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Welcome to the House. Back in August, I sat down with two backbench MP S to discuss the mechanics and difficulties of creating and passing members bills the bills from any MP. That's not in the executive. One of those MP S was nationals Louise Upton, who had a bill under consideration that it had a very long gestation here. She describes just a part of it. So basically, I worked on, uh, this issue for the first, uh, six years [00:00:30] while I was in Parliament. First of all, I had to get my own caucus across the line and because it was a very complex issue, it was hard to do that. And so I would do research I would work with, Um there was a public meeting on, uh, victims rights. Uh, I worked with different organisations who wanted the issue progressed. And I did a huge amount of work behind the scenes before it got to a place where my caucus would agree to it. And then when my caucus agreed to it, [00:01:00] then we start drafting the legislation. The idea had come from the experience of a voter in her electorate. The problem was the sentencing of people found not guilty on the basis of insanity. People judged incapable of standing trial aren't formally found guilty. But for a victim hearing a court declaring a perpetrator not guilty on any grounds can feel invalidating and insulting. And there was a flow on effect for victims of those offenders ending up in the health system and not the justice one. [00:01:30] Now those sound like simple enough things to fix, but it turned out not to be. So when we spoke in August, after more than a decade in the making, the bill had been knocked back into select committee when no one could agree how to overcome a particularly honorary legal issue. So second reading was still unanimous support. Uh, and the wheels got a bit wobbly in the committee of the whole house. I I'm optimistic we will still get there, Uh, but I'm just a bit of damage to the relationship on the way through, but I I'm still optimistic [00:02:00] we'll, we will get it. It's just another example of actually having to do the negotiation and the diplomacy and the whatever, all the way through the bill to make sure it actually gets there Yeah, And again, the public don't really see, uh, the work that goes on, uh, to try and make sure a bill works its way through. And it's fair to say there aren't many bills from opposition MP S that are passed. The stats probably wouldn't be very high on that, but on Wednesday, another one was added to the list. Those of that opinion will say I to [00:02:30] the contrary, know the eyes have it rights for victims of insane offenders. Bill Third reading. In fact, after those few extra months in limbo, the House had made a special effort to get the bill passed. And with the agreement of the business committee, MP S held the committee stage and then the third reading back to back. That's pretty unusual. Louise Upton has pushed a long road on this one and had many people to thank from Graham Moyle, who first [00:03:00] raised the issue through various officials to the Justice Committee. MP S, who spent months finding solutions, and Andrew Little, who as minister of justice, had set his department to solving the issues pretty unusual for a member's bill. Today I want to give confidence to every new Zealander that this is your house and as MP S, we work for you. We work to make New Zealand a better place. You can meet with your MP like Graham did and you can change the law. [00:03:30] To paraphrase another New Zealander, while it might not happen overnight, it can happen. Tonight is proof of that. And I think it's a wonderful way to end this parliamentary year for the member's Day, where victims will have more rights with the unanimous passing of this bill. Thank you so as you heard on Wednesday, Parliament passed that bill initiated by a member of the public, bringing an issue to the attention of their local MP and concluded by that same MP, [00:04:00] encouraging the public to do likewise because, as she said, you can change the law as it happens. On Thursday, parliament passed another bill. It's almost like it was trying to push. The U can change the law message home because that law was this one. Birth deaths and marriages and relationships. Registration bill third reading Today is a day about inclusion having the right to have a birth certificate. It reflects who you know yourself to be. Labour MP Jan Tinetti [00:04:30] was the minister in charge. She outlined how a run of the mill bill to update a bureaucratic database became transformed. This bill was probably seen to be a bit bland, but when it came back from select committee in August 2018, all hints of blandness had gone. In fact, it would be fair to say that it was a little bit more interesting than what it was before it went to [00:05:00] select committee. The then select committee had listened to the petition of Alison Hamlet and agreed with the request that the government introduce a self identification process for amending registered sex without the requirement for medical treatment and without the need for a court process. And the bill was amended accordingly. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Alison and also thank the then select committee for the work that they did [00:05:30] on this bill. At that time, the bland bill seemed the best place to achieve that. So Jati directed her officials to write some new language, and a second select committee inquiry was held to make sure that everyone could input on the proposed changes, and many thousands did the outcome was a bill that included some life changing provisions for the trans community. As you can see, submissions can change laws. Petitions can change laws. Labour MP nasy Chen was [00:06:00] on the committee considering this bill and talked about how affecting hearing submissions can be. The ones that stick most permanently in our minds are the ones regarding Children. The parents who have bravely made submissions and heartfelt um ST had, you know, conveyed this story to us, their Children and the journey that they had to go on, watch their Children get hurt by our community sometimes, and because of these laws and those have, those are the stories that stick in our minds. So [00:06:30] what does the bill do? Ignoring the blandest stuff about updating the database? Simply it makes something currently possible easier. It allows you to change the gender on your birth certificate without requiring evidence of medical intervention or a court process. Green MP Elizabeth This bill recognises that those who need to amend their birth certificate can do so that the courts do not have the right