Tomorrow Brian Tamaki will lead a protest up Queen Street, Auckland at 2pm, from Britomart.  It is called ‘Stop Sexualising our Kids.’  It’s in response to the government not removing the Relationships & Sexuality Education (RSE) curriculum from our schools as they promised in Election 2023.

Tamaki is taking action on behalf of many parents who want the RSE curriculum removed before schools restart Term 2 on Monday 29th April 2024.

“There are thousands of parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunties, uncles, teachers, principals, board of trustee members and more, up and down the country, who oppose the RSE curriculum,” says Brian Tamaki.

“Not one more day…we do not want this RSE curriculum in one more school classroom, one more school day, impacting one more school child.”

Election Campaign Promises

“Parents want to know what on earth is taking the government so long to simply say to schools “Stop it.  Stop teaching RSE in NZ schools,” states Tamaki.

Political parties campaigned on this issue at Election 2023 stating the following:

• Winston Peters 17.05.23 Tweet “The government has no place in the nation’s bedrooms – so why are our school children, from age five, now being taught about ‘relationships, gender, and sexuality’?
• Winston Peters 17.05.23 Tweet “Not only are they being taught about sexuality and gender, the entire system must now “integrate gender content into the curriculum”.  Our schools have no right, role, or place teaching our young kids this kind of sociologically driven doctrine.”
• Winston Peters 17.05.23 Tweet “This is not education.  This is a deliberate social engineering programme designed and controlled by the virtue signalling woke without any legal authority at all.  When did the Education Minister or Prime Minister ever ask you if this was ok?”
• NZ First stated in their 2023 Election Planks: “Remove gender ideology from the curriculum.” This is despite NZ First’s Tracey Martin being the Minister responsible for introducing RSE into our schools in 2020.
• PM Christopher Luxon Sept 2023 Election Debate TV3 “No, I am not (happy with the Sex Education being taught in our schools), because essentially what’s happened, let me explain because it is important, is that the government’s had the curriculum around Sex Education and Sexuality Education, and it’s got a new one, and it’s issued guidelines to schools, and they’ve been terribly implemented up and down the country. What I want is a really defined curriculum that’s age-appropriate, that experts have had a good look at, parents are consulted, and then parents still have a choice if they don’t want it…”

In the Coalition Agreement between National, ACT, NZ First, it states “refocus the curriculum on academic achievement and not ideology, including the removal and replacement of the gender, sexuality, and relationship-based education guidelines.”

“Removing the RSE wasn’t in the first 100 day plan.  Not a mention!  Not even a committment to start work on removing RSE,” exclaims Tamaki.

“Then they rolled out the Coalition Government’s Action Plan for 1 April – 30 June 2024, and there’s still no mention of Sexuality Education.  Parents gave them a free pass in the first 100 days, but now this is just getting ridiculous. They are hoping parents will forget and go away. Sorry, but that’s not going to happen.”

Drastic Measures

“Parents are taking drastic measures to protect their kids from this sexualised content,” claims Tamaki.

“This is a big reason why Homeschooling has jumped in NZ by 65% since June 2019.

This is also why truancy is up, with 46% of students not regularly attending school. Parents are unmotivated to send their kids into this environment when parents don’t trust what’s being taught. On a massive scale, Parents have lost faith in our state schools. Some parents haven’t got the time or the skills to tackle all the home-schooling paperwork, or their work lives won’t permit it. They may not have the money to pursue private schooling options where RSE is not taught. Therefore many parents are simply letting their kids miss more school.”

“When parents and students are turning their backs on the state system in such a big way, politicians and MOE need to sit up and take notice.  It’s time these adults got schooled up on what’s driving parents’ frustrations and loss of faith in state education.”

“Before the government rushes to dish out fines to parents for not sending their kids to school, they need to first ensure that they’re providing basic education, ie. literacy and numeracy. Is it genuine education or sexualisation? I’d question whether you can legally fine a parent for not sending their kid to a school that is providing curriculum material that is not age-appropriate, that is indoctrination or sexualisation, not education.”

Kiwis overwhelmingly want the RSE curriculum removed

There are multiple groups across New Zealand featuring concerned parents that vocally oppose the RSE curriculum, including:

• Destiny Churches International
• City Impact Churches
• Most New Zealand Churches (too many to list here)
• Faith-based schools up and down the country
• ManUp New Zealand
• The Freedoms & Rights Coalition
• Let Kids Be Kids
• Parents Against Gender Education New Zealand
• Resist Gender Education
• Family First
• and many more

“We’ve even been approached by those from the gay community who are not happy with the RSE curriculum, with some setting up a NZ branch of ‘Gays Against Groomers’,” Tamaki says.

Multiple petitions calling for RSE to be removed have had a lot of support, in contrast to petitions wanting to retain it.

Petition to remove RSE:

• In a nationwide poll June 2022, 69% of parents oppose the gender ideology curriculum.  Only 15% support.  The rest were unsure.
• In the same poll, 55% of parents believe that schools should notify parents of gender identity issues, 29% opposed. The rest were unsure.
• A poll at the beginning of 2021 found that 52% of parents thought sex education should be ‘opt in’ before children receive the content, as opposed to 36% saying it should be the current ‘opt out’ scenario
• Helen Houghton’s petition in 2019 to ‘Stop transgender teaching in New Zealand schools’ quickly received 40,668 signatures.

In contrast, Petitions to retain RSE show poor support:

• Change.org petition to Chris Luxon called to ‘Stop the removal of gender, sexuality and relationship-based education in Aotearoa’ only received 541 signatures.
• Another petition by New Zealand Education Institute Te Riu Roa (a union of more than 50,000 principals, teachers and staff working in primary and secondary schools and ECEs) calling to ‘Protect the Relationships & Sexuality guidelines in the NZ Health Curriculum’ has only received 1,075 signatures.
• Another Change.org petition to NZ Parliament called ‘Implement LGBTQ+ into the NZ education system’ in 2021 only received 538 signatures.

Brian Tamaki concludes by saying, “Politicians have the public support to remove this RSE curriculum, and only a small handful of very vocal trans/gay activists are fighting to retain it.  Even the majority of the teachers and principals in their union aren’t fighting to retain it. It’s madness that this government has not already moved to remove RSE.  It’s an easy action point Luxon can tick off his list. What’s the hold-up?”

Event Details:

The public are welcome to join the ‘Stop sexualising our kids’ protest this Saturday 20th April 2024 as follows:

GATHER 1.30pm at Britomart

MARCH 2.00pm March or Ride up Queen Street

STAND 2.30pm at Aotea Square featuring live entertainment and speakers

This is a family-friendly and safe event with Bikes, Balloons and Bubbles. Kids are encouraged to bring their pushbikes and scooters, decorate with black and white balloons, bring their bubbles, wear black and white clothing and bring their protest signs.

The event will be live-streamed across the nation for supporters who can not attend in person.

The Tu Tangata Riders will also feature during the event, with kids safely riding as pillion passengers. The ManUp organisation will also provide security to keep families safe. This cause is closely aligned with ManUp’s mantra “Raising Fathers, to save our children.”

Press Release