Grigg NicolaNICOLA GRIGG (National—Selwyn): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise on behalf of the National Party in support of the Improving Arrangements for Surrogacy Bill. Like every other speaker this evening I would also like to offer my congratulations to Tāmati Coffey—not only for having your bill drawn but I think to you and your husband Tim for going through the process of bringing a wee boy into the world in this way and may that bring you all the joy in the world.It is like other speakers have canvassed. You know it's so good to see proposed changes that update and modernise laws to fit modern society. This is going to be a curlier one I think for the select committee to deal with. It is a complicated proposal to amend I think five Acts and two sets of regulations—all in all about 32 clauses—but let's not be put off by that.A number of speakers this evening have talked to the streamlining of surrogacy arrangements but I'd actually like to focus my contribution on the slightly less canvassed component of the bill and that's Part 1 which amends the Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act—or as we call it HART.This amendment will mean a law change that will allow for fair and reasonable compensation for sperm and egg donors for their time and expenses. I think that this is really important and I personally would really like to see the select committee pay particular attention to this. We have a huge shortage in this country of people willing to donate sperm and eggs because I think of the significant time and costs of doing so. Like Brooke van Velden alluded to I also know for a fact that having your eggs harvested and frozen is a $15000 process.In 2021 Fertility Associates reported they had just 39 sperm donors registered and 41 egg donors registered. This is to try and assist the fertility needs of hundreds of New Zealand couples seeking treatment these days. There are around 400 women alone waiting on a list for sperm donors and 160 waiting for egg donors. I think that these miniscule numbers of donors is quite clearly related to the lack of ability to compensate for those costs for that time off work for travel time.As the current law stands I think as much as a petrol voucher is in breach of the law we are also so far behind other countries and other jurisdictions in this space. In the US most egg donor patients will be recompensed about US$5000. For the UK and Australia it's similar—in the UK donors can get up to about £750 and Australian fertility clinics are offering about A$5000. I think that in doing this these countries have vastly improved the supply of gametes available to couples and/or people who desperately need them.I just want to be really clear though that this bill and the comments I'm making in no way are seeking to create any form of industry for profit". It's simply seeking to allow for fair and reasonable costs to be covered so as to encourage the donors to come forward for those couples—be they gay be they single be they infertile—who desperately need that kind of support.So just to wrap up this evening it seems that the current strict prohibition is what is directly contributing to those very long waiting times and those very long waiting lists. I very much look forward to hearing the select committee inquiry and report back and I commend this bill to the House."