to make their choice for them. That parents [00:07:00] do not have that right that cisgender people who don't even know them or care about them do not have that right. This bill upholds the man, the the of our trans intersex and non binary. It will be the first of many, especially while I'm in this house. Nationals I McKelvie outlined why he thought the change was a good one. We heard [00:07:30] from hundreds of people who all of these issues affect on a regular basis. And I must say having listened to the arguments for and against the CSO, P and subsequent legislation will have very little or no effect on me but will have a significant effect on so many people's lives. I think that's why we're here. If we can make a little bit of difference to someone's life and have no impact on other people's lives in the course of doing it, I think we should most certainly persevere with that. There is one group of people that this bill hasn't managed to find a [00:08:00] solution for, though here are Jan Titi and Rachel Boy and that is that unfortunately today we don't have a solution for overseas born people who live in New Zealand but want to change their birth certificate. So I have already signalled to my officials that we need to continue work in this area and targeted consultation will work on finding the solution. It will begin in 2022 and I am committed to that work. And I just want to put on the [00:08:30] public record that everyone who participated in the committee was committed absolutely 100% committed to seeking a solution to that particular issue. And we will work tirelessly to do that over the next few months. This bill will undergo a mandatory review after five years, but National MP Nicola Grigg expects that to be less contentious. My expectation is that as with other societal shifts in liberalizations in policy and law, and [00:09:00] that we've seen in the past that the fears some hold, that their freedoms being will be removed and that they'll be affected and the rights they hold will be affected. I believe that as we've seen in the past, these fears will be unfounded now. While the House voted unanimously in support of the bill, there was one area where individual MP S had differences responses to the level of rancour expressed about the legislation, National MP Nicola Gregg had raised the issue. I have [00:09:30] to say I have been concerned that during the passage of this bill, some groups who have wished to hold public meetings, public debate and public venues have been have been blocked from doing so. This is wrong. It is a clear overreach by those venues in question. We can't have a situation in New Zealand where the views of others that might be disagreed with are somehow branded as [00:10:00] harmful or dangerous or offensive. There is no right in this country to be offended by what other people think or what their opinions might be. If we shut down the full expression on topics such as this, we won't in this house. We won't benefit from considering a full range of views as we debate complex policy and ideas, and I do worry about the societal [00:10:30] societal impacts of people feeling that their views are no longer able to be expressed. We really do need to draw a line in the sand on the censorious restrictive direction of free speech in this country. Other MPs had variant opinions. Here's Labour MP Deborah Russell. The third thing I wish to address from what happened during the hearings was what I would simply call the language of hate. And it was a language [00:11:00] of hate that came through from people opposed to the spill. One of the language right we heard directed at Trans People was language that we've heard directed against gay people. It is the language that treats people as non people as people who shouldn't be allowed to exist, and we were required to listen to it. But I do not think we are required to listen politely to it as MP S. Of course, we must listen to people who come to our select committees, but I will not listen politely to hate. [00:11:30] And I think it's important that we don't listen politely to hate. There were young Trans people watching those hearings, and if we sat there and listened politely to hate, it would sound like we were. It would seem we were endorsing that hate. So I say Congratulations to the committee members who expressed their disapproval of the language of hate that came through so loudly. Labour MP Glenn Bennett and we've heard this whole mention of freedom of speech and free [00:12:00] speech, and that's OK when you have the power as the majority, That's OK when those around you are voiceless. But we want to ensure, uh that the freedoms about transgender non-binary and intersex community are free. Indeed, and national MP and committee chair Ian McKelvie I was uncomfortable [00:12:30] with the manner in which the live streaming of the Select Committee proceedings led to some submitters being very unfairly attacked on social media without either the will or or in fact the ability to reply, uh, or any protection from Parliament. And if we are to continue to use live streaming and social media to get our proceedings out there, we're gonna have to put suitable protections in place. Or we will lose the public's confidence. And we will no longer have people willing to submit to Parliament, particularly [00:13:00] on difficult pieces of legislation. I frankly don't believe people should be able to use uh, social media to attack submitters they don't agree with, and therefore the only reasonable solution for us is to prevent comment by this medium in the future. And I think the parliament is going to have to consider that, like the earlier story about Louise Upton's members, Bill born from an issue raised by a constituent. The overarching story here, I think, is the power of the powerless individual to influence Parliament and change [00:13:30] the law. Labour MP U was the last to speak. Mr Speaker, The minister started by thanking the petitioner who initiated, uh, this particular element of the change back in 2017, and I want to conclude my contribution by doing the same. So thank you to Alison Hamblet for engaging in the democratic process to bring about this change. It's actually proof that the fact of or act of petitioning the parliament does make a difference, even if it can take some time [00:14:00] to get there. Uh, Mr Speaker, I'm delighted to commend this bill to the house something that will mean so much to so many people. Our question is that the motion be agreed to those of that opinion. Or say I to the contrary. No, the eyes have it. You've been listening to the house. It's.
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