Warning: This story talks about sexual assault.
E Tu Union's Michael Wood, a former Labour MP, has slammed NZ First's controversial bathroom Bill as "dire, dismal and divisive".
On Friday, NZ First announced its 'Fair Access to Bathrooms' Members' Bill which would require new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings to provide "separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single-sex bathrooms".
If passed the Bill would also introduce a fine under the Summary Offences Act for "anyone who uses a single-sex toilet and is not of the sex for which that toilet has been designated".
Wood questioned the priorities of the Government with this Bill on AM on Monday.
"We've got an economy in recession, unemployment going up, junior doctors going on strike, a climate crisis, and New Zealand First and the Government wants to tell little cafés and doctors' surgeries and churches how they should run their toilets," he said.
"It's just the ultimate example of picking up a cultural issue and trying to whip people up and divide people for political advantage. I think it's dire, it's dismal and it's divisive.
"When New Zealand First was a respectable conservative party they would've said this kind of thing was nanny state."
Wood said most cafés he goes to usually have one unisex toilet and it's never a problem.
"Are you seriously telling those people that they're going to have to change that?"
In announcing the Bill, party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said New Zealand would follow similar moves in the UK.
"New Zealand First campaigned to defend the right to privacy, personal safety, and freedom from harm for all New Zealanders, and this Bill demonstrates a much-needed commonsense solution to an issue that has often been overshadowed by ideology," he said.
However, broadcaster Brodie Kane, also on AM, said that if there are people fearful of using public toilets for this reason "it's being created out of nothing".
"We're talking about an issue that simply isn't there," she said.
"What I don't like is, particularly in this instance, New Zealand First jumping on something that's happened overseas - that's what I don't like about a lot of their rhetoric is it's out of America, 'oh the UK's doing this'. Cool story bro, what are we doing here?
"Let's not just jump on things because they are deliberately provocative and that's entirely what I think this is, deliberately provocative. Throw the Bill in the bin, it's a waste of time and space."
However, several AM viewers writing into the show on Monday did express discomfort about using unisex toilets.
AM host Lloyd Burr even noted one person shared how they were raped by a man in the women's toilets.
"And I was like that's illegal and that wouldn't be prevented because if someone wants to do that they can do that after this comes into force if this ever did, so it's not going to solve all these issues and yes that's a sad story and I'm sorry for that person who messaged me that, but anyway," he said.
Wood added that it was perfectly fine to have a debate about these kinds of issues, but said that's not what the NZ First Bill was doing.
"This Bill is trying to take a position and force people into this camp or that camp and do it to whip up votes for the party that's putting it forward," he said.
"It's not actually about having a debate and solving those problems."
He believes policing a rule like this would be difficult and it should instead be up to the venues themselves to work the issues through.
"If someone's behaving inappropriately around a toilet, whether they're transgender or not, that's a serious offence and a serious issue."
