Tips for writing a submission to a Parliamentary Select Committee. Structure your submission as follows.
Submission on the …….. Policy (or Bill) To the ……….. committee Date.
Personal Details. a) This is a submission from ……..(name of person, group, or organisation, address, and post code). b) Details about yourself, or your organisation, it’s purpose, membership, structure, other relevant details as to your/your group’s experience in this area, and people involved in writing the submission. c) We can be contacted at (contact details).
Submission a) We support/oppose the intent of this bill because …… b) Community experience – this is your chance to capture hearts, so don’t just give facts, include personal stories. c) Recommendations – list the specific recommendations which you, your group, or your organisation wants the committee to take into consideration.
We wish/do not wish to make an oral submission before the committee.
Committees may have dozens or even hundreds of submissions to get through – they may prefer to read just a couple of pages (around 800 words). Again, if you keep it short and to the point you will make more of an impact. In saying that, longer submissions are also read, and if you have a lot to say that’s completely acceptable as long as you stay on topic.
You could think about what your headlines would be, and then write under them. This can help to keep things structured and on point.
It is important to note that if you intend to give an oral submission, you are only allowed to talk about the things you have mentioned in your submission – so for example you might want to mention healthcare access rather than surgery access, which gives you more scope for elaboration.
Submissions are either entered online, or 2 hard copies are required if submitted by post. These must be received by the committee secretariat before the closing date.
Find out more about how a Bill becomes a law below.
Gender Minorities Aotearoa is offering a free online course, designed to increase your knowledge of historic and contemporary issues regarding feminism and transgender people, and to improve your transgender inclusive intersectional feminist praxis. It is designed for people who are relatively fluent in feminism, and already have a 101 understanding of transgender issues.
It was developed through an intersectional feminist lens, by a transgender team that included transfeminine, transmasculine, non-binary, indigenous Māori, neurodiverse, disabled, and working class representation.
This course takes around 60 minutes to complete, and is broken into 5 sessions. You can stop at any time and continue later by logging in again. Some chapters have additional reading materials linked – these are not included in the time allocation.
By the end of chapter 1. you will be able to:
1. Differentiate between gender, sex characteristics, and sex assigned at birth.
2. Talk about impact of colonisation on understandings of sex and gender.
By the end of chapter 2. you will be able to:
1. Understand the impact of eurocentric heteropatriarchal sexology on transgender narratives.
2. Understand the history of enforced heteronormative sexuality in trans healthcare.
3. Recognise the sexualisation of transgender women through medicalisation and pathologisation.
4. Recognise the abusive nature of enforcing an arbitrary gender without an infants consent.
By the end of chapter 3. you will be able to:
1. Recognise the repression of transgender people in Nazi Germany.
2. Recognise similarities between historic fascism and contemporary repressive regimes.
3. Identify psudo-feminist and fundamentalist religious right alliances.
4. Understand the history of Radical Feminism and inclusivity in relation to transgender women.
5. Talk about why the term “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism” or “TERF” was developed.
6. Identify impacts of TERF campaigns on public policy.
7. Discuss various online and offline tactics of TERF campaigners, and the impacts of these.
8. Identify reasoning behind the framing of anti-trans propaganda as “transgender debate”.
By the end of chapter 4. you will be able to:
1. Recognise key components of transmisogyny.
2. Talk about the transmisogynist double bind.
3. Identify the stereotypes behind transmisogynist prejudice.
4. Discuss why theories of “male socialisation” are inaccurate.
By the end of chapter 5. you will be able to:
1. Identify examples of transgender intersectional feminist praxis.
2. Recognise the exclusion of transgender narratives from contemporary feminist discourses.
3. Identify a Black lesbian feminist separatist position on biological essentialism.
4. Discuss key strategies for an intersectional feminist praxis of transgender inclusivity.
5. Identify areas of transgender marginalisation to address in gendered oppression discourse.
6. Identify key concepts in creating trans-inclusive gendered spaces.
7. Discuss core concepts in building safer spaces or diversity and inclusion policies.
Content Warning: this course discusses transgender histories, including forced surgeries, childhood sexual assault, concentration camps, the death penalty, and sexual violence.
Victoria University of Wellington Women’s Collective is holding a free event for Women’s Week, and has invited GMA to give a 60 minute lecture “Trans Perspectives on Feminism”. Nau mai haere mai, everyone is welcome.
We’ll be starting at 12 noon on Friday May 7, 2021, at Victoria University’s Te Aro campus, 139 Vivian Street Wellington, room VS318 – ask at reception if you can’t find us. The venue is mobility accessible.
Not a “trans allyship 101”, we’ll be starting by setting the record straight on sex and gender, then delving into the histories of social justice issues surrounding transgender women, men of medicine and the social construction of transgender narratives, the far right and trans-exclusionary radical feminism, the transmisogynist double bind, and pragmatic aspirations for intersectional feminism.
Content Warning: this presentation discusses transgender histories, including forced surgeries, childhood sexual assault, concentration camps, the death penalty, and sexual violence.
Our lecture is available here as a free online course, with additional reading links.
Join Gender Minorities Aotearoa’s Youth Team as we celebrate Trans Awareness Week with a gala and host the Wellington launch of Counting Ourselves.
Filled with food, fun, and stalls featuring everything from handmade goods to zines to trans flag bunting, this event at the Newtown Community and Cultural Centre is family friendly and mobility accessible. Entry is FREE but donations are welcome.
Come along to have a good time and celebrate Wellington’s trans community.
The anti-trans campaign group ‘Speak up for Women’ is holding an event at Massey University, which promotes and advocates for the removal of human rights and legal protections from trans people. Trans people are a severely stigmatised, disadvantaged, and discriminated against population, that experiences some of the highest rates of violence including sexual violence in Aotearoa NZ. This is unacceptable.
Massey University is Rainbow Tick certified. This achievement confirms our commitment to the Rainbow community, and to provide a safe and inclusive environment for its members.
All staff and students need to feel comfortable being their whole-self, and to work and study without fear of harassment or discrimination. We’re committed to equal opportunities for all, regardless of your:
gender identity
marital status
religious belief
colour
race
ethnic or national origin
disability
age
political opinion
employment or family status
sexual orientation.
Hosting a known anti-trans extremist group is in direct opposition to this commitment.
.
The activism of Speak up for Women is entirely based on removal of human rights for trans people, who suffer from extremely high rates of stigma, sexual violence, and discrimination across housing, healthcare, education, employment, access to goods and services, and all other areas of public life. This stigma, discrimination, and harassment results in minority stress and suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and deaths, at greatly elevated levels compared with the general population [Counting Ourselves, 2019].
.
Massey University must take action to prevent harm toward trans students, staff members, and members of society.
.
This week the High Court backed the Auckland Council’s decision to cancel a booking for far-right speakers Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux, with Auckland Mayor Phil Goff saying that the right to free speech did not include the right to a platform, and that “These individuals who want to incite hatred against others are, in my view, not welcome here.”
.
Rainbow Tick Acting President Martin King said Massey University’s Rainbow Tick status would likely be reviewed if it allowed the anti-trans conference to go ahead.
.
Massey Wellington Students Association is calling for the event to be cancelled. It has penned a petition, saying ”By providing a platform for a hate group to speak on our campus, Massey University is putting ‘freedom of speech’ over the safety of its staff and students. This petition has gained over 1,300 signatures in just 5 hours. You can sign the petition here.
