A comedian with a history of supporting expert-led relationships education is supporting calls from Auckland Women’s Centre and others for the government to stop attacking a key tool for the prevention of bullying and violence credited as life-saving.

Comedian Michèle A’Court has joined with experts in education, health and violence prevention in raising concerns the government wants to replace expert-led, inclusive relationships and sexuality education (RSE) in schools with a curriculum that removes all mentions of te Tiriti o Waitangi and LGBTQI+ identities, as well as almost all overt mentions of Mātauranga Māori.

“Experts tell us these attacks on RSE will likely lead to increase family violence and sexual violence,” said A’Court. “This government is breathtakingly contemptuous of the safety of women and LGBTQI+ people, in a world of increased online and offline hate and misogyny.”

The attacks on RSE come after the government last year halted ACC sexual-violence prevention programme Hikitia! For Our Future, stopped funding women’s self-defence organisation Kia Haumaru and dismantled a key Māori expert group in violence prevention. “And after dismantling pay equity agreements, this government yet again shows disrespect for women, among other targeted groups,” said A’Court.

Auckland Women’s Centre spokesperson Leonie Morris said: “Young people have a right to enjoy safe, supportive social connections free from violence. Culturally-relevant and inclusive RSE is the nation’s key tool for preventing stalking, bullying, and violence.”

One young person who has signed the Auckland Women’s Centre’s current petition to bring back Tiriti-based, inclusive RSE noted RSE had helped enormously in “real world situations”: “a friend recognized abusive behavior purely because we spoke about it in health under the RSE stuff and I feel like it saved her life.”

Sexual violence is widespread and increasing among New Zealand teenagers, with one fifth of girls, just over one fifth of young people attracted to the same sex, and nearly one third of transgender young people being victimised in most recent data available.

“We need to be strengthening and updating RSE to better protect our rangatahi from norms that make violence against women and other targeted groups acceptable,” said Morris. “Instead, the government are disrespecting Te Tiriti o Waitangi and also literally erasing acknowledgement of lesbian, bi, gay, trans and non-binary identities. It’s like 1986 homosexual law reform never happened.

“For ideological reasons of racism, transphobia and homophobia, the government wants to replace RSE with a narrow, regressive, exclusionary, monocultural curriculum which will reduce teaching respect for differences, placing our rangatahi at higher risk of experiencing abusive behaviour.”

A’Court hosted one of the first government-funded sexual education videos in 1990, “Choice Not Chance”, about contraception. “So I’ve been passionate about this subject for a long time,” she says. “School is the right place for rangatahi to get expert information on all the things to do with sex and sexuality.”

The government’s “relationships and sex education” proposal (with “sex” replacing “sexuality” in the title) for Years 1-10 is out for consultation until 24 April.  Auckland Women’s Centre is running a petition on Action Station calling for the government to bring back Tiriti-based, inclusive Relationships and Sexuality Education in Schools.

Others such as medical specialists, and the Mental Health Foundation, Rape Prevention Education and Post Primary Teachers’ Association have previously raised concerns with the government’s plans. Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa has called the government’s proposal “regressive” and “fractured” and says it will “put young people’s safety at risk.”

Most recently, a consortium of 34 education organisations led by the primary teachers’ association, NZEI Te Riu Roa, have also criticised the government’s entire school curriculum overhaul in a joint statement.

The National-led government’s proposed replacement for Relationships & Sexuality Education (RSE) for Years 0-9 is currently out for consultation (as part of the proposed Health & PE Curriculum) until Fri 24 April 2026 – and quite frankly, it’s terrible.

The government’s proposal for Relationships & “Sex” (not Sexuality) Education is regressive, colonial, heteronormative, cis-normative, and monocultural. Their racist, transphobic and homophobic changes from the approach of the fit-for-purpose 2020 RSE guidelines will put everybody at higher risk of bullying, abuse and violence than they would be with good RSE. The proposal does not support children and rangatahi as much as it could or should, to be understanding of themselves and respectful of each other.

The good news: our young people and most of our communities are far more progressive than the current government is, and we have a chance of putting good RSE on the agenda in the medium term. We are keen for as many people as possible to let the politicians know that unnecessarily reducing RSE’s effectiveness as a tool for violence prevention is unacceptable and, that instead, we need to increase its strength as a tool for respect, health relationship norms, safe online behaviour, and self-esteem for all our young people. As with the government’s pay equity cancellations, halting of ACC sexual violence prevention intiatives and de-funding of women’s self-defence, the government’s dismantling of our key, world-leading violence prevention tool is harmful for women and their communities (ie, everyone).

