Submission on Consultation on the Draft Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) Framework

Thank you for the opportunity to make a written submission into the Consultation on the Draft Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) Framework.

The Women’s Rights Party is a registered political party focused on issues that directly impact girls and children, as well as ensuring that women’s sex-based rights are upheld.

The Women’s Rights Party policy on Educating our Young People called for the Ministry of Education’s Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) Guidelines to be replaced with guidelines that recognise the reality of biological sex and to remove references to the imprecise concept of “gender”.¹

Thus, we welcomed the removal of the previous RSE guidelines earlier this year and the focus on developing an RSE framework that will sit within health and education learning, and will be based on knowledge and scientific reality, as opposed to beliefs, including beliefs that people can change their sex, or that there are more than two sexes.

We support the Resist Gender Education position that the proposed RSE Framework is a vast improvement on the RSE guide. In their substack commentary titled “Proceed with caution”, Resist Gender Education highlighted the following improvements:

• There is no mention at all of gender identity.
• There is no more coercion to have ‘gender identities’ “visible in resources” or students to be “addressed by their preferred name and pronouns.”
• The topics are listed under year levels, rather than Ministry curriculum levels, making it much easier for parents to know what is to be covered for their child’s age group.
• The reality of the sex binary is reinforced in factual language; “male and female bodies have reproductive systems that work together during fertilisation” and “Females have ovaries, a uterus, and a vagina to make eggs and grow a baby. Males have testicles and a penis to make and deliver sperm.”
• That there is a wide range of views around sexuality is recognised: “people have views that are influenced by culture, religious beliefs, and family values. These views may inform the personal choices they make about relationships and sexual behaviour. This can include discussions about choosing not to have sex.”

The education of our children is vitally important to our members, as is the protection of parental rights, for example to know what is being taught in schools and to be able to take their children out of any part of sexuality education.

We are concerned at the influence of outside agencies with an agenda to promote “gender ideology” producing resources that would undermine the new RSE framework. We warn that there could be resources supplied by outside agencies hanging around in teachers’ resource rooms.

Principals should ensure such materials are removed and destroyed. Our Policy Platform states that: “Schools should provide full disclosure to parents and caregivers of what is being taught in the relationships and sexuality curriculum. Schools should not use resources that conflate the words, ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ or confuse sexual orientation and gender. Outside agencies such as Inside Out and Qtopia should not be providing resources or instruction in schools, especially if the teacher is not present.”

A number of members contributed to our submission on the consultation, with debate around what is meant by “consent”, given that sexual activity with anyone under 16 years of age is illegal² and therefore, children under this age are not capable of consenting to sex.

The topic of consent in relation to sexual activity is proposed to be covered in Year 10 (14-15 year olds). Given these teenagers are under the age of consent to sexual activity, we think there needs to be a strong emphasis that underage sex is against the law and that sexual activity is a choice to be made only by those aged over 16.

As Resist Gender Education says: “The reasons for the legal age of consent to sexual contact need to be clearly communicated as well as the fact that not everyone chooses to be sexually active, nor does any person have a right to demand or coerce others into having sex.”

The focus for younger teenagers should be on students developing healthy relationships and being confident enough to prioritise their own safety (and we would add, that of their friends).

In addition to the legal age of consent in New Zealand meaning that teenagers cannot legally consent to sex unless they are aged 16 or older, no one can legally consent to having sex while they are impaired (if they are drunk or high, for example). It needs to be emphasised that sex without consent is rape.

This is a serious crime.

Laws relating to sexual assault and rape are included in the proposed Year 9 (13-14 year olds) curriculum. We think this may be more appropriate in Year 11 (15-16 year olds) when factors affecting the ability to give consent such as alcohol are to be considered.

Women’s Rights Party members have been particularly concerned that information about relationships and sexuality is to be appropriate to the age of the child, bearing in mind that “age appropriateness” is subjective and will differ amongst parents.

We appreciate that healthy relationships in primary school is to be framed in terms of recognising children’s own feelings and those of others, e.g. “how to be a good friend” (Year 1, 5-6 year olds) and dealing “with tricky or upsetting situations like problems that can happen in playing with others” (Year 2, 6-7 year olds). Year 1 students are to be taught to respond safely to adults, both known and unknown. “For example, if an adult you don’t know asks you to go somewhere, always say no and tell a trusted adult.”

This is good advice.

However, in Year 2, saying yes or no to a request from others is not only giving consent. It is also refusing consent. This is an important distinction as it puts the emphasis on children saying no, rather than the other way round.

Consent education at a younger age is about boundaries- and is primarily about the right to say ” No”.  Children need to learn that they have the right to say “no”, especially when it concerns their own bodies.  If children do not learn to have a sense of bodily autonomy, and their right to control their own bodies, their right to say ” no” to adults (and to other children), and their right to resist social pressures, then
they will be more vulnerable to sexual abuse, as they won’t have the confidence or even permission to say “no”.

