Kerekere Elizabeth; Salesa JennyDr ELIZABETH KEREKERE (Green): It is with great pleasure that after generations of systemic discrimination decades of community activism and many years of work in this House we are passing this amendment to the Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Bill today. Ngā mihi ki te Minister Jan Tinetti for bringing this bill back into the House and for her staunch ally-ship in working through this. Your willingness to engage with community leaders over the course of this has made it a better bill.Many thanks to the Governance and Administration Committee which I joined for the passage of this bill. There is a comradery that builds when you spend hours and hours together hearing submissions of such divergent views.A shout-out to Rainbow Greens and all of the community organisations who have worked alongside us to encourage people to make submissions and make their voice heard. We acknowledge Gender Minorities Aotearoa who have been community lead for this for over the last few years; to Rainbow Path who have specifically worked with the Minister and ministry to advocate for refugees asylum seekers and recent migrants. We acknowledge the work of our teams of Tīwhanawhana Te Ngākau Kahukura InsideOUT OutLine RainbowYOUTH F'INE the parents of transgender and gender-diverse children and the Counting Ourselves and Identify research teams. Ngā mihi aroha kia koutou katoa he mahi uaua tēnei. Your job is not done but we're nearly there.I offer a quick whaea whakapapa. In 2004 Georgina Beyer's member's bill to specify gender identity in the Human Rights Act was drawn from the biscuit tin but was later withdrawn. In 2008 the Human Rights Commission produced To Be Who I Am—Report of the Inquiry into Discrimination Experience by Transgender People—a shout-out to Jack Byrne. In 2012 the Department of Internal Affairs offered M F and X options for passports. In 2013 the New Zealand Transport Agency offered female male and indeterminate options for drivers' licences. In 2013 Green MP and my colleague the legendary Jan Logie ran a consultation with the trans community and met with Allyson Hamblett and supported her to make the petition that led to this bill. In 2015 2016 2017 2018—in pretty much every single year—the IDAHOBIT collection of—collection also but coalition—coalition of rainbow groups presented to Parliament to the cross-party network here and in those submissions every single year was the amendment of the Act. In 2017 the Government and Administration Committee recommended that the Minister of Internal Affairs instruct its officials to review section 28 based on Allyson Hamblett's petition. It was going so well that it was introduced that year and in 2018 it was withdrawn by at that time the Minister of Internal Affairs. In 2020 PRISM: Human Rights issues relating to Sexual Orientation Gender Identity and Expression and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) in Aotearoa New Zealand was released by the Human Rights Commission—a shout-out to Taine Polkinghorne. In 2021 Minister Tinetti brought the bill back to the House and here we are at its third reading. In between that represents thousands and thousands of hours of volunteers out in our community talking to Ministers talking to MPs and talking to agencies.The hearings were something else. We would have hoped that all submitters presented with accurate information and a genuine care for the humanity of all New Zealanders. Sadly that was not the case and we acknowledge that many members of takatāpui trans intersex and non-binary communities and your allies were infuriated and traumatised by the gaslighting transphobia and particularly transphobic misogyny that was expressed in those hearings. On a side note somebody made a meme of my colleagues Deborah Russell and Rachel Boyack and I on one of the times that we suggested that perhaps they could calm down some of their observations. But channelling my Catholic mother I hope that the complete and absolute failure of the anti-trans lobby provides them with an opportunity to sit down and really think about their behaviour. The Green Party proudly maintains our long-held stance that trans intersex non-binary and takatapui people with diverse genders and sex characteristics should be able to identify their own gender on their birth certificates in a way that is mana-enhancing affordable and accessible in a simple process that can be done without fuss without serious invasion of privacy and without proof of surgery because all people in this country should have documents of identity that reflect who they are regardless of where they were born or when they arrived in this country. The bill means we move from an invasive and demeaning Family Court process to a statutory declaration. This will reduce cost barriers free up the court's time and reduce the administrative burden on health professionals who are required to provide evidence for such applications. But more importantly it enhances the mana of takatāpui trans intersex and non-binary people and ensures their birth certificate matches their driver's licence and their passport if they have one but ensures young people can produce a birth certificate that matches who they are and not who they were incorrectly assigned as at birth.Unfortunately as my colleagues have pointed out this only applies to people who were born in Aotearoa. It was one of the two main issues that community advocates raised during the submission process. I may or may not have tried the patience of the select committee by my persistent encouragement of the officials to come up with a solution for this but I wholeheartedly thank those officials for the hard work that they did. I know they're all personally invested in marking this work. We could have come up with a quick fix but nothing that would have protected the privacy of the people who need this. I am very happy that the Minister has stated her commitment of her and her officials to find solutions for people born overseas. I look forward to the Minister specifying that this includes refugees asylum seekers and recent migrants who may not yet be residents but who've come here to make this their home.The discrimination against people with diverse genders sexualities and sex characteristics can easily be traced back to colonisation. This bill signals the continuing shift in New Zealand in our society that reflects that the world is changing—that actually LGBTIQ people people with diverse genders sexualities and sex characteristics are a normal part of our lives of our whānau.This bill recognises that those who need to amend their birth certificate can do so and that the courts do not have the right to make that choice for them that parents do not have that right and that cisgender people who don't even know them or care about them do not have that right. This bill upholds the mana the wairua the mauri of our takatāpui trans intersex and non-binary whānau. It will be the first of many especially while I'm in this House.So to all of you watching in support to our tūpuna takatāpui who came before us as a takatāpui cis-lesbian femme ally to our takatāpui trans intersex and non-binary whānau I am very proud to commend this bill to the House. Kia ora. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Kia ora.