Ball DarrochDARROCH BALL (NZ First): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise on behalf of New Zealand First in full support of the Criminal Records (Expungement of Convictions for Historical Homosexual Offences) Bill. Earlier Chris Bishop mentioned the number of signatures 800000 that were gathered originally and in my ignorance I didn't know that such a large number—that's an extraordinary number of people wanting to utilise their democratic right and their views and do it strongly. I made a little bit of a gasp because it was such a huge number and Mark Patterson my colleague sitting next to me on my left went over and said I signed that petition." I would have too to be honest but I was only four years old at the time. But I think it somewhat highlights something that Maggie Barry actually said as well which was that this is far too late the apology in and of itself—some 32 years later. I was thinking earlier on about why that was and why it was too late. Was it a factor of the legislation needing to catch up with society or was it the other way round—was it society needing to be able to catch up to the legislation to see it through this House? Or was it a fact of this House and the members of it needing to catch up with the rest of society and what they wanted originally? I think it's one of those bills where it has been somewhat unfortunate that it has taken so long to ride its natural course even before its consideration with the petition being presented some 30-odd years after the law decriminalising homosexuality. In 2017—just last year—the bill was introduced. It's here today in 2018 and in the process of the third reading we hear a reiteration of the apology which is much needed and the passing of this bill is as well. On behalf of New Zealand First I'd like to congratulate this House for being collaborative and unanimous in the support for this bill. I believe it was Matt King who said that when he was on the Justice Committee his first taste of a bill going through was this bill and he was bitterly disappointed that other bills didn't go through in such a collaborative way. He thought that that's how all the committees worked and perhaps they should in the future. I'd like to congratulate Amy Adams for firstly bringing it to the House and giving the apology late last year under the National Government and also the current Minister of Justice Andrew Little as well for reiterating the apology and seeing this through the House. I also congratulate all the members of the Justice Committee whether they be under the National Government or the current Government seeing this through from the second reading through to the final reading in such a speedy manner. I think one of the most important things is to remember that legislation like this—and obviously speaking about this one in particular it's not about the law it's not about the legislation and it's not about a piece of paper that law or legislation is written on or the words. It's actually about the people. They are real. They are real people they have real families and the effects of what happened to those people and their families some 30 years ago still affects them in a very very real way. I think that one of the important steps in the process of this bill going through the House was the committee stage and that allowed people to submit and allowed for us as representatives to hear those stories whether they were from people who experienced it at first hand or their loved ones who were representing them. It was a very important part of the process of this bill going through. Finally being able to speak on this bill from the second reading forward has made me wonder a little bit about the current laws that we have. Maybe if we look back in five years or 10 years or 30 or 50 years what laws perhaps at that stage will we look back at and say "Why didn't we change it sooner? Why were we blinded why were we misguided and how could we have been so wrong?" So I think this type of legislation—and this one in particular—allows members of this House to reflect on the current situation a little bit more vividly and a little bit more with the greater context and to have an appreciation of who we actually represent and where society is today. New Zealand First fully supports this legislation."