Tinetti Jan; Salesa JennyBIRTHS DEATHS MARRIAGES AND RELATIONSHIPS REGISTRATION BILLThird ReadingHon JAN TINETTI (Minister of Internal Affairs): I present a legislative statement on the Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Bill.SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the 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 third time.I am incredibly proud to be standing here in the third reading of this bill. This is a proud day for this Parliament because while this enacts a small change in legislation it is a big change for many in our community. Today is a day about inclusion: having the right to have a birth certificate that reflects who you know yourself to be. I am talking about the self-ID provisions in this bill and I will talk more on those shortly but what has been lost in this debate is that there are actually other provisions in this bill. The first reading of this bill happened four years ago—actually four years ago tomorrow—and while it made important changes to our national record of New Zealand's births deaths and marriages register none of the provisions were deemed to be controversial and were accepted as sensible and necessary changes. For those people outside of this environment this bill was probably seen to be a bit bland but when it came back from select committee in August 2018 all hints of blandness had gone. In fact it would be fair to say that it was a little bit more interesting than it was before it went to select committee. The then Governance and Administration Committee had listened to the petition of Allyson Hamblett and agreed with the request that the Government introduce a self-identification process for amending registered sex without the requirement for medical treatment and without the need for a court process and the bill was amended accordingly. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Allyson and also thank the then select committee for the work that they did on this bill at that time. Groups and individuals though were perturbed about this because they were concerned that this new version of the bill had not undergone public scrutiny. The then Minister of Internal Affairs the Hon Tracey Martin set up a working group for reducing barriers to changing registered sex and even though they came up with a large number of very very good recommendations they said in that report that nothing could trump a change in the legislation and that this needed to happen.So when I became Minister of Internal Affairs just over a year ago this bill had been sitting back on the Order Paper for two years. I decided to direct my officials to develop a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) of the self-identification clauses and send that SOP to an inquiry with the select committee so that it got the scrutiny and all would have the opportunity to have their say. I would like to thank all of the submitters who had their say in this and also thank the select committee for their hard work over this time. I also want to thank my officials for the work that they did.There is one part that has come back today in this bill that does give me a little bit of disquiet and that is that unfortunately today we don't have a solution for overseas-born people who live in New Zealand but want to change their birth certificate. The select committee worked hard to find the solution but unfortunately we just couldn't get to that point because the options would have left members of this community exposed and wouldn't have necessarily been a good option let alone the best option. However the select committee did recommend that the Government continue to work on finding a solution and I agree. So I have already signalled to my officials that we need to continue work in this area. Targeted consultation on finding the solution will begin in 2022 and I am committed to that work.At the same time as the consultation on the overseas-born solution there will be consultation occurring on the regulations. These include the sex markers who is a suitable third party to support 16- and 17-year-olds in their decision to change their gender and the additional requirements for when a person applies to change their gender more than once to prevent fraud which is a necessary check and balance. Setting these provisions in regulations is important so that we can futureproof the bill as societal norms change around gender and identity over time.As I signalled this bill has had some controversy. It's been a tough journey for our trans and non-binary community and I want to thank them for the work that they have done in advocating for this. I acknowledge that throughout the journey of this bill there have been real people who have been hurt when they have been belittled mocked or discriminated against—people who like any one of us just want to be accepted for who they are and treated with dignity and respect. A lot of the discussion has been aimed at our trans women who as a cisgender woman I am proud to stand alongside and call my sisters. I stand strong against misogyny. Any misogynistic behaviour that aims to keep women down should be rightly challenged. Trans misogyny is still misogyny so I stand strong in challenging this discrimination.We continually are moving to be a more inclusive country. One day all transgender and non-binary individuals will have the freedom to be who they are no matter what and they won't have to face discrimination and hurt from society. They will be able to live their lives and be treated and respected like everyone else and today is a big step towards realising that goal.A few years ago a child was enrolled at my school where I was principal who was angry hurt and confused. At eight years old they had been excluded from another local school. The world saw them as a boy but they knew themself to be a girl. We walked a journey together. They shifted and we fell out of touch but about three years ago they contacted me over social media—just the once—but this time as a beautiful confident and most importantly happy young woman. She wanted to let me know where she was at in her journey and to thank me for always seeing her.Well today we not only see our transgender and non-binary community but we are changing legislation and that is truly a step closer to an inclusive Aotearoa New Zealand. Again I thank the rainbow community who have been staunch advocates for this change for a long long time. To our trans and non-binary community kia kaha kia māia kia manawanui—you keep proudly being you. I am absolutely proud and delighted to commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Kia ora. The question is that the motion be agreed to.