SpeechHon Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin): Thank you Madam Speaker. I too look forward to supporting this bill and I want to acknowledge the comments made by many around the House who have expressed their sympathy with Annie Oxborough's situation and their desire to support this change recognising the importance of identity.I wanted to relay something of a personal story actually. My mother was adopted a generation before Annie Oxborough. I note that I am of a similar age to Ms Oxborough and this is a story of a generation before but not completely dissimilar. My mother was part of an adoption at a time when these things were done discretely and secretly. She felt that that left her—I talked to her earlier about this earlier this evening and I hope I'm using her words right—at sea or without an anchor. There's something about being dislocated when you are an adopted person.Later in her life after her adoptive mother had died her adoptive father shared with her some information about her adoption that was sufficient for her to trace some of that history and reconnect with her birth mother—the last name of her birth mother the age which the mother was when she was born and in which town she was living at the time or registered in. With that information and a good deal of detective work going through both Births Deaths and Marriages; processes; newspaper articles; and the like—I can remember travelling as a child around the South Island with my parents as they did the detective work essentially to find that connection. Then eventually that led to a reconnection with my mother's birth mother who then I as a child came to know and developed a connection with.And that was pretty special. I know it's very very important to my mother for her identity and for that connection to understand everything from medical history right through but also you know where certain personality traits come from or other connections coincidences—it's all tied up with identity. And that was really important to my mother. For her it was really important that it wasn't something she wanted to do while her adoptive mother was alive—it didn't feel right. The time was right to do it later but it was an incredibly important journey. And I as it happened then have developed connections with those birth parents—with her birth mother and with her subsequent husband. I actually have had the privilege then only recently two years ago on the 13th of this month—so in three days' time two years ago—of burying my mother's birth mother and as I'm a Presbyterian minister conducting the funeral service. And I prior to that conducted the funeral for her subsequent husband. So we have become very much a part of that family and of their story and have felt privileged to know the other siblings—you know half brothers and sisters—and their families. And it has felt like such a privilege and a wonderful connection to have.So I can relate to some of the story I've heard about Annie Oxborough's quest to have identity affirmed. I know it's been so important in my own family through that adoptive connection to better understand the connections of the family to build those connections and just to the sense of identity.I am delighted that there is work progressing that the Ministry of Justice is leading on adoption law reform that will address some of these issues with time. I'm not sure that it will actually address Annie Oxborough's case directly because it may not be retrospective in its effect but it's good that we are doing this work as a Government and as a Parliament. This identity question we all know is so important and it is really good to be able to stand today to support this bill. It's for one person incredibly important. It may not seem to the wider picture that we're solving the bigger picture but actually for this one person this will be incredibly important. And it's also symbolically important for others in similar situations—to let them know there are avenues for properly being identified according to your history your family and your connections. So it's with some pleasure that I support this bill to the House.