by Penny Marie
Something significant just happened in New Zealand law
- Before 3 June 2026: All NZ Public Service agencies were required by law to run DEI programmes.
- After 3 June 2026: These agencies are no longer required to run DEI programmes — but running them voluntarily is not prohibited.
The Public Service Amendment Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 2 June 2026. It came into force on 3 June 2026.
For the first time since 2020, the law that required every government department in New Zealand to run Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programmes – programmes built in part on the ideological architecture of the Yogyakarta Principles – has been STRUCK FROM THE STATUTE BOOKS.
How did DEI get flushed through our government departments in the first place?
The Public Service Act 2020 – the law whose DEI provisions have just been repealed – was introduced to Parliament by Labour’s Chris Hipkins, then Minister of State Services. Hipkins described it as… “…the most significant change in the public service in 30 years.” – in a Beehive Statement on 23 July 2020.
The diversity and inclusiveness obligations embedded in sections 73 and 75 – the provisions now repealed – were Labour’s design, driven by Labour, and celebrated by Labour.
The significance of Section 75
Section 75 of the Public Service Act 2020 – the provision just repealed – read as follows:
“A chief executive of a department must – (a) be guided by the principle that the group comprising all public service employees should reflect the makeup of society; and (b) in employment policies and practices, foster a workplace that is inclusive of all groups.”
The word “must” is the operative word. Not guidance. Not aspiration. A binding legal obligation on every public service chief executive in New Zealand.
When the Ministry of Health cited “the Public Service Act 2020 (specifically sections 73 and 75)” as the legal authority for its Whiria te Tangata DEI strategy, it was complying with the law.
- When DPMC funded six taxpayer-funded Employee-Led Networks – including a dedicated Rainbow Network – it was operating within a legal mandate
- When ‘unconscious bias’ training was made mandatory at government induction
- When ‘pronoun’ fields appeared on public service job applications
- When ‘gender affirmation’ guidance was embedded in leadership programmes across every major department
…all of it had legal authority – derived from sections 73 and 75 of the 2020 Act.
From 3 June, those sections have been repealed.
How did this Act become law?
The voting record on the Public Service Act 2020 was as follows:
In August 2020 New Zealand First was in coalition with Labour. They voted the DEI mandate within the Public Service Act into law. The Yogyakarta-influenced sections 73 and 75 – the sections now repealed – passed with NZ First’s vote.
Who gets the credit for the new amendments?
This week, New Zealand First published a statement about the Public Service Amendment Bill featuring Winston Peters quoted as saying:
“This Bill would put an end to the woke left-wing social engineering and diversity targets in the public sector. New Zealand is a country founded on meritocracy not on some mind-numbingly stupid ideology.” – Winston Peters, on New Zealand First’s Member’s Bill to scrap DEI in the Public Service
Beneath the quote, NZ First’s email states: “This week, the Public Service Amendment Bill passed in parliament. This Bill includes the removal of ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’ (DEI) requirements from the public service after a push from New Zealand First last year to scrap DEI requirements.”
Yet they were coalition partners with Labour in 2020 that gave us the DEI mandate in the first place.
NOTE: At the time of publishing this story I am awaiting comment from New Zealand First.
Who repealed it — and how
In March 2025, New Zealand First introduced a Member’s Bill – the Public Service (Repeal of Diversity and Inclusiveness Requirements) Amendment Bill. That bill proposed removing the DEI obligations from the Public Service Act. It was not a Government Bill. It was never drawn from the ballot. But it demonstrates their change of heart.
The Government Bill that did become law – the Public Service Amendment Act 2026 – started as a National-ACT Government Bill. It was introduced by then-Public Service Minister Judith Collins on 28 July 2025, as a fulfilment of the National-ACT Coalition Agreement, to ‘amend the Public Service Act 2020 to clarify the role of the public service, drive performance, and ensure accountability.’
Neither coalition agreement explicitly committed to removing DEI provisions. The DEI repeal provisions were added during the parliamentary process – reflecting NZ First’s advocacy on the issue through its own Member’s Bill. The provisions were passed with support from all three coalition parties.
- National and ACT were the architects of this legislation.
- They are also the parties who voted against the original DEI mandate in 2020.
- NZ First is the party that voted to bring the DEI mandate in, and now, they are the ones supporting their coalition parties to get it out. After 5 years of embedded DEI programmes across the public service.
