Wall LouisaLOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. It is my pleasure as a member of the Justice and Electoral Committee to speak on the Criminal Records (Expungement of Convictions for Historical Homosexual Offences) Bill in this its first reading. I particularly want to start with an acknowledgment of a colleague who is no longer here and that is Kevin Hague who a year ago today presented the petition of Wiremu Demchick and 2111 others that—as my colleague Marama Davidson read out earlier—asked this House to promptly issue an official apology to those convicted" and secondly to "pass legislation which sets out a process for reversing the convictions of those convicted both living and deceased in a manner which upholds the mana and dignity of those convicted." Wow!So that process started for Wiremu and all those involved in collecting the signatures in December 2014. I think we should put it into a global context actually because in 2013 Alan Turing was by royal pardon given a pardon for a conviction for gross indecency. That gross indecency offence was part of the legislation that we inherited in our country. It started a process in the UK that on 31 January this year saw more than 15000 UK men who were convicted of gross indecency having those offences expunged. What that led to around the world was jurisdictions and our communities in Australia in Canada in Germany and all over the world seeking the same recourse that had been given to Alan Turing. It had been given to him because of his contribution to the World War II events—because of his I guess service to the country he was given a pardon.When I look at the convictions in New Zealand—actually under the Offences Against the Person Act of 1867 if you were convicted you could spend your whole life in prison for committing gross indecency. That was then altered in 1893 when if you were convicted of sodomy it was punishable by life imprisonment with hard labour but the interesting thing is that indecency between males also provided an opportunity for them to be flogged and whipped. I say that because in Aceh this year we have had men who were flogged and whipped because they were caught having sex. So we have moved a long way to where we are today. In 1986 under the Homosexual Law Reform Act we decriminalised male same-sex consensual intercourse but what we also did was equalise the age—we made us equal to other New Zealanders.In highlighting Kevin's involvement with the petition from Wiremu I also want to talk about some of the things that he talked about at the time. He was the only MP who was in the House who could have been convicted—and I acknowledge my colleague Grant Robertson who is too young but he is sitting beside me now—and he said that the impact on those who were caught was massive. They lost their jobs they lost their houses and they lost their families. A lot of them were isolated. You can imagine how that dispossession then contributed to how most of them lived the rest of their lives—in poverty as people addicted to drugs and alcohol as depressed people. Some of them did commit suicide. But the one thing that struck me with what Kevin shared was that when they were convicted their private lives were read out in a summary of facts in court and on sentencing their names were published in the local newspaper for all to see. So they were outed. It was not a private thing that happened; it was actually an incredibly public thing to happen. For a lot of them they lost their entire family and community network which is why a lot of our whānau fled to Australia to start a new life.I also want to highlight where I think this bill emanated from because Minister Adams when the petition was initially presented to the House stated that it could require a case by case investigation and that it could be too difficult. But what she also said was that she would wait for our Justice and Electoral Committee to consider the petition before she made any decision. I would like to acknowledge my colleagues on the Justice and Electoral Committee who are members of the Government—so I want to acknowledge Sarah Dowie our chair; I want to acknowledge Chris Bishop; I want to acknowledge Paul Foster-Bell; I want to acknowledge Jono Naylor; and I want to acknowledge Maureen Pugh and also Marama Fox because you obviously kept the Minister abreast with what was happening before the select committee in terms of the petition and I actually think