even entertaining a bill like this? Maybe there’s a conversation to be had about whether we define gender in law or not but just not now - perhaps we don’t even need to be having this conversation.

I’m on the fence about this, I’m not going one way or another, all I’m saying is why do we keep putting time and energy, particularly this coalition Government, into culture war-type policies?

We need to shift our attention away from it because it’s causing more harm than good, and fragments of our society are feeling harmed.

I perhaps come back to this libertarian worldview of mine where I just think we should all get along. You should be able to live your life however you want, as long as you're a law-abiding citizen and if you’re not, then one, you either seek help or rehabilitation, or two, you go spend some time locked away.

That’s my simple worldview, what’s yours?

That’s Will’s Word.