The Prime Minister has expressed concern about "vulnerable" youth at risk of undergoing gay or trans conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is where people try to change lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI) people's sexuality or gender identity using therapy, drugs or other means.
The controversial practice has been banned in the Australian state of Victoria, several countries in South America and parts of the United States. Jacinda Ardern's comments came after the release of a report advising the Government to delay making a decision about whether to outlaw it in New Zealand, due to concerns about freedom of expression.
About 20,000 New Zealanders have signed petitions calling for conversion therapy to banned. Gay men who have experienced conversion therapy have described it as traumatic and spoke of feeling like a failure when it didn't work. But while the Justice Select Committee, a group of MPs tasked with considering the petitions, acknowledged conversion therapy could be harmful to rainbow communities, it did not recommend an immediate ban. Read more via Stuff