(This guide will be updated as new details and resources come to hand. Last updated: 16 March 2026)

Key points:

Who is the audience?

• Send your submission directly to the Minister of Education, Erica Stanford and – importantly – cc in opposition spokespeople for education (and others who may be able to respond to the request in future), as well as your local MP (list here). You can also cc in spokespeople for prevention of family violence and sexual violence (FV/SV).
  The base list to copy and paste: erica.stanford@parliament.govt.nz, ginny.andersen@parliament.govt.nz, lawrence.xu-nan@parliament.govt.nz, debbie.ngarewa-packer@parliament.govt.nz, L.Upston@ministers.govt.nz, helen.white@parliament.govt.nz, marama.davidson@parliament.govt.nz
  • Labour Education spokesperson: Ginny Andersen
  • Greens Education spokesperson: Lawrence Xu-Nan
  • Te Pāti Māori Co-leader: Debbie Ngarewa-Packer
  • National party Prevention of FV/SV spokesperson: Louise Upston
  • Labour party Prevention of FV/SV spokesperson: Helen White
  • Greens Co-leader & Prevention of FV/SV spokesperson: Marama Davidson

• Also submit to the Ministry of Education using their online questionnaire by Fri 24 April 2026.

What do we/I say?

• You want the decision-makers to know that you care, and that education regarding relationship norms (including consent), sexual self-identity, and online behaviour affects you and/or your loved ones and/or your community as a whole.
• Say who you are
  • in relation to children and rangatahi: student, parent, teacher, aunty, community member etc.
  • if you feel comfortable and safe to do so, you might also state your ethnic, gender and sexuality identities, however you would express them. It may be useful for the reader to know of the lived experience insights and/or solidarity/ allyship that you bring with you – including if you are not part of any group usually targeted by family violence and sexual violence. (“eg, I am a straight Pākehā cis man and I am appalled that the RSE proposal will deny my sons and other people like me access to the tools to understand and respect diverse identities, while understanding and navigating our own privilege.”)
• Say RSE is important, and why you think so. For example, the Auckland Women’s Centre sees RSE as the country’s key opportunity for widespread violence prevention because it is taught to so many children and rangatahi, and it can create health and respectful relationship norms, and support personal and social wellbeing and confidence. Violence prevention is keenly important given a third of women (for example) have experienced sexual violence in Aotearoa NZ. We need a cultural shift.
• List the features RSE needs to include to meet the aims you see for it: For example, in order to be effective violence prevention, supporting healthy relationship norms, mutual respect and wellbeing online and face-to-face, RSE in Aotearoa NZ needs to:
  • Honour te Tiriti o Waitangi
  • Be inclusive of Mātauranga Māori
  • Be inclusive of all genders and sexualities
  • Be taught consistently across schools (while ensuring parents always have the right to remove their children if they wish)
  • Be evidence-based for violence prevention (eg ensure consent education is best practice, and it includes information on how to engage in healthy romantic relationships and identify those that are unhealthy or abusive)
  • Be updated regularly in a process led by experts, including Māori experts
• Write from the heart – from your experience: What can you tell the reader that they cannot see or hear from anybody else? Many of our submissions will say similar things – useful to reinforce shared messages – but it is the story or the phrase which is real experience that will help drive that message home. Eg have you seen positive behaviour which has been influenced by community norms? Have you seen negative or unsafe behaviour which you would want RSE to address and/or aim to prevent in future? What is your vision of the future – for your whānau, your friends – that RSE would help to support?

Further information

• Auckland Women’s Centre also supports the views of other aligned organisations whose information and expertise differ from ours. For example:
  • Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa has concerns about huge gaps in the curriculum regarding puberty and the body. 16 March: their new comprehensive “Let’s talk about sex ed” page is now live. (Note the govt want to replace “sexuality education” with “sex education”)
  • Backbone Collective’s submission on an earlier draft of the government’s proposal looked at whether RSE would assist children who have already been the victim of sexual abuse or other family violence.
• Look out for our more detailed submission here in mid-April – but in the meantime, the information (including in the updates at the bottom of the page) in  our RSE petition might also be useful. But it’s best to write in your own words – and from your own insights and experience.

Thank you for your care and effort in joining us on advocating for what’s best for the next generation of women and everyone!  Kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui!

“The Coalition for Action on the Safety of Women and Children… believe [Phillips’] actions stem from the inadequacies of a system that was supposed to support the safety of women and children, and we are aware that the Family Court was part of that process.”

