Robertson GrantHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Thank you very much Madam Deputy Speaker and thank you for the opportunity to take a call in this third reading debate. A few years ago after one of the Labour Party's leadership contests—we had a couple—I took some time out and I went down to Dunedin and I went to the Hocken Library in Dunedin. I went there to look into a person who in many years to come when I leave this place I want to write a book about. His name is Rodney Kennedy and Rodney—I won't go in to the connection that I have with Rodney Kennedy—was an amazing man patron of the arts supported Colin McCahon Toss Woollaston was an incredible person had a long-running relationship a potentially platonic relationship with Charles Brasch the poet and was an incredible person and has never really been recognised in my belief for what he did in his contribution to the arts.When I was looking at some of his records I came across a very very small envelope which he had addressed to Charles Brasch who at that point wasn't living in Dunedin but was living in Christchurch—this would be in the late 1950s early 1960s. Inside the envelope was a very very small newspaper clipping which said Rodney Eric Kennedy was today discharged from the conviction of indecency with another male." What Rodney Kennedy had obviously done was he'd clipped that out of the paper and he'd sent it in an envelope to Charles Brasch. There were no other words in the envelope—no letter nothing just this clipping.Rodney Kennedy and Charles Brasch moved in circles particularly Charles Brasch where the shame and the fear and the anxiety and the depression caused by the illegality of homosexuality and by the arrests and by the attitude of the police of the time would've been unbearable. In this incredibly poignant moment it captured for me the impact it had on these men's lives. They could barely speak to one another about this. Rodney Kennedy added no words to that clipping. He couldn't express himself and how he felt to a man he was close to very close to and shared a relationship with. That was the state of fear that these men lived in.It is to Rodney Kennedy to Norris Davey—Norris Davey became Frank Sargeson—and the less famous men that we stand tonight as a Parliament and we say "We're sorry." I say more than that as I did in my first reading; I say "I'm sorry." as a man who has been able to live my life relatively freely as a homosexual male a person who's able to come to this Parliament and get heckled and abused by the National Party because I'm the finance Minister not because I'm a gay man. That's a fantastic advance that is built on the shoulders of those men not just of those men who were arrested or convicted or who spent time in prison but of those men who just lived their lives as gay men who actually just tried to survive through those years.So to all of the men who were not arrested and their families we also say sorry because this law was and is wrong. The fact that we can expunge the convictions today is a mighty step forward for addressing that but the constant fear and the reminder of the worthlessness and the shame of your mere existence is not something we can put away so easily because it echoes through generations. I've been deeply moved by the men and their families who have written to me since this legislation came forward and since the first reading who have expressed the fact that finally there is a time for them to feel some self-worth. We can't undo what's been done to them but we can now say it was wrong we are sorry and we want to say that out loud. To me these men are heroes. They are people that we should look up to. They are people who now need to know that their country actually does value them.I want to thank as others have tonight Wiremu Demchick for starting this through his petition. It was a brave act and it was supported by more than 2000 other people—all of them deserve credit. I also want to add my thanks to Amy Adams the Minister of Justice who introduced the legislation and to Andrew Little my colleague who has shepherded it through and also to the Justice Committee. The select committee improved this bill. The select committee have made it—particularly in terms of travelling overseas I believe that they have strengthened what Parliament is trying to achieve here so that hopefully when people travel they won't be required to disclose a conviction that is no longer with them.It's important for me to address the topic of compensation tonight. There were a large percentage of the submissions that came to the committee that sought compensation for the men involved. I have to tell you that the men themselves have mixed views on that matter. Some would like I believe to see compensation. Others believe that that is an impossible thing to calculate and actually not what they want the focus of this to be about. So we have to recognise and accept that there are mixed views about that question. What I want to focus on is that while there may not be compensation I can give my personal commitment that there will be a legacy that we as a Parliament in the future will be able to find a way to pay tribute to those who have gone before and give to those who are to come. Because the step this bill takes represents another step in a journey a journey that we can point to great milestones in—and Chris Bishop's already done some of this—to the Homosexual Law Reform Act and the incredible work of Fran Wilde; to the Human Rights Act and the tremendous work of Katherine O'Regan in supporting that; forward to the Civil Union Act with Tim Barnett Georgina Beyer and others who did such a fantastic job there; and forward to marriage equality with my colleague Louisa Wall driving that piece of legislation and supported by fantastic people such as Kevin Hague and Jan Logie.Those are important steps on the journey and this is another one but there are more to come. We should not be naive—if you're a young trans person growing up in rural New Zealand today your life's not easy. You're likely to be subject to discrimination; you're likely to feel the stigma and the hurt that these men felt. Actually if you're a young gay man growing up in some of those places you will still feel the same.Not every school in our country is a safe place if you are gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgender or intersex. Not every community in New Zealand is a safe place. There is still more work to do. There is still some legal recognition to sort out when it comes to our trans community to make sure that they believe that the Human Rights Act actually works in their favour. There is a tremendous amount of work to do to make sure that every young New Zealander grows up believing in themselves believing in their own value and knowing that society supports them that society says "You have self-worth. You are an important person. You have great potential and whether you are gay or whether you have gender diversity or you are questioning that we will support you through that."So the legacy of tonight for me has to be that we continue the journey towards not just tolerance but acceptance and embracing diversity and saying that is what makes our country a great country to live in. But we know we have more to do. So there will be more that comes from tonight but for now I commend this bill. I celebrate the fact that we are expunging these convictions. I say sorry again to the men and their families and commit again to supporting a legacy from this that will ensure that in the future generations of young people know they matter. Love is not a crime. They should be who they are."