It is important to also teach children how to respond if someone rejects their requests. It is really important for children to learn how to handle it if someone says “no” as well, like a parent saying no to lollies in the supermarket checkout, or no as they run ahead into the supermarket carpark. Children also need to learn to respect other people’s boundaries. Examples in the framework include asking permission to play with someone’s scooter, or respecting a friend’s personal space. Such topics start in Year 1 and are built on in subsequent years, which we support.

We think talking about “safe and unsafe secrets” in Year 2 should be prefaced by “keeping ourselves safe” to build on the topic first introduced in Year 1 in the context of a surprise birthday party (a “safe secret”) or someone being hurt and not telling a trusted adult (an “unsafe secret”). Children need to know it is not wrong to share secrets that are unsafe with Mum or Dad.

Primary school children do not need to know about sex, except the use of correct anatomical language from Year 1 and the fact that there are two sexes, i.e. females
and males.

We note that in Year 6, children are to be taught that “most people have either a male or female body”. No, everyone has a male or female body. Intersex are very rare medical conditions and are not a topic that needs to be in the compulsory RSE.

Again, in Year 10, the statement that “Sometimes people have a mixture (of chromosomes, hormones and anatomy) and the term for this is ‘Intersex’.” This reinforces falsehoods about sex not being binary. It is also a complex and sensitive issue that could be more appropriate at Years 12 and 13 when reproductive health conditions are to be discussed.

We think talk of “sexual or romantic attraction” in Year 7 is too soon. It is probably more appropriate at Year 9 (13-14 year olds), reflecting the reality that many teenagers do start to be interested in sex at this age, and that their bodies are developing. This goes along with teaching about opposite-sex and same-sex attraction which we think should be in Year 9 rather than Year 8.

However, we don’t see the point of teaching about asexuality to teenagers, unless by this is meant “abstinence” prior to a permanent relationship such as marriage, rather than an identity.

Also, note that in Year 9, the term “gender stereotypes” is used. It should be “sex-based stereotypes”.

Our Policy states that: “Children who don’t conform to sex-based stereotypes or who could grow up to be attracted to the same sex, should be supported in this. It needs to be clear that changing sex is not biologically possible.”

There is evidence that boys in particular are accessing harmful on-line material as early as 10 or 11, so we are pleased that topics such as sharing images on-line are included (can be unsafe and inappropriate, as well as illegal). This is to be covered in Years 5 and 6, and reinforced in Years 7 and 8, which we think is appropriate.

We do not agree that teaching about contraception and STIs should be introduced in Year 9 (13-14 year olds), again given the legal age of consent to sexual activity. We would suggest Year 11, but we are aware that the RSE framework is not compulsory at this level, and so some students would miss out if it is not taught in Year 10.

We note that in Year 10, the offensive term “people who menstruate” is used. This is not scientifically accurate as only females menstruate!

Topics such as menstruation and erectile function (“wet dreams”) could be taught to girls and boys separately to avoid embarrassment.

The Education Review Office reported in 2024 that girls have strong views about boys being taught how to interact respectfully with girls. Resist Gender Education notes the growing influence of pornography on adolescents, and an increase in misogynistic behaviour among boys in Years 7 and 8, including towards teachers.

We agree this is a glaring omission that needs to rectified.

Is it possible for the Ministry to get the rights to the scene in the New Zealand series “After the Party” in which Robyn Malcom, playing the role of a secondary school teacher, lectures the class on pornography, emphasising that this is not real sex? If so, we highly recommend that this be developed as a teaching resource. By Years 12 and 13, when students are young adults, more complex topics are proposed such as reproductive health conditions and societal differences.

We note that the term “gender” has slipped in here, and if by this “gender identity” is meant, then that should be taught in the context of beliefs, along with religious or cultural beliefs.

It should be noted in the context of societal norms that many cultures do not accept sex before marriage.

Finally, New Zealand’s education system currently reinforces “social transition” (changing appearance to align with stereotypes of the opposite sex (or no sex), using inappropriate pronouns, and allowing use of opposite sex toilets and changing facilities), often without parents’ knowledge.

This is wrong on so many levels. Teachers should not be supporting social transitioning in schools.

Supporting social transition is a clinical intervention that often leads to medical transitioning and affects all students.

Teachers can refer concerns about children who show signs of distress about their sex to appropriate professionals in line with the recommendations of the Cass Report, and all such discussions must involve parents³.

We agree with Resist Gender Education that school policies need to be revised. The Ministry should provide accurate guidance to schools about freedom of parents and children under the Human Rights Act and the Bill of Rights Act to hold and express their beliefs. “Gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics” are not included as prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Human Rights Act, and should not inform provision of single-sex toilets, changing rooms, sports teams, and sleeping arrangements on school camps.