You can read the full letter here: Letter to Chief Justice Winkelmann Sept 25

Auckland Women’s Centre is the latest in a growing number of organisations expressing serious concerns regarding the draft Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) Framework for schools.

Leonie Morris, Project Lead for the Centre’s Aotearoa Free From Stalking campaign described the draft framework as “a significant failure in supporting the diverse needs of tamariki and rangatahi in Aotearoa”, due to its erasure of trans and non-binary people, and of Māori culture and because the Centre considers that the framework’s treatment of consent is inadequate. Ms Morris called the government’s recall of the previous guidelines as “jeopardising the next generation by using their safety as a political football in an imported culture war”.

Her comments come in the wake of strong criticism of the draft framework from health and wellbeing organisations such as InsideOUT and Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa.

“RSE should reflect and affirm diverse identities, and equip students to build relationships grounded in respect, care, and equity,” says Ms. Morris. “This draft falls profoundly short of that goal.”

The draft guidelines completely omit reference to gender diversity, including the experiences of transgender and non-binary young people.

“This is a harmful act of erasure. Trans and non-binary rangatahi already face disproportionately high rates of harm. Excluding their realities not only invalidates their identities but also entrenches marginalisation within educational spaces,” said Ms Morris.

Concepts central to Māori understandings of identity and well-being are also entirely absent from the revised guidelines.

“The removal of all references to iwi Māori and te ao Māori is deeply concerning and breaches the Crown’s responsibilities to uphold te Tiriti o Waitangi,” said Ms Morris. “This exclusion strips the curriculum of cultural relevance and actively undermines equity for Māori students.”

Comprehensive information about topics such as body image, gender stereotypes, media influences, staying safe online, and pornography needs to be added, and should begin prior to young people’s ability to access the internet, said Ms Morris. “Gender stereotypes can fuel serious problems like bullying, sexism, harassment, domestic abuse, and gender-based violence. Inclusive, comprehensive RSE equips students with the tools to recognise and resist harmful behaviours early.

“Stalking often stems from distorted beliefs about relationships—beliefs that are often shaped in adolescence,” said Ms. Morris. “Effective RSE challenges myths, such as the idea that persistence equals love, and instead fosters respect, boundaries, and consent.”

Gender violence is endemic in this country – the NZ Crimes & Victims Survey shows around a third of women in Aotearoa New Zealand have experienced sexual violence, and more will have experienced other forms of intimate partner violence.

“Education is our strongest tool for violence prevention,” said Ms. Morris. “When young people are equipped with knowledge and empathy, we nurture a generation committed to respect, consent, and safety.”

Public submissions on the draft RSE Guidelines are open until 9 May via the NZ Curriculum website. For further information, people can also visit the Auckland Women’s Centre’s RSE guidelines page.

April 2025

The government is attempting to impose its extremist transphobic, racist, colonial and misogynistic views on the next generation via wholesale changes to education about relationships & sexuality. You can let them know what they’re doing is unacceptable.

The sensitive and vital curriculum area of relationships and sexuality can have enormous impact on how children & young people see themselves; keep themselves safe; and treat others around them with respect and care.  

In place of the rich, diverse and inclusive guidelines reflecting contemporary Aotearoa NZ which we have had up until now (Y0-8; Y9-13), the proposed changes create a sparse framework which presents the world solely as a monocultural gender binary, with little understanding of power, coercion and control.  

The proposed changes are counter to best practice and will put children and rangatahi of all gender identities at higher risk of harm. 

What you can do 

You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to tell decision-makers what you want(ed) to learn in school, what your friends, children or siblings need, and what your community deserves. 

1. Email the Minister of Education Erica Stanford e.stanford@ministers.govt.nz, and your local MP (firstname.lastname@parliament.govt.nz),  and let them know in your own words (strongly but politely) what you want to see in the relationship & sexuality education framework (some ideas below – for example, most simply reinstating the 2020 RSE guidelines and considering making them mandatory). 
2. Offer feedback on the changes either via the Ministry of Education feedback form or by emailing NationalCurriculum.Refresh@education.govt.nz by Friday 9 May. If you use the form, you can skip most questions if you wish – to focus on question 14 and/or question 15. For the compulsory agree/disagree questions, we suggest checking “strongly disagree”. Ministry of Education encourages use of the survey, saying “The collation of the feedback from this consultation is being managed by an external provider to ensure a robust and considered process.” But they do note “If for some reason, you are unable to access this link, or have concerns with doing so, we are able to pass on your written feedback on your behalf.” 
   
