Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour—Hamilton East): Thank you Mr Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this debate on Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the courage of Annie Oxborough for bringing this bill to the House. It's a very public process that she went through and she made herself vulnerable as she went through that process. I'd like to acknowledge her courage for this. Also I'd like to acknowledge the member Chris Penk for being a good constituent MP in terms of bringing this bill to the House in terms of serving his constituent. This was a very interesting bill for our committee the Governance and Administration Committee. Generally we deal with matters of local government and such like but this was—I don't want to say more interesting but this certainly engaged us very strongly.The reality is that for years women have had babies at different ages—some women from the age of 16 or even younger; others like my mother who at 48 had twins. Yes 48. My mother actually spanned both spectrums because she fell pregnant with me when she was 19 and she and dad were estranged in terms of their relationship—to use the pun—and so it was a difficult time for her actually. Basically she met with a doctor and the doctor said It's OK Noeline"—and I do have permission say this—"we can send you to Australia and just have an abortion." And she said "Oh OK." But then when she spoke to a couple of people—her workmate and her sister—they said "If you go through with the baby we will adopt the child." She and Dad did get back together before she had the baby. She went through with it and here I am today.Andrew Bayly: And what a beautiful man you are.JAMIE STRANGE: Oh thank you. But many young mothers often don't have that type of support around them. The member Andrew Bayly just complimented me in terms of how nice it is to have me in the world and I appreciate that too. But many young mothers don't have the support that my mother had and it's a very challenging time.This was the story that we heard from Annie Oxborough—that her 21-year-old birth mother was not allowed to see her after delivery and she was left with other newborns in the hospital for 16 days after her birth in Auckland. Medical records reveal that as a baby Annie cried so much that she had to be medicated. Actually Annie's mother had to pay a hospital administration fee of $1 when she left her child there. She even had to pay the hospital to leave her child in the hospital. The child was there for 16 days and then was adopted. When Annie's mum met her 20 years later she gave her back the slip of paper—the receipt for the dollar—obviously a very emotional moment for her and her daughter. Annie wasn't allowed to see her birth certificate until she was 18. When she was 18 years of age she was able to see her birth certificate. That then sparked a process whereby she attempted to track down her birth mother—her birth parents. It took her 18 months and she finally did track down her birth mother and formed a strong relationship with her birth mother. This bill here today is the result of that relationship that she formed with her birth mother and her father.As a select committee as other speakers have said there were some complexities within this bill. We worked through that and I think we've landed in a really good place. We did also highlight the fact that there will no doubt be others who have been through similar traumatic experiences who would like their name changed on their birth certificate as well. This could be up to around 100000 people across New Zealand potentially. It will be interesting to see how many of those people seek out local MPs to go through this process. The reality is that it may be difficult for the House to process 100000 of these individual applications so I am pleased to see that some work is being done on the Adoption Act and I look forward to seeing that work progress. I'm also finally in closing pleased to see that all parties it appears are supporting this bill. It's the right thing to do. Thank you."