Labour MP Louisa Wall. Photo: Facebook
A Labour MP says that New Zealand is not doing enough to fund gender reassignnment operations.
MP Louisa Wall, who introduced the legislation that legalised same-sex marriage, said the transgender community needed more support than it was currently getting from the Government.
She said more than 60 people were on the waiting list for surgeries and action needed to be taken.
“These are people who are wanting access to what is a medical procedure, who can't in New Zealand because we don't have the surgeons.”
She said the Government was supposed to fund three male-to-female operations and one female-to-male operation every two years, but none had been done for three years.
She said New Zealand needed to recognise discrimination on gender identity in its human rights legislation.
Wall said the only legal barriers still facing New Zealand's gay community targeted the transgender and intersex people. Under the current Human Rights Act it was illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation but gender identity should be added, she said.
“The Crown's position is that it's already in legislation under the definition of sex, but for the community they actually want to see definitions that they think describe them in our legislation.”
A version of this story was first published on radionz.co.nz.