Mana Wāhine Kōrero was told last week that their 12 September submission to the Petitions Committee in relation to the Midwifery Scope of Practice will not be publicly available. No explanation was given.

Mana Wāhine Kōrero Co-founder Dianne Landy says they have lodged an Official Information Act request as to why their submission has not been made available, but they have yet to hear back.

Meantime, it appears this may be because self-appointed hate speech warrior Paul Thistoll has complained to the Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee about what he called “threatening behaviour” by two of the submitters.

In a post on X where he shared his letter of complaint, Thistoll claims one of the submitters wore a t-shirt with the slogan “Wāhine = Adult Human Female” in the precincts of Parliament. Wearing this t-shirt, he says in his complaint, “is designed to be intimidating and threatening to transgender people when worn in the corridor”.

Thistoll says he spoke to a former MP who was aghast. Thistoll claims that the former MP says people have been asked to take the t-shirt off when worn in the Parliamentary precinct, or they have been asked to leave.

Women’s Rights Party Co-leader Jill Ovens says the complaint is laughable.

“I sincerely hope that women were wearing something other than a bra when asked to take their t-shirts off in the corridors of power!”

On a more serious note, Ms Ovens says the complaint is an example of the misogyny of the trans lobby, which goes out of its way to shut down women’s expression, in this case both women’s choice of clothing and women’s voices.

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“Citizens have the right to present their submissions to Select Committees. As these are publicly recorded, it is expected that the video recordings will be made publicly available, at the very least to the citizens who made the submissions.”

Ms Ovens says it is not the job of Parliamentary Committees to censor some submissions, while releasing others. She notes that video recordings have been released of the other submitters, including the Midwifery Council representatives defending their erasure of women from the midwifery role.

The Women’s Rights Party stands by Mana Wāhine Kōrero in their right to make their submission publicly available.

Ms Ovens questions the government’s commitment to democracy, saying that the Health Committee has also tried to dissuade the Women’s Rights Party from presenting oral submissions on the “Improving Arrangements for Surrogacy Bill”.

The Women’s Rights Party sent in their detailed and considered submission the day before the deadline at midnight on Wednesday, 18 September. The following day, the Party received an email saying that although it had requested the opportunity to make an oral submission, this was not a requirement.

“If you would still like an oral submission, the Health Committee is scheduled to hold hearings on Wednesday, 25 September. Would you be available for a 10-minute timeslot between 1.20pm – 1.50pm?” the Health Committee wrote.

“There is limited time on this date for the committee to hear from submitters, so please let us know by 3.30pm on Friday, 20 September.”

Ms Ovens says she responded on the Friday soon after the 3.30pm deadline, and early on the Monday, she was told all the time slots were full.

“I’ve never known Select Committees to have such tight timelines for oral submissions. I fear that this government doesn’t really want to hear from those whose views don’t align with theirs.”

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