Logie Jan: Statutes Amendment Bill (No 4) — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: Statutes Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading[Sitting date: 16 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17346. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green):Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I rise to offer the Green Party’s support for this Statutes Amendment Bill (No 4) and would like to talk particularly to the recently tabled Supplementary Order Paper 432 in the name of Louisa Wall to amend section 21(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act to make sure that it includes gender identity under the definition of “sex”. I recognise that this is a very minor amendment that will confirm our common understanding of the law as it is at the moment. Currently the Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex and clarifies that pregnancy and childbirth fall within the gambit of sex. The Human Rights Commission practises as if gender identity also falls under that definition of “sex”. As we have heard the Minister of Justice has spoken internationally confirming her understanding that gender identity falls under the understanding of sex as a grounds for prohibited discrimination. Further the Solicitor-General has given a legal opinion back in 2006 offering the same interpretation. So this Supplementary Order Paper would be a very minor amendment consistent with Government policy and what I believe is our shared understanding of the world.I do want to just talk a little bit though about why it is important. I think the internationally groundbreaking reportTo Be Who I Am which was commissioned in2006 by the Human Rights Commission gives us a very good steer about why this is important. This was a report that evolved out of a very long consultation with transgender communities within New Zealand so that was withwhakawahinefa‛afafinefakaleiti ‛akava‛ine and many different queens and queer people in this country about their experience of living in New Zealand. What the commission found through that consultation was that the level of discrimination these different communities experience is really extreme. In fact I think the commission described how in some of the stories that it heard as the report repeatedly demonstrates trans people have had to triumph over severe—sometimes heartbreaking—adversities. Being trans is not a lifestyle choice; rather it is a core part of a person’s identity.What the commission found out through this consultation is that people are experiencing discrimination in our schools in our educational institutions in our workplaces and in accessing pretty much most services in New Zealand. The Human Rights Commission will respond to complaints that people make but people need to know that they can make those complaints. Clarifying this law and putting it on paper that we recognise them is an important step in that process of enabling people to make complaints and to protect their human rights in this country. The different trans communities are numerically very small and so it is very hard for them to fight those battles publicly. There are not many of them to do that. So it does fall on us I think as political leaders to speak on their behalf when we can and to make sure that our laws actually provide the leadership and open up the spaces for them to be able to claim their human rights and help us on that journey as a country to becoming totally inclusive and embracing of our differences. So on that note I am happy to be supporting this bill and in particular the Supplementary Order Paper in the name of Louisa Wall. Kia ora.