Williams Poto: Sullivan Birth Certificate Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Poto: Sullivan Birth Certificate Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 19 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:16120. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]POTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): Kia orana Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia oranakotoukatoatoana rotoi tear’ama’ata o TeAtua. It is a privilege to be able to speak on the second reading of the Sullivan Birth Certificate Bill. I want to acknowledge the courage of Doreen Shields andRowen Sullivan and their determination to ensure that this bill becomes law. I can assure you of my total support for your achievement to this end.This bill is essentially about love—the love and commitment of two women for each other the love of these women for their child and the love of that child for both of her parents. This bill speaks to the diverse and modern way that our families are structured and the way that we should be able to acknowledge those who are the most important in our lives—namely our parents and our children.We are a modern society that has in recent years made provision for the diversity of our relationships—and here I must commend my colleague Louisa Wall for ensuring the equality of rights for all on the subject of marriage and for bringing this bill to the House—so it is a natural progression to look at the needs of families and the children in these families in the modern New Zealand context to ensure that they are catered for that their rights as well as their needs are met and that they are permitted equality as well.I want to point out to you that I too am an adoptee. This bill resonates on so many levels for adoptees and for adoptive parents—more I think than evenRowen and Doreen know—and this is my own personal view of how important this bill is. When you are an adopted child the State dictates who your parents are. When you are a prospective adoptive parent you become involved in a formal process that takes many months or often years to determine your suitability and fitness for becoming a parent and to ensure that no objections from other parties are forthcoming. I believe that that is still the process for adoption. The State then permits you to be named as a parent on a birth certificate or more specifically as the mother or father of a child. The Registrar-General of Births Deaths and Marriages could record only the mother and father of a child—not parent. That piece of legislation—the current piece of legislation not the bill before us—does not translate well in this modern context. The requirements met the needs of a time but this is no longer the time. I strongly suggest that it is time to put it right.We have seen this House pass legislation to afford equal rights to the state of marriage to same-sex couples. I am really proud that we have yet we deny them the dignity and responsibility of shared parentage. This is the predicament we find here. When you are born into a family—not adopted but born into a family in the traditional sense—you do not need the State to tell you who you are or who your parents are. You just are and it just is. I understand the need for legal process to determine your status in legal terms and your rights for example to property or to estate that you are a beneficiary of. But in modern New Zealand where we have made huge strides in terms of acknowledging equality in marriage we now need to develop equality in parenthood.I speak as an adoptee whose 90-year-old birth father sat in the gallery just a few weeks ago to watch his youngest birth child deliver a maiden statement to this House. It has been 52 years since my adoption and I am extremely grateful for the gift that was given to my adoptive parents as their love and care has made me the person I am today. I want to just comment on my colleague Moana Mackey’s point that as you grow older your circumstances change and your view of life and family relationships changes. How powerful it is that I could now acknowledge my birth father on my certificate as acknowledgment of the gift that he made to my parents.It is not so long ago that adoption and the circumstances and reasons behind adoption were too shameful to share. There are many adopted children who are unable to trace birth families because it was not proper at the time to record those details. The process of recording and registration of adopted children in those days removed the record of birth parents.This is not the case withRowen Sullivan. However there is a bigger implication here. I want to point out to many that births to same-sex couples and the subsequent adoptions sometimes happen with the help of sperm and egg donors—surrogates—andit should be possible for those who contribute to the care and the love and the parentage and the parenting to be given the privilege of appearing on the certificate.Here I would like to note that I support the amendment of the title of this bill to the “Sullivan Birth Registration Bill”. This bill supports a young woman whose real-life experience is of being parented by two women—two women who have loved her cared for her and raised a wonderful young woman. I would like this House to now support the love and commitment it took Doreen Shields and Diane Sullivan to raise this young woman by providing them with the opportunity to both be recognised equally as the parents ofRowen Sullivan. I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.