Believe This or Lose Your License: Medical Council’s New Ultimatum to Doctors

Believe This or Lose Your License: Medical Council’s New Ultimatum to Doctors

The Medical Council of New Zealand wants to tell doctors what to think.

Under draft standards now out for consultation, the Medical Council purports to speak for all doctors on contested ideological and political views relating to race relations, "colonialism", “privilege,” and how to interpret the Treaty of Waitangi.

The Council has no role to fix the opinions of its members on these issues, particularly if there is any risk that it may in future require doctors to demonstrate compliance as the price of annual recertification. 

The Free Speech Union says this marks a fundamental shift from protecting patients to policing ideology. 

“This is not about ensuring respectful treatment of Māori patients,” says Dr Roderick Mulgan, International Director of the Free Speech Union. “Every doctor already has a legal and ethical obligation to treat every patient with dignity and without discrimination.” 

“It’s about what doctors are required to say they believe. That crosses a fundamental free speech line.”

The draft statements on cultural competence and hauora Māori require doctors to endorse particular political theories and to commit themselves to activist-style ‘system change’ as a professional duty.

The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act protects freedom of expression including the right not to say things one does not believe. Compelling professionals to affirm political and ideological positions raises serious constitutional concerns.

A GP who provides excellent care to every patient, regardless of ethnicity, could find themselves in professional difficulty if they privately disagree with the Council’s prescribed framing of social or political issues.

“This is a loyalty test pretending to be professional standards,” says Dr Mulgan. “The Medical Council’s job is to ensure clinical competence and patient safety, not to enforce ideological and political conformity.”

Importantly, the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 already requires doctors to demonstrate cultural competence, including effective and respectful interaction with Māori. It does not require them to subscribe to contested political doctrines or to adopt activist roles in dismantling societal systems.

“Good medicine depends on doctors who can think critically, question assumptions, and follow the evidence wherever it leads. That is a strength of the profession, not a threat to it,” says Dr Mulgan.

The Free Speech Union is undertaking a legal analysis of the draft standards and will make a formal submission before consultation closes on 24 March 2026. It is encouraging medical professionals and concerned members of the public to do the same.

ENDS

Notes to editor:

1. The Medical Council of New Zealand consultation on draft statements on cultural competence, cultural safety, and hauora Maori is open until 24 March 2026. Documents are available at mcnz.org.nz.

2. The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 protects freedom of thought, conscience, and belief (s13), freedom of expression (s14), and manifestation of religion and belief (s15).

3. The Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 (as amended 2019) requires regulatory bodies to set standards including "cultural competence (including competencies that will enable effective and respectful interaction with Maori)."

4. The Government is currently reviewing the HPCA Act to reduce bureaucracy following the close of its "Putting Patients First" consultation.

FSU Media Contact: Jillaine Heather | [email protected]