10. Question No. 10—JusticeCHRIS PENK (National—Kaipara ki Mahurangi) to the Minister of JusticeQuestion No. 10—Justice10. CHRIS PENK (National—Kaipara ki Mahurangi) to the Minister of Justice: Does he stand by all his statements and actions?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Justice): Kia ora anō Mr Speaker. Yes in particular I stand by the progress the Government has already made over the last nine months to introduce counter-terrorism legislation and establish a single broad policy to better prevent and respond to terrorism and associated activities; to strengthen the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act to introduce a new power enabling the seizure of assets of those associated with organised crime; to introduce legislation to protect against practices intended to change or suppress someone's sexual orientation gender identity or gender expression; and to establish a review and public engagement on options to change our adoption laws to bring them into the 21st century.Chris Penk: Under his proposed hate speech law will political opinion be a possible ground for hate speech?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: As has been clearly stated the discussion document does not propose that but asks those who might submit about whether or not they feel that political opinion should be included.Chris Penk: Is political opinion not a ground under section 21 of the Human Rights Act and therefore subject to being brought into the hate speech provisions as advised by the Cabinet paper and also the discussion document now open for public consultation?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: It is but the Government saw fit not to proactively suggest it should be a provision that should be a part of the amendments. We're asking the question in a discussion document as to whether or not people believe it should be in there. We did not proactively want to put that in there as—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! I know Mr Smith doesn't normally sit quite that close to me but when he is this close his very loud interjections go through my mike system and are amplified even further and therefore I'm going to ask him just to turn his volume down a bit. Thank you.Chris Penk: How can the Minister say that he is not proactively promoting political opinion as a possible ground for hate speech when it enjoys exactly the same status in the Cabinet paper and the discussion document currently up for public consultation?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Well I'd suggest the member read the discussion document.Chris Penk: In relation to his proposed conversion therapy law does he stand by his answer to Heather du Plessis-Allan recently—the answer being No it's not." in answer to the question "Parents for example saying to a child who may be prepubescent saying 'I want to go on hormone blockers.' saying 'No you can't.'—that's cool with you?"Hon KRIS FAAFOI: The purpose of the conversion practices bill that will be read in Parliament tomorrow is very clear: it is to prevent the harm and encourage responsible debate or discussions around sexual identity and sexual orientation and gender identity. The purpose of the bill is not to criminalise parents. In fact we've designed the civil and criminal provisions to ensure there is an extremely high bar for anyone to suppress the fundamental right of an individual to be freely able to choose their sexual orientation or their gender identity."