Supporting priority populations and reducing inequity

The Bill aims to stop conversion practices in Aotearoa which seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. It creates two new criminal offences to deter conversion practices and utilises the Human Rights Commission’s existing functions to provide a civil redress scheme for conversion practices.  

This submission is to the Governance and Administration Committee on the Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) on the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration Bill. The SOP would enable people to self-identify their sex on their birth certificate by making a statutory declaration, similar to the current processes for changing sex on drivers’ licenses and passports.

Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission is examining the protections in the Human Rights Act 1993 (the Act) for people who are transgender, people who are non-binary and people who have an innate variation of sex characteristics (intersex). The Act protects the right to freedom from discrimination — for example, when accessing education, employment, housing, and goods and services. Our submission outlines MHF's overall support for the intention of the review. We highlight that further human rights protections is an important legal tool for those who are part of these communities, given they face greater discrimination than the general population, and therefore experience worse mental health and wellbeing outcomes. The Commission intends to publish its final report in mid-2025.

The MHF supports:
- the Commission's recommendation for changes to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination in section 21 of the Act, to clarify that being transgender, non-binary, or having an innate variation of sex characteristics are covered;
- the Commission’s preliminary conclusion that NZ laws should protect people from discrimination that is linked to the fact (or the discriminator’s belief) they are transgender or non-binary or they have an innate variation of sex characteristics;
- adding new symmetrical grounds to the Act that will enhance protections for these communities. 

The MHF does not support imposing additional and targeted restrictions on the prescribing of puberty blockers for transgender and gender-diverse young people in the absence of clear evidence for doing so. We are concerned that this would likely further exacerbate the already profound discrimination and mental health challenges faced by this group. We support preserving the current prescribing framework, while actively working toward improving access and care for these young people. We recommend the Ministry prioritise the views of trans youth, their whānau and support networks, and clinicians with the appropriate expertise as it shapes equitable health policy and research.

The Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand supports equitable access to assessment and support for ADHD and other neurodevelopmental disorders. We support the submission of ADHD New Zealand on this proposal, including their recommendations for making the prescribing model for ADHD as effective as possible.

The MHF's petition, launched in October 2025, calls on the Minister for Mental Health to take urgent action on child and youth mental health. As of 12 December, we have received over 14,000 signatures of support for this petition, from a range of concerned New Zealanders. The petition will remain open into early 2026. This letter invites the Minister to formally respond to our petition's request for urgent action and reaffirms our commitment to engage with the public on this issue until we are satisfied an adequate response is forthcoming.

On 20 May, 2024, we sent an open letter to the Minister of Education, Erica Stanford, opposing the Government’s plans to remove and replace current relationships and sexuality education (RSE) guidelines. 

This open letter was created with the support of 40 mental health, education and rainbow organisations, and additionally signed online by a further 135 schools, organisations and community groups and 4,105 individuals.

On 19 February 2026 the Minister for Mental Health, Hon. Matt Doocey, received a joint letter and petition signed by 19,615 New Zealanders. Together, we called on the Government to take urgent action to address poor child and youth mental health rates.

The petition urges both immediate, and long-term steps to ensure that young New Zealanders can access the timely, effective mental health supports they need — and deserve.  

For too long, young people have had the highest rates of mental health challenges in the country, yet waited the longest for support. This collective action reflects a growing, nationwide demand for meaningful change. 

The Mental Health Foundation is pleased that Health and Physical Education is being retained as a learning area in the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum. 

However, despite being a core part of learning for over three decades, mental health and wellbeing are barely mentioned in the draft curriculum, and the fate of the existing mental health guidelines is uncertain.

Compared to previous Health and Physical Education curricula, the draft new curriculum also removes a lot of content and conceptual grounding considered best practice in mental health education and relationships and sexuality education (RSE), and there is now much less emphasis on rainbow and cultural inclusivity.

Ideally, we would like to see the knowledge and practices in the new curriculum aligned with the 2022 mental health education guide, which is holistic, inclusive and addresses community and societal factors that affect our mental health and wellbeing. 

At a minimum, we recommend naming mental health and wellbeing as a core concept of Health and Physical Education and acknowledging this in the purpose statement, introduction and the teaching sequence.