van Velden BrookeBROOKE VAN VELDEN (Deputy Leader—ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise this evening on behalf of the ACT Party at the third reading of the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill. I want to start by firstly acknowledging Minister Faafoi and the work that he and his staff have done in preparing this piece of legislation. But I want to also acknowledge the hours of diligent work that our justice spokesperson in ACT Nicole McKee has done for us as a party on this bill. I know that the Justice Committee period of time was quite extensive and I want to thank all the members of this Chamber who sat through hours of work to make sure that we get this piece of legislation right. I also want to acknowledge the select committee staff because I know how hard it is to read hundreds of submissions—if not hundreds of thousands of submissions. I do think the work that they've done has been strenuous but very worthwhile. It's wonderful to see the diligent work that they put in to make sure that we get the laws in this place right.I want to acknowledge also the 90 submitters that we've heard of today that did submit who had been through conversion therapy. I know having heard many people submit on select committees before voicing your views in Parliament can be extremely stressful but doing so when you're opening up on such a personal issue like conversion therapy I really cannot even express how that must feel. It is extremely brave. There were concerns on both sides throughout the select committee process that said that the bill either didn't go far enough or that it went too far.I want to acknowledge that there are valid views on both sides from people who are just expressing their genuinely held beliefs. But when we come to what the bill actually is and what it's hoping to do a conversion practice in the bill is encompassing a broad range of practices that seek to change or suppress a person's sexual orientation their gender identity or gender expression. I note that the purpose of this piece of legislation is to prevent harm caused by conversion practices and to promote respectful and open discussions regarding sexuality and gender. There are some conversion therapy practices that are happening in New Zealand that are extremely detrimental to people's health and wellbeing. I know in the select committee people heard horror stories of shame manipulation people attempting to change their gender and their sexuality through psychological trauma and through physical trauma. That has ongoing mental harm that some people will never get over for their whole lives. I want to live in a country where we accept all people that we have a common humanity and all people are respected to live the lives that they want to and they're respected for being themselves.Throughout this piece of legislation being in the House the ACT Party has supported it at its first and second reading. We believe that it's been well intentioned and we care about making good public policy and making sure that we get it right because as lawmakers that is our duty. So we have voiced a few of our concerns because we've seen what happens when legislators get the law wrong. You only have to look at the recent example of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act which has led to people when they're trying to get pre-approval for mortgages being told that they have to choose between feeding their cat or unsubscribing from Netflix or not even giving Christmas presents to their kids to make sure that they get a mortgage. That has been an unintended consequence of the law.So we want to make sure that when we're getting the law right we are getting it right and we're doing due diligence because we need to make sure that we are getting that balance between protecting people from harm and not overreaching into the family home. So we did voice our concern that people had raised in select committee about finding that line between what is a criminal act and the ability to converse in the family home. Because we did not want parents to be in fear of prosecution for expressing their concerns for expressing their religious beliefs and having freedom of expression to be themselves. There are difficult conversations that occur between family members when it comes to people's sexuality and their gender identity and parents shouldn't be in fear of thinking that they may go to jail for expressing their own views when we're also in this law trying to ensure that others can express themselves.So we prepared some Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs). We had two of them—one that said that the law should be reviewed after three years and the second making sure that conversations between parents and children were exempt as a conversion practice. Both of these SOPs were voted down but we put our concerns to the Minister in the committee of the whole House. We thought that was very important because the committee of the whole House and the Minister's comments when they're in the Chamber writing law is very important for how the courts will interpret the law. So I want to read two of the responses that the Minister gave us for anybody who might be listening.On our first concern about the review we have here the Human Rights Commission through its functions through the civil redress system the Police through statistics and other data it can collect and other quantitative things it can collect and also the Ministry of Justice through its stewardship process of making sure that our laws are appropriate will be able to undertake essentially a review of the legislation. We want to make sure that it works for the very same reasons that the ACT Party does".The second was about the SOP about conversations between parents and children. And I quote: "Can I again reiterate and reinforce clause 5(2) which through subclauses (b) to (e) goes to the very heart of what is not a conversion practice and actually goes to the heart of what Mr Court was outlining—again in a very thoughtful way—because the purpose of this bill is to ensure that we are promoting respectful and open discussions regarding sexuality and gender. I think we all collectively want to agree to that. But through clauses 5(2)(b) to (e) in terms of those conversations that pertain to the SOP there are certainly protections within this bill to ensure that those conversations continue to happen in an open and respectful way. Clause 5(2)(b) 'assisting an individual who is undergoing or considering undergoing a gender transition'; or (c) 'assisting an individual to express their gender identity'; or (d) 'providing acceptance support or understanding of an individual'; or (e) 'facilitating the individual's coping skills development or identity exploration or facilitating social support for the individual' are all carved out in the bill as it stands as things that are not a conversion practice. And again I think that goes to give confidence to some people who may have concerns—and certainly there were submissions to that end—that those conversations can happen; they can happen in an open and respectful way to assist people who are going through these issues and who need support and who will be safe to do so in the knowledge that this bill carves out that for them and a space in order for them to do that."Because of the comments made by the Minister and being assured that conversations for parents and children will be allowed and exempt as a conversion practice the ACT Party believes we've been constructive in alleviating some of those concerns and making sure we've got them on the record and we are happy to support at the third reading. Thank you Mr Speaker."