Media Release 31 May 2019
Independent polling by Curia Market Research has found strong opposition to taxpayer funding of sex change procedures.
In the poll of 1,000 New Zealanders surveyed, respondents were asked “Do you think the taxpayer should fund surgery and hormone treatments for people who wish to change their sex?”
63% opposed taxpayer funding, 27% supported it, and a further 11% were unsure or refused to say.
The strongest opposition came from males, younger people, those in high deprivation areas, and NZ First & National voters.
“Taxpayers seem to be strongly of the view that the health budget should be focused on hip operations, unilateral mastectomies, treatment of endometriosis, cardiovascular disease, and prostate cancer procedures, amongst others,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.
“As stated in the recent report “Children Transitioning: Childhood gender dysphoria – A paediatrician’s warning to New Zealand” written by Professor John Whitehall who is Foundation Chair and Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Western Sydney, there is no scientific evidence in medical literature to support the massive interventions of the medical pathway. To the contrary, there are multiple expressions of the need for evidence, and lamentations about its lack. The medical pathway is based only on ideology, and claims of ‘success’ reflect beliefs, not science. Even worse, these beliefs are not negotiable: they have become coercive. And the government appears to have become a victim of this ideology and its coercion.”
The government recently lifted the cap on gender reassignment surgery. Under the previous National government, the state funded three male-to-female surgeries and one female-to-male every two years. Associate Health Minister and Green MP Julie Anne Genter announced that this will now be the minimum number of surgeries to be performed every two years.
New Zealand’s chief medical officer has said there were 111 people waiting for surgery: 84 male to female, and 27 female to male. Ministry of Health figures put the average cost of male-to-female surgery at $53,382, with individual surgeries costing between $25,587 at their lowest up to $81,975. The costs for female-to-male surgery are higher, averaging $218,892, with a range of $45,169 to $525,034.
The nationwide poll was carried out during December and has a margin of error of +/- 3.1%.
