Eagle PaulPAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to speak on this bill—the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill. It was fortunate that I was subbing in on the Governance and Administration Committee looking at this bill. The previous speaker Lemauga Lydia Sosene mentioned whakapapa and this is what the underpinning of this bill is about. It's about identity. So what Annie has said is: quite frankly after her parents have passed she wants to reclaim her identity and ensure that her birth certificate reflects the name that her birth parents gave her. If you look back at the history you'll see that she was born in late 1971. It was in 1973—so only a few years later—that the late Norman Kirk brought into place the domestic purposes benefit the DPB. Many people have criticised that. Can I say this—that fundamentally changed the rights of women and started the process of stopping the shame and stigma towards those women who had children whose parents were embarrassed or otherwise and society scorned them for having these children. I'm one of those children too. I was adopted and it took a full 18 years before the law—this country's law still in place today the 1955 Adoption Act that gave you permission to find out who your birth parents were. The person turned up from the then Department of Social Welfare; they present to you a couple of forms and say We've photocopied these from the electoral rolls; we think these are your parents". You go through a process and then out comes a birth certificate with a bit of a red stamp on it and it says "This is what your name was when you were born. These were your parents' names. Good luck in finding them." That practice has changed but the law remains. Can I acknowledge all of those MPs across the House who have done some work to say "This is not reflective of the modern New Zealand world that we live in." In saying that can I congratulate Chris Penk the local member on taking this up on behalf of one of his constituents and saying "We need to rectify this". The good news is change is coming hopefully. The 1955 Adoption Act is being reviewed. I want to acknowledge the officials from the Ministry of Justice who have worked hard and have picked up some of the concerns of the previous speaker and said "We know that this has been dreadful in practice to our Pacific communities Māori." and there's a good 100000-plus. I don't think we will really know the real figure. But none the less I hope that that Act is reformed—for the many Annies out there living across this country who want to know rightfully so who their birth parents are and understand more about their identity where they are from. That's taken a full 50 years for me to say "This is where I'm proudly from." But you can't repair things that quickly and some will still be saying that they find this process—for some they may never want to know and that's OK too. But in this case Annie Oxborough has said "I do want to know. I do want to have my identity reflected on my birth certificate; that represents who I am." She's been respectful noting that her parents have passed. I think that we won't see this coming up. I want to reassure members that I think the process is well under way with the Justice officials to say that we will see reform.The good thing about today is that it's a good yardstick to say when the reform comes we can reflect back on this and make those changes once and for all. Because there have been many members who have tried to make some change within the adoption space and not got very far. So to the member Chris Penk for your work to the committee and the fortunate occasion that I had to be subbed in and to be approved the material that made me want to speak today on this particular matter: thank you. I commend this bill to the House."