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Hi, I'm Amy Adams, and under the last government I had the privilege of being the Justice Minister. And one of the things I got to do as the Justice Minister that I'm most proud of was create the first ever in New Zealand's history expungement scheme where we could take convictions, historical convictions for homosexual conduct and wipe them from the record as if they'd never occurred. Uh, and as part of creating that law and introducing it to parliament, I gave on behalf of the government and people of [00:00:30] New Zealand, an apology to the men who were unfairly traumatized, uh, and stigmatized over many years for just being who they are. When we look back, uh, through today's lens, there can be no question that it was so wrong to criminalize men for being who they are. And to have the chance to stand in Parliament, uh, and to give that apology and to recognize the tremendous hurt that was caused to those men and their family over many years was a very powerful [00:01:00] moment. Uh, and one that, as I say, I was tremendously proud to, to, to have the, have the privilege to do. And of course the scheme we created is certainly a New Zealand first, if not a world first, in that it goes back, wipes those convictions from the record as if they never occurred. So for the first time, the men, or sometimes the descendants of the men affected, Uh, are able to know that, that they were not criminals, uh, that they don't have to bear the stigma of being judged to be somehow wrong [00:01:30] in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of, of society. I think it was a tremendous, uh, step forward. I think it was a, a powerful way of recognizing the hurt, the damage, uh, the, uh, the horror and the stigma that those men and their families lived with for many years. And it's something that I'm incredibly proud of and, and will be very proud of long after I finish my time in Parliament. What was really powerful for me was to hear the stories of the men and their families. How much it affected them, how much the apology meant to them. And actually [00:02:00] one of the really special things was the way Parliament came together. Giving that speech in the House, hearing the speeches from around the House. It really is Parliament at its best when we can look back and say we do need to recognise that in that case Parliament got it wrong. And that was Parliament acting to do what it could do to undo those wrongs and to right the wrong.
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