SpeechDr ELIZABETH KEREKERE (Green): E te Māngai tēnā koe. I'm proud to rise in support of the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill at its third and final reading. He wā whakahirahira tēnei. [This is an important time.]Thank you to all of you including the Minister and those in this House who have got us to this point the activists who have focused on this kaupapa and those who have integrated their advocacy into a broader framework of health and wellbeing. Ngā mihi aroha to those groups and individuals who have supported survivors of conversion practices. When the mental health system has failed our communities and usually without recognition or resource you have been there. I acknowledge people like my mother Erin Kerekere and her best friend my godmother Susan Thompson who worked for nearly two decades in PFLAG South within the communities and churches of Dunedin to raise awareness and help make them more inclusive of rainbow people. Staunch Catholics—when their Catholic church was not ready to listen the Methodists gave them an office and that's where they worked their magic from.Thank you to the researchers who have made sure we have real data of the Aotearoa experience counting ourselves for trans and non-binary people and identified the LGBTQ young people: Jack Byrne Dr Jaimie Veale Dr John Fenaughty Alex Ker and your research crews. We are in your debt. And I note that questions on this will also be included in the Manalagi survey the rainbow+ Pasifika health and wellbeing project which we launched on Saturday. So shout out to Dr Patrick Thomsen the legendary Phylesha Brown-Acton and the Manalagi crew. Thank you again to everyone who made submissions both written and oral—even if the select committee did not count form submissions we recognise the intentions of everyone who put their name down and know that your names are for ever recorded in the archives of this Parliament. Whether you are a rainbow person whānau or an ally collectively you have moved the Overton window. You have moved this country to a place where we as politicians can be here tonight and put this law into place.I want to explain why the Greens are supporting this bill even though it does not address all of the issues raised by our rainbow communities. One thing I've learnt here is that any of these laws are not the be all and end all. Today this bill is a stake in the ground. It's a reflection of where we are as a country. This bill can be amended and one day we probably will. I've learnt that the general policy statement that comes with the bill the legislative statements for each reading the departmental report and the Justice Committee report can all be as important as the letter of the law because they're the whakapapa of this bill through this Parliament. And this is taken into account because those documents categorically and emphatically state that conversion practice is wrong and it must stop. So there's two areas that I want to demonstrate how community could use those mechanisms to hold the Government to account when this bill goes into law. The first of course is with health. Many submissions noted that the health system has been a place of great harm for trans non-binary and intersex people historically and of course today. Many have seen the exemptions of health providers as a free ticket for them to continue doing what they're doing. That is not correct. As the select committee report specifically states and I quote We note that this clause is not intended to act as a blanket exemption for health practitioners to perform conversion practices" and "this would … lower the risk of harmful conversion practices being able to be practised under the guise of a health service." A bright light is shining on those practitioners and tomorrow they will not get away with what they're getting away with today. I don't know about you but I was keeping a note of submitters who admitted on live streamed and recorded hearings that they were flouting their own code of practice to perform conversion practices in their workplace. They may never be prosecuted for that but the very least I would expect is that they lose their right to practise in this country.The second area is the exclusion of intersex people in this bill those who have suffered conversion practices. The main rationale that's been given for that exclusion is that the Government realises that intersex issues are very singular particularly in the case of gender normalising surgery on intersex infants and that it needs to be considered elsewhere. So I suggest we take the Government at their word because it states also in the report that the Government is looking to "move away from a solely medicalised view of intersex health care and take a rights-based approach that focuses on ensuring that intersex people and their whānau have all the relevant information and support to make informed decisions about their healthcare" and to "support health practitioners to provide best practice health care for intersex people." This is the basis now of our advocacy. This is the place where we can hold them to account. I certainly feel a new members' bill coming on to cover this.Now let us remember also that the select committee received tens of thousands of submissions from organisations churches anti-trans lobbyists and what I call hate groups who did not support this bill and to be fair did not actually respect the humanity of many members of our rainbow community especially our trans woman but also our intersex people and our non-binary people. They did not support the bill and they tried to add more exemptions—their scaremongering and hate speech under the guise of well-meaning paternalism their transphobia homophobia interphobia and biphobia thinly veiled as feminism. Even though they felt it was not about hate speech it wasn't about free speech and never was. It is just hate speech and I'm looking forward to having our laws sort that out. Even so with those disclaimers frustrated people watching at home may have some questions in mind. Is this a perfect bill that does everything that we want it to? Of course not—if such a thing even exists. Is it the best we can do right now? Absolutely—that is what I believe. Will it still make a difference? It definitely definitely will. And is there any cause for celebration? We should be partying. We should party tonight because each step that we take forward is a step that acknowledges everything that has gone before us. And if I didn't think I could answer those questions I would not put my name to it and the Greens would not be supporting it here today.Finally I dedicate this speech to those whose wairua whose hinengaro whose mauri has suffered because of the harm done to them by conversion practices. The weaponising of religion and spirituality has a particular impact on takatāpui when our ancestors would have accepted us for who we are.To those countless takatāpui and rainbow whānau we have lost because they could not recover from the harm done to them in their places of worship in State care and in their own homes: we remember you. Moe mai rā moe mai rā i te moenga roa.[May you rest in peace.]To those who are experiencing conversion practices right now or not even sure if that is what is happening reach out for help. Talk to somebody and if you can't have those conversations in your own home look for somewhere safe to go to. We've put a stake in the ground and as we increasingly create safety for all rainbow people regardless of their gender their sexuality or their sex characteristics. So as the world becomes increasingly unsafe and less tolerant we've actually got no room for people who think they can continue with this kind of behaviour. On that note I commend this bill to the House. Kia ora.SPEAKER: Tāmati Coffey—a five-minute speech."