Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour—Hutt South): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I feel incredibly privileged to be able to speak on the third and final reading of the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill. I stand here today and I think of all of the people in New Zealand's history that have gone before to fight each step of the way to improve and strengthen the rights the dignity and the freedoms of New Zealand's rainbow community. All of these people have stood against discrimination and all of these people have stood for improving human rights in New Zealand.I remember clear as day as a young girl standing in the street watching—the first time I'd ever seen protests or the demonstrations for homosexual law reform back in the mid-1980s. The first thing I remember that struck me was that they were some of the most fabulous costumes I'd ever seen. Secondly I remember wondering why people had been shut in a closet" and it took mum to explain what that actually meant. But what stuck with me the most was the hatred in the voices from the sidelines using some of the most obscene words I'd ever heard as a young person. And in the weeks and months after that hearing those same words echoed around the playground and around the streets as other kids learnt those words from adults. And it's there when I look back I remember where that discrimination started and where it's continued. It makes me think of how far we have come as a country but yet still how far we have yet to go.This bill will not end discrimination but I truly hope it is yet another step forward to making sure that there is wellbeing within our rainbow communities and it will go towards creating a more inclusive New Zealand.The select committee process I won't go over because it's third reading but without going into detail we broke all records with there being somewhat of an online warfare between two sides as to how many submissions could be registered and we broke into the four subgroups. I want to acknowledge the members of the Opposition on the committee who worked so well to come to an agreement in how we would hear as many as possible and give all of those people who wanted to submit the ability to do that and I think that that was quite a healing process in hearing all of those submissions.I'm saddened that we don't have unanimous support across the House tonight and back then well National wanted to demand the debate—it seems like they're not quite so keen on doing that now. I wish we could be able to have that debate and I think that's an important debate to be able to have. In fact in a country where my children are growing up it's so important to have those two underpinning principles in this bill. The number one principle that underpins this bill is to prevent harm and the second one is to encourage safe respectful conversations around sexual orientation gender identity and gender expression.We owe it to the next generation to be honest and it's for this reason that I've personally responded to all the emails I've received on this bill and I've had dozens and dozens of conversations whether they be in person or on the phone to those people who want to understand exactly what this bill does. A lot of those conversations have been in and around the relationship between a parent and their child.I had a constituent who called my office just last week who was angry irate at the fact that this bill was preventing him to have a conversation with his child or his grandchild and he was fearful that this conversation would be criminalised. When I spoke through the clarifications the examples the select committee had done to spell out what in fact was a conversion practice—to say that it was specifically encouraging someone to believe that their sexual orientation needs to be changed or fixed because it's broken to say that somebody is wrong and to use shame or coercion with the intention of giving a person an aversion to same-sex attractions—his response was "Well who would do that to a child?" It was so important to be able to have that conversation with some people who had quite clearly received misinformation about what this bill aims to achieve. Because it aims to do exactly the opposite: it aims to have open frank honest conversations with young people who need our help who need our support who need to have their own pathway found to find their identity.I'm going to read one part of the departmental report because I think it sums it up so beautifully. Before I read this I would just like to acknowledge the incredibly hard work that officials did to pull this together and the wonderful penmanship and work that has gone into summarising so many submissions. I quote from the departmental report on page 30: "People who are struggling with their sexuality or gender … should be able to receive the support they need including to explore their identity … to reconcile their faith and sexuality. However rather than being supportive or exploratory conversion practices are external attempts to achieve a pre-determined outcome of changing or suppressing a person's sexual orientation gender identity or gender expression." I would like to put it on the record. It is so important in this day and age that we take our information from more than just one source. And when a bill is being passed a really good place to start is reading the bill itself.There was so many groups who submitted from faith-based organisations who did such a great job and I'm just going to read my favourite two because I thought they did such an amazing job of reconciling some of the real tensions between the faith community and the rainbow community that came out through our submissions process. One in particular reads: "We offer the submission with painful awareness that a founding principle of our faith that we treat others as we would have them treat us has been neglected. We see conversion therapy practices have been conceived to serve a narrow understanding of a person's identity that are at odds with the teachings of Jesus. We believe that well-crafted legislation to ban conversion therapy will help eradicate these neglectful and abusive practices in Aotearoa New Zealand." The last one I would like to mention comes from St Martha's Anglican Church in Dunedin: "We do not believe that practicing conversion therapy is to love others. Especially when it is well known that almost half of the same/both-sex attracted … [people] consider suicide". That was the other main theme of what I would like to cover tonight and that is the mental health of our rainbow communities. The Labour Government has stood strong as one that supports improving access to mental health support and this is even more important in our rainbow communities. We want to make sure that we continue to give access to those services and to support people to find their own space and their own identity in a way that makes them stand strong in our world. The last quote that I'll give tonight is one that nearly brought me to tears. I won't give his name but he did such a great submission. "Queer people do not grow up as their true selves. We grow up hiding parts of who we are to minimise the ridicule and the bullying. Conversion practices are insidious practices that force us to hide the parts of us that society refuses to accept." This has been an amazing process. I feel very privileged to be a member of Parliament that has been part of this process in improving New Zealand's ability to give everybody a fair go.I would like to acknowledge a number of people: Marja Lubeck who first took this member's bill. Thank you Marja for your continuing advocacy and passion to improve rights for our rainbow communities. Rainbow Labour you are relentless and amazing. From your petition to your presentation to the last Parliament you've continued to be a strong advocacy for rainbow communities and for New Zealanders and I thank you for it. I would also like to acknowledge the 90 submitters who themselves were subject to conversion practices—the strength and determination and resolve that you took to tell your stories and make those public. I acknowledge how much you have done.I know that we have a long way to go but in banning conversion practices New Zealand joins other countries in sending a clear message to all people especially our young people that they deserve to be protected no matter what their sexual orientation gender identity or gender expression is. All people including the rainbow community deserve the protection of their rights and their dignity and to live their lives freely just as they are. And I'm proud to see this third and final reading come to rest today in this House. I commend this bill to the House."