Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's with real excitement and pleasure that I get to take a final call on the Accident Compensation (Maternal Birth Injury and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. As others have said this is a very significant day for us as a country. We've had this cornerstone social insurance scheme in the country that's provided compensation and rehabilitation and support for thousands of New Zealanders every year but it has excluded the injuries and the experience of thousands of birthing parents because it was designed in a time when the experience of birthing parents and women was not in the mainstream political discussion. It was an addendum way down in that report as already mentioned by a previous speaker. I've got to say as a feminist who has been active on issues of equality for decades now it's been shocking to me to hear the submissions come through this process of the extent of pain and injury that has been suffered by birthing parents and women and their whānau and how much that has been covered up and silenced in our society. So I do want to offer my thanks to everybody who submitted and also to the 40000 New Zealanders who signed the open letter to Minister for ACC in September last year including almost all of our children's organisations and women's organisations and many of our health organisations calling for this comprehensive cover and most particularly the 900 birthing parents who shared their specific stories of injury. I know that this has been traumatic for so many people and this is a warning for anybody who may be listening who may have been affected by it that I am about to share some of those stories now because I believe that it is important that some of the extent of the injury is on record in this House because it's become very apparent to me the level of shame that's been held by people who have experienced these injuries. We need to do more to break that shame and destigmatise these injuries. So I am going to share some of those stories in the House today. I'll quote: I suffered from third-degree tears through my clitoris and anus during my first birth. The anaesthetic hadn't kicked in yet. I was sewn back up by hand. I requested a female and was given a male. I already had PTSD before this so it just added to the trauma. I felt every stitch until the last few when the anaesthetic finally began kicking in. I couldn't walk unaided for days. For six months straight I couldn't feel when I needed to pee and had accidents multiple times a day until almost nine to 12 months after birth. I couldn't participate in any sexual activity. I found physically walking painful but had to as I had no vehicle. It's been nine years; I wear a pad every single day because accidents are still happening. No pelvic floor exercises ever worked. This should have been covered by ACC. I am shocked and appalled that it isn't already. This needs to happen as soon as possible and all historic traumatic births need to be covered." Then from another woman: "In October 2020 I gave birth to my daughter and sat on a wheelchair in the car park lobby entrance of Middlemore Hospital. Because of the position I was in my daughter left me suffering with severe tailbone pain. Doctors say there's nothing I can do. I applied for ACC but it isn't covered but giving birth on a wheelchair was definitely an accident. I suffer with pain every day. I can't sit for long periods of time. I need an X-ray and treatment for it as it's really affecting my mental health." Another story: "In September I gave birth to a baby that was 8lb 3. My baby was two weeks early due to a rare pregnancy complication. I'm now five weeks post-partum and have developed pelvic organ prolapse. This means that my uterus is bulging out my vaginal opening. This is treatable with physiotherapy. ACC will not cover this. If prolapses are left untreated they get worse and the organ protrudes further until the point of needing surgery which can cause infertility. Once a prolapse gets to a moderate stage it's unlikely physiotherapy will do anything. To fix this I have to spend more than $100 per session to help with this condition but being on a low income I cannot afford this. This means I cannot go to physio and my condition is only going to get worse over time. This will lead to surgery and a high chance of infertility." These stories are hard to listen to but boy they've got to be much much harder to live with that reality. So today is a milestone that birthing parents women in this situation from 1 October will be able to reach out and get the support that they need to prevent many of those consequential impacts in terms of their mobility in terms of their relationships and in terms of their ability to parent their integrity of their bodies and their life choices. This is hugely significant and I do want to acknowledge Sarah Pallett and others on the committee for the work that we did to ensure that the list was extended so that now anterior wall prolapse posterior wall prolapse or uterine prolapse; coccyx fracture or dislocation; obstetric anal sphincter injury tears or tears to the perineum labia vagina vulva clitoris cervix rectum anus or urethra; post-partum uterine inversion; pubic ramus fracture; and symphysis pubis capsule or ligament tears will also be added to the cover where they were not initially. So that is a significant extension to the bill because of the contribution of people with lived experience in this area and I hope that that gives them hope in our democratic processes as well as the ability for Governments to catch up with the real world and respond when voices are raised that harm is being done. Of course this bill—as we have raised many times—is not perfect in the view of the Greens. We wanted more general cover rather than a list. We wanted to ensure that injuries to babies are covered where they are excluded from this and it was fantastic to hear that the National Party is now considering that. My understanding of Labour Party direction is that it is also to remove those inequities in coverage for support services for disability as a result of accident and disability as a result of birth and that has been signalled by a previous Minister. So it feels to me as if we are building—partly through hopefully submissions—consensus across the House for that next step. That is critically important because those inequities are just unjustifiable. We also wanted stand-alone mental trauma to be covered and it's great that it is now on the Minister's agenda to be looking at the mental health boundaries more broadly in the legislation because that really does need to be done. She has also signalled that in respect of the Nick Smith changes there are more changes to come to overturn those contractions—that was probably an inappropriate word in this context—or the bringing in of the purpose of the bill that happened in 2010. I do just finally want to say that the hearing loss threshold—I was not convinced that the threshold is necessary. While it says that hearing aids may only be valuable from 5 percent or 6 percent somebody can lose 17 percent of hearing or most of the hearing in one ear and it won't reach that threshold and they would have value. We don't support the arguments from the officials in keeping the threshold that high and there's more I could say on gradual process but I won't. Today is a day primarily to celebrate and I am."