Tinetti JanBIRTHS DEATHS MARRIAGES AND RELATIONSHIPS REGISTRATION BILLSecond ReadingHon JAN TINETTI (Minister of Internal Affairs): I present a legislative statement on the Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Bill to the House. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): That legislative statement is published under authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website. Hon JAN TINETTI: I move That the Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Bill be now read a second time.This bill was subject to robust debate at the Governance and Administration Committee in 2018. The select committee reported back with an enhanced version of the bill with amendments that did a number of things. The Government supports the amendments presented by the select committee in 2018 and as the Minister for Internal Affairs I'm pleased to be progressing the bill.I have identified several improvements to these amendments that I believe will better support the needs of transgender non-binary and intersex communities and individuals of all ages. These amendments are contained in draft Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 59 that was released yesterday. We want to ensure that these provisions adequately support the people they purport to serve. I'm therefore now not only resuming progress on this bill by caring for the committee's 2018 recommendations but I'm also signalling my intent before the House to invite the Governance and Administration Committee to use its inquiry powers to consider Supplementary Order Paper 59 following this second reading. I will be requesting a full public submission process be part of this inquiry to ensure New Zealanders can have their say. I'll come back to speak to that part of the bill shortly but firstly I'd like to outline for the House the substantive parts of the bill in regards to the administration and upgrading of our Births Deaths and Marriages register.Fundamentally this bill makes important changes to New Zealand's register of Births Deaths and Marriages a national record that collates information from our first to our last breath and a lot of very important life events in between. Protecting the integrity of this record is critical. New Zealanders rightly have a growing expectation that all Government services are accessible through the online and digital platforms they use. The bill underpins how we create change use and access identity documents in a way that reflects and supports the ever-changing profile of our communities. The bill establishes a legislative framework that will facilitate the development of new access channels for all Births Deaths and Marriages information and allow greater electronic access to information. We've taken the utmost care to ensure that we are also mitigating the misuse of information through robust criteria and evidence of identity that can be verified online. These are all important changes but one of the changes that came back from select committee in 2018 has been subject to a fair amount of public debate and that is around the gender self-identification provisions. The process to amend registered sex has not changed since 1995 and yet as a country we have. This Government believes that all New Zealanders regardless of sexual orientation gender identity gender expression or sex characteristics have the right to safety dignity and to live free from discrimination. Yet our current law requires transgender and intersex New Zealanders to undergo a complex intimidating and often inaccessible process based on the provision of medical evidence to amend the sex on their birth certificate. A survey in 2019 found that 83 percent of this community did not have the correct gender represented on their birth certificate. Today we are proud to be the most rainbow Parliament in the world and yet for many of our rainbow community basic life events where a birth certificate is often used such as enrolling a child at school or opening a new bank account become a moment of stress forced outing and discrimination. And as Minister of Internal Affairs I think it's unacceptable for us to continue using a government-issued birth certificate that causes pain and discrimination for some New Zealanders. Under this bill transgender non-binary and intersex New Zealanders will no longer require proof of medical treatment or to show a court that they physically conform to the deeply held and lived knowledge of who they know themselves to be. I'd like to take a moment to put some facts on the record as there has been some confusing information about what this bill will and won't do. So to be clear you can already change the gender on a birth certificate. The change of your gender on a passport or a licence already can happen. The bill does not propose changes to the way we collect or record sex information at birth. What we are proposing here and what I am asking the select committee to use their inquiry powers to look at is removing what are frankly unnecessary barriers for a small but important group of New Zealanders to identify their gender on their birth certificate. This isn't something that has been dreamt up overnight; this has been part of a substantial policy process to do what this Government knows is the right thing to do for our transgender intersex and non-binary communities. I don't believe that these changes will impact impinge or threaten the rights of any other New Zealanders but they will increase the rights of some vulnerable members of our community who deserve the dignity and right to be able to self-identify their gender on their birth certificate without financial medical or legal barriers.We are also not alone in making these changes. Since 2012 15 other countries have adopted a self-identification process as well as the Australian states of Tasmania and Victoria. There has been no substantial evidence found on any serious or unmanageable consequences of introducing a self-identification process. However if any unintended consequences do arise we have built in a statutory review of the self-identification provisions five years after the commencement of this bill as per the 2018 select committee's recommendations.The SOP also has an 18-month transition period which is slightly longer than what I had initially hoped but we do think it's necessary to ensure this legislation provides the framework intended and that technical infrastructure is in place and ready to give effect to the changes in a way that works for all involved. Another aspect of the self-identification provisions that we have given careful consideration of is the rights of transgender intersex and non-binary children. This Government believes that children are aware of their gender from a young age but the Act does not reflect this. The bill also introduces two age categories with different requirements that focus on consent and reflect the cognitive development of older adolescents. The draft Supplementary Order Paper 59 released recommends that young people aged 16 or 17 years can apply on their own behalf and can choose to accompany this with either consent from a guardian or a letter of support from a suitably qualified third party. For under-16s they still require their guardian to apply on their behalf. This approach is consistent with other legislation in New Zealand—for example 16 is the age at which you can apply for a learner driver's licence and consent to general medical procedures. Before I conclude I want to briefly outline other policy changes the SOP makes to improve on the foundations provided by the select committee. A key amendment is to allow for multiple changes of a sex marker in recognition that gender can be fluid and can develop over the course of a lifetime. The Government also proposes setting in regulation a wider range of sex markers than those outlined in the bill. Again this is to ensure that regulation can be adjusted as gender theory and terminology evolves and allows for a culturally inclusive marker. Another area of further consideration is access to self-identification for people whose births are not on the New Zealand birth register. This is a complicated area given New Zealand's legislation has no jurisdiction over offshore regulations. Therefore New Zealand's self-identification provisions cannot be used to change the birth records of another country. The Government recognises this causes concern for some New Zealanders and residents who were born overseas and my officials are currently working to address this issue as the bill progresses. In order to progress this important work following this debate I will write to the chair of the Governance and Administration Committee and request that it conducts an inquiry into the draft Supplementary Order Paper to give effect to the proposals that I have outlined today. I will also request that the committee call for public submissions. It is my intention to progress the bill to the committee of the whole House stage in three months' time as the House would benefit from having the select committee's report available for debate prior to the committee stage. I will also present another Supplementary Order Paper unrelated to self-identification at the committee of the whole House stage that will include minor and technical amendments. The bill and proposed amendments are consistent with this Government's focus on ensuring better health and social outcomes for all New Zealanders and I am extremely proud to commend this bill to the House.