I am absolutely bloody furious. The High Court has struck down the Government’s restrictions on new puberty blocker prescriptions for children with gender dysphoria. PATHA is celebrating that they can continue to pump drugs into children that have known lifelong impacts including setting them on a path to sterilisation. Mark my words this WILL be a medical scandal. It is outrageous that the courts have intervened when the Government is simply seeking proper safeguards for vulnerable children. Look overseas! Governments and health authorities have been pulling back from the insanity that has seen activists controlling the narrative and strong arming institutions. In New Zealand our courts want the deranged to run the asylum. Britain’s LABOUR Government made restrictions on puberty blockers indefinite due to unacceptable safety risk. Wes Streeting understood that children’s healthcare requires evidence, however loudly campaigners shouted at him. In America, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s restrictions on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors. Another decisive rejection of the idea that governments must simply defer to the organisations promoting these treatments. And the organisations NEED scrutiny. WPATH and NZ’s version PATHA are without credibility and should not have remotely the influence they have enjoyed. Documents from US litigation raise serious questions about political influence over WPATH’s supposedly authoritative standards. Justice Clarence Thomas discussed those revelations in his separate Skrmetti opinion, including pressure to remove minimum ages from treatment guidelines. Seriously it is worth reading that opinion. The Cass Review also found that WPATH’s guidelines lacked rigour and transparency in their development. After all that, we should have no confidence in WPATH as an impartial authority. And PATHA winning a judicial review does not magically establish the safety and effectiveness of the treatments it champions. They are a dysfunctional band of activists and it is embarrassing that they are taken seriously. Read what this judgment actually says. The judge accepted that Simeon Brown had a rational basis for restricting puberty blockers and he rejected the allegation that Brown was simply advancing NZ First’s “anti-woke” agenda. The restrictions fell because of consultation failures and the judge’s conclusion that the prohibition on new prescriptions was disproportionate and unlawfully discriminatory. I obviously utterly disagree with that conclusion. The uncertainty surrounding these treatments is why precaution should be exercised. The Government must address the legal issues, consider its appeal options and establish safeguards that can withstand challenge. This cannot be where this ends. Our children are too important. And these are the most vulnerable children. Research shows that among kids who are given puberty blockers autism, previous sexual abuse, and other mental health disorders are prevalent. The ruling arrives 17 days before the election. People can draw their own conclusions about that timing. But this is another reason it is so important to back the current Government. Simeon Brown has been prepared to take this on, and I’m backing him to keep going. Luxon’s answer during the leadership debate was wishy washy but Simeon has been solid and NZ First have been too. We need the Coalition back in to continue this fight. The alternative barely bears thinking about. I half expect Labour and their gang to come up with the bright idea to make puberty blockers available at school tuck shops. (That is sarcasm, by the way.) My serious point is that children deserve adults willing to challenge crazes, demand proper evidence, and withstand the abuse that follows. I am willing to be one of those adults. I reckon Simeon is too. Are you?