Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker and it's a real pleasure to finally—it feels like there's been a few attempts where I thought this bill was going to come up that didn't quite eventuate—get to speak and offer the Green Party's support for this member's bill the Improving Arrangements for Surrogacy Bill in the name of Tāmati Coffey. And I too want to acknowledge Mr Coffey for getting this bill drawn—it's a special moment in your experience in Parliament for that to happen—but also the amount of detailed thinking that has gone into this piece of legislation; part of and the will of it from lived experience and connection to others who recognise the importance of this. I believe they're special moments when Parliament's considering matters from people's experience and members of our community whose experiences are being brought into this House.The Law Commission recognises—I think there's about 50 children every year; that is their best estimate because we don't actually know because there isn't a formal framework at the moment for surrogacy arrangements but 50 children they think at the moment every year in this country are born in a surrogacy arrangement. But we have no enforceable or formal arrangements around surrogacy so this bill seeks to do that. I do want to acknowledge the intersection between this bill and the work that the Government initiated in 2020 asking the Law Commission to look into surrogacy arrangements and the Law Commission has had a consultation period over options that they've been considering that closed in September last year and we are expecting their report back this year. And the Greens will be looking at that really closely and are happy to support this bill and hope that it aligns with the work of the Law Commission because we don't want to undermine that really chunky piece of work but also recognise that it's an opportunity to speed the implementation of what they may recommend if the timing aligns with this bill and that there are parts of this bill that go beyond what they were looking at that can be fruitfully examined.I do need to say too that the Green Party—in terms of where we sit at the moment not having heard the detailed evidence or the commission's report back—do tend to gravitate towards the option A of the Law Commission's Part 1 model and that this bill is based more towards the option B. Our point around where we're leaning more towards A is our understanding in terms of international best practice of enabling the person who gives birth to be that parent at that point and then sign a declaration around confirming the transfer of parenting responsibilities. The reason for that is: one just around recognising that role of giving birth but secondly if in a terrible situation something went wrong that there's a guaranteed parent. If those who are receiving the child actually decide that they're not going to go ahead with that the child doesn't become parentless for any time in their life.So that is why we are at this stage leaning towards the option A and we are really excited to be able to explore this finally because I do want to re-emphasise the point made by the previous speaker around how overdue it is for us as a country to be looking at this and to be looking at adoption laws as well—adoption laws 50 years out of date at the time it was written where we treated children as chattels. And it's quite revolting in terms of the framing of that legislation. I do want to acknowledge the member for some of the really sensitive framing in this bill around some of the detail that seeks to acknowledge that right to knowledge of your biological information as well as your whakapapa in the fullest sense as well as trying to create certainty and care and support for everybody involved in this process. And that for us is what's at the heart of this and we look forward to engaging on the select committee to get the details to get the best result for our children and for birthing parents and for intended lifelong parents out of this piece of legislation. Kia ora.