Three-party coalition in unison
During the parliamentary process, the National-ACT Government Bill was amended to incorporate the substance of what NZ First’s Member’s Bill had proposed – the specific repeal of the DEI provisions. NZ First supported and advocated for those amendments. All three coalition partners voted for the final bill.
When NZ First’s communication says the bill passed “after a push from New Zealand First,” it is technically careful. The push was real. But the vehicle was not NZ First’s. The party that drafted, introduced, and owns this legislation is National, in coalition with ACT. NZ First is a supporting actor in this story – not the lead.
And it is the party that enforced the DEI mandate in 2020 with Labour.
Let Kids Be Kids raised concerns about the Public Service Act in relation to the Yogyakarta Principles, in June 2025
In June 2025, I presented a Let Kids Be Kids white paper, co-published with Lesbian Resistance – The Yogyakarta Principles And Their Influence On The Public Service DEI Plan 2024-2025 – along with a second paper on Conversion Practices – at the National Citizens’ Inquiry in Canada. The DEI paper specifically raised the issue of the Public Service Act and its direct links to the Yogyakarta Principles (I also spoke about these principles at the NZ First Convention in September 2025).
We traced the precise upstream source of the DEI mandate in the New Zealand public service – not as vague ideology, but as a specific, documented pipeline from a non-binding UN instrument – the Yogyakarta Principles, through international advocacy channels, into the text of sections 73 and 75 of the Public Service Act 2020. The report was sent to a New Zealand First parliamentary staffer on 7 July 2025 – three weeks before the Government bill was introduced on 28 July 2025.
We did not make a formal submission to the Governance and Administration Select Committee when this bill went through Parliament. Submissions closed on 30 August 2025 – a process I was not tracking at the time, having been focused on grassroots advocacy and public education rather than parliamentary procedure.
Watch Penny Marie testify at the National Citizens’ Inquiry, Canada — full report available to download
Whether our research contributed to the shape of the legislation is a question I do not know. Perhaps the timing of our report may have mattered to this process. Our research for the past 12 months has consistently highlighted how the Yogyakarta Principles – which are non-binding – have significantly influenced law and policy in NZ – The Public Service Act 2020 being one example, and a significant one at that.
What the Amendment Act actually removes
These changes are effective from 3 June 2026:
- Section 75 – repealed. The duty to make the public service “reflect the makeup of society” and foster DEI-inclusive workplaces is gone entirely.
- Sections 73(2), (3)(i) and (3)(j) – stripped back. “Good employer” obligations no longer require diversity representation programmes or ideologically-framed inclusion architecture.
- Section 44(c) – amended. The Public Service Commissioner’s duty to build a “diversity-reflecting” workforce is removed. The function is now discretionary, not mandatory.
- Schedule 7 – amended. “Diversity and inclusiveness” removed as a criterion for appointing public service chief executives. Merit is now the sole statutory criterion.
- Section 97(2)(e) – amended. Government workforce policy statements are no longer required to include DEI content.
Every government agency’s annual DEI plan, mandatory rainbow inclusion targets, compulsory bias training, and diversity-based hiring frameworks have now lost their legal foundation.
Does this change things in Health and Education?
Healthcare
The Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) are covered by the Public Service Act as Crown agents. The repeal of sections 73 and 75 directly removes their statutory obligation to maintain rainbow representation targets, fund LGBTQ+ Employee-Led Networks as a legal requirement, or apply rainbow-specific criteria in hiring and promotion.
Where health services or internal programmes were justified as a DEI obligation under sections 73 and 75, that justification is now removed. Clinical services required under separate legislation remain.
What has been removed is the ideological DEI mandate layered on top. Whether agencies choose to continue particular services under separate clinical or policy pathways is an ongoing question that warrants its own scrutiny.
Education
The Ministry of Education as a public service department is covered by the Amendment Act. However, schools, the curriculum framework, and teacher training are governed primarily by the Education and Training Act 2020 – which is not affected by this bill.
The RSE (Relationships and Sexuality Education) Framework, the UNESCO-aligned sexuality education content in classrooms, and the taxpayer-funded NGO programmes – including InsideOut – that facilitate ‘gender identity’ training in schools are not directly repealed by this Act. They operate through Ministry of Education policy and separate funding channels.
Follow Penny Marie: https://www.pennymarie.nz/