3. Tell your friends and help them to also offer feedback and emails to politicians.  

 Key ways the proposed changes would create harm 

To put in your own words: 

Trans & Non-Binary Erasure  

The draft RSE framework makes no mention at all of gender diversity, trans experiences, or non-binary identities. At its core, this is the erasure of trans and non-binary rangatahi, who, already face higher rates of harm. 

This exclusion is harmful, and we need to say so – clearly and loudly. See InsideOut’s fantastic submission guide for more detail on this and related points. For more on Auckland Women’s Centre’s support for trans rights and position on transphobia see our 2024 op-ed. 

Te Ao Māori has been scrubbed out 

The draft RSE framework strips away Te Ao Māori entirely — no references to tikanga, whakapapa, whanaungatanga, or Māori understandings of identity, relationships, and care. This isn’t just a gap — it’s an active erasure. 

For Māori rangatahi, this means being taught in a framework that doesn’t reflect a Māori worldview, whānau structures, or lived realities. For all students, it means losing the richness of mātauranga Māori and the chance to understand connection and wellbeing through a relational, collective lens. 

This is a breach of the relationship founded on Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It fails government obligations, and fails the next generation. Any and all Māori content, framework and translation should of course be guided by experts in te ao Māori. 

No other cultures in Aotearoa are mentioned by name either – in the spirit of manaaki from tangata whenua to tangata tiriti, we expect Pacific, Asian and other cultures to be mentioned and directly considered as they are in the 2020 guidelines. 

 Consent education that misses the point 

Consent isn’t just about getting a yes. It’s about understanding power, pressure, fear, silence, and safety. It’s about recognising that consent can change — that people might say yes when they’re scared, or freeze when they mean no.  

But the draft framework doesn’t reflect that. There’s only one mention of coercive control. No acknowledgement of how gender, age, or past trauma shape someone’s ability to consent. No tools for recognising red flags in real relationships. 

This kind of surface-level consent education won’t keep young people safe. Rather, it’ll keep them unprepared and unsupported — especially those already most at risk. 

No mention of stalking 

Stalking is about control. It creates fear, isolates people, and makes them feel like they have to say yes just to stay safe. No one learns how to name it, how to ask for help, or how to support someone going through it. Click here for more on our Aotearoa Free From Stalking campaign. 

Where’s the conversation about porn? 

Porn is shaping how young people understand sex, intimacy, and power — but this framework barely goes there. 

There’s no acknowledgment of how porn intersects with coercion, violence, unrealistic expectations, or body shame.  

No critical thinking tools. No unpacking of how mainstream porn often centres male pleasure and objectifies women and queer people. 

Ignoring the existence of porn doesn’t protect young people. Instead, it leaves them to figure it out alone, online, without the language or guidance to unpack what they’re seeing and what it means. Click here for a report on our 2019 forum on porn. 

 Little on gender stereotypes  

The draft framework gives gender stereotypes a quick nod, then keeps it moving. There’s no meaningful unpacking of how these norms shape young people’s lives, identities, or safety – or the unbalanced power dynamics between them. 

No understanding the system itself may be at fault  

Bullying is mentioned, but without an intersectional lens. There’s no real recognition that trans students, disabled students, Māori and Pasifika youth are at far greater risk. Not just from other students, but often more likely from teachers, systems, and curriculum content itself. 

We don’t need vague encouragements to “respect each other.”  We need relationship and sexuality education that names power, challenges injustice, and actively dismantles the harmful norms that keep getting our people hurt. 

* 

This is about rangatahi who are navigating their bodies, identities, and relationships. We’re all too often failed by silence, shame, and erasure. It’s time to speak up. 

Aotearoa deserves RSE that’s honest, inclusive, and actually useful – and we already have it in place. Schools need to be encouraged – and possibly mandated – to use the 2020 guidelines. Let the Minister and the Ministry know by Friday 9 May 2025! 

This is despite evidence that Dads taking time off paid work to spend time with their families in the first year of their child/ren’s life can:

• lead to men undertaking a greater share of childcare and domestic work in future years (depending on policy settings), as well as normalising men providing this type of work
• shrink the gender wealth gap
• empower birthing mothers to go back to work earlier if they wish.
• strengthen maternal mental health and reduce post-natal depression and anxiety for birthing mothers
• enhance father-child relationships
• enhance co-parenting relationships.

“All these benefits can help increase gender equity ” says Leonie Morris, WWTM co-manager. “Enabling and encouraging men to spend more time caring for their babies is a feminist goal.”

Read our policy paper on paid parental leave

Currently only 1.6% of those who take paid PPL in Aotearoa NZ are men. New Zealand does not ring-fence “use it or lose it” PPL for non-birthing parents at all, unlike around 75% of comparator countries (the OECD average is around 8 weeks). Internationally as well as in New Zealand, shared or ‘gender neutral’ PPL is almost always used by the birthing parent (or primary caregiving parent in adoption).

In addition, New Zealand’s weekly PPL income entitlement is extremely low, being at most 80% of minimum wage – and this has reduced from 100% of minimum wage in 2002. In contrast, around two-thirds of OECD countries pay at least 80% of previous wages as PPL. And higher weekly rates are important to enable parents who earn the majority of a family’s income to take PPL, without their family being unable to pay their bills.

“The patriarchy supports itself with a vicious cycle,” says Leonie. “Because men are still paid more than women on average, it can be harder for a Mum-Dad family to pay its bills if the Dad takes a drop in income than if the Mum does. So the system makes it more difficult for men than for women to take time off for child care, meaning women are more likely to take the income hit.”

In 2019, an intersectional feminist thinktank in Europe found that “perhaps the best example of the success of paternity leave is in Iceland”: both fathers and mothers are guaranteed three months of paid leave each, as well as an additional 3 months to divide between them at their discretion. The policy was introduced in 2000  to reduce the wage gap and increase the time a child spends with their parents; and between 2006 and at least 2017, Iceland had the fastest shrinking gender wealth gap in the world.

Last August, Minister for Workplace Relations Michael Wood promised he would oversee a review of PPL, including partners’ leave entitlements, by next summer. WWTM is calling for the Government to:

• allow co-parents to take PPL simultaneously if they wish, to reduce the risk of maternal mental distress;
• increase eligibility of non-birthing parents (currently as many as 1 in 4 Māori and Pasifika Dads in paid work miss out on even one week’s unpaid leave);
• substantially increase the weekly income entitlement maximum; and
• ring-fence a substantial number of “use it or lose it” PPL weeks for non-birthing parents – for example a further 26 PPL weeks could be added for non-birthing parents.

“Enabling and encouraging more Dads to spend time with their families would be a hard-working policy for the government – effective in helping to meet both gender equity goals and other social wellbeing objectives as well,” says Leonie.

• ACC is to cover more parental childbirth injuries, not just those caused by treatment; people assisted will include 17,000-18,000 women per year. We’re pleased Minister Carmel Sepuloni was explicit the aim is “to improve gender balance, fairness and equity” for ACC, and we’re impressed that a petition signed by 55,025 people and an article by RNZ’s Anusha Bradley was instrumental in bringing the issue to the Minister’s attention (women’s advocacy works!). But as Greens’ ACC spokesperson Jan Logie points out, all birth injuries – including those suffered by babies – and birth trauma/ mental health injuries should also be included. The law is expected to pass mid-2022.

• From next month, parents who have another child while receiving a benefit will no longer be forced to look for work when that child turns one, thanks to a new law. More than 11,000 benefit recipients – disproportionately Māori and women, due to discrimination – were affected by the previous 2012 policy, which was a misogynistic, racist “vice-signalling” attempt to coercively influence parenting choices and deny women their reproductive rights. Repealing such injustice, says Minister Sepuloni, “reflects the value this Government places on the importance of caring and parenting.” But the 2018/19 Welfare Expert Advisory Group recommended repealing eight benefit sanctions and obligations in total; this is only the second one the Government has repealed so far (the first being the sanction against parents – mostly women – who don’t name the other parent).

• Meanwhile, miserly Child Support rules continue, although Minister Sepuloni says she agrees they are discriminatory and need an overhaul. A recent Michelle Duff investigation shows the Government denies some of the country’s poorest families (mostly headed by sole mothers) more than $150 million collected from co-parents (mostly fathers). Experts, advocates and government agencies – including the Children’s Commissioner, MSD, Oranga Tamariki, and family law academics – are urging the Government to pass on the fathers’ contributions to their children as happens in other countries, as this would likely reduce child abuse and neglect, and improve children’s wellbeing.

At the same time, the Government should stop forcing sole parents on benefits to request child support from their exes: current law places domestic violence victims in greater danger and represents a human rights violation. Sepuloni says it’s a complex area and will change in due course – but in the meantime, perhaps as many as 100,000 children suffer under current law.

Summary: A Way Through the Thicket

Full Report: A Way Through the Thicket

Read the article here.