Craig LizDr LIZ CRAIG (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's an absolute pleasure to rise and stand in support of this bill with my colleagues across the House because female genital mutilation (FGM) is a global sexual and reproductive health issue and also a human rights issue for many many many millions of women across the globe. Basically for us as a country it's incredibly important that we align our definitions of FGM with the World Health Organization and with international best practice so that we can stand alongside those millions of other women that are affected by FGM both in New Zealand and across the globe.I'd like to just start by acknowledging the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians for bringing us to this point. As you've heard today this is a first for us here in Parliament having four different MPs coming to introduce this bill and so basically the symbolism of women MPs from National from Labour from the Greens and from New Zealand First standing together and lending our support to the elimination of FGM. I'd also like to acknowledge the role of the FGM Education Programme and the FGM community educators who have actively been advocating for this legislation to be updated for a number of years now and also for the work they've been doing in communities locally that are affected by FGM and basically not only to improve the outcomes of women who are affected but also to make sure that FGM doesn't occur here in New Zealand. As I said FGM is a global issue affecting about 200 million women worldwide. Because of our role as part of that global community increasing numbers of women who have undergone FGM are now living here with us in New Zealand. So thinking through the role that the FGM Education Programme has not only in awareness raising and education but also equipping health professionals who are going to be looking after women who have undergone FGM during pregnancy and during childbirth so that they've got clear guidance and guidelines about any next steps in terms of walking beside those women during those times in their lives.As we know FGM was made illegal in New Zealand in 1996 via an amendment to the Crimes Act. I think the sense at the time and still now is that basically FGM is a form of discrimination against women and it reflects underlying gender inequalities in society and also the huge amount of harm that it can cause to women and young girls in terms of the huge side-effect profile.The other thing is that usually it's performed at a very young age. I reflect back to my own time as a junior doctor working in obstetrics and gynaecology. One of my roles there was to obtain written informed consent from women that were in our care who were undergoing gynaecological procedures. We were trained that it was incredibly important that what we did with women was that we explained the procedure well and we weighed up the benefits and basically talked about the benefits and what would actually happen and also talked to them about the risks of those procedures because we felt it was incredibly important that women had the ability to make an informed choice about whether indeed they went ahead with a procedure—the ability to have informed consent. I think that's a fundamental right that many many young girls in particular but women across the globe are being denied; that ability to weigh up the risks and benefits and to say No" if they choose not to go ahead with a procedure that for them may well have no benefits.So basically why are we coming to update this Act now as there has been no recent documented evidence that FGM is actually occurring and being practised here in New Zealand? I think the importance of it as I've already mentioned is that we are part of a global community and so what is incredibly important is for us to make sure that young women girls women of any age here in New Zealand are protected from all forms of FGM here and also if they travel overseas.What this bill will be doing is updating the definitions of FGM particularly to include the type four FGM which is not currently covered under the Crimes Act which relates to harmful procedures to the female genitalia such as pricking piercing incising scraping and cauterising the genital area. We've already heard that some women travelling overseas particularly the case of that young girl were not fully covered because the definitions under this Act didn't fully protect them. So I think this is an incredibly important bill that brings us in line in terms of our definitions with the World Health Organization and with international best practice. I have no hesitation in commending this bill to the House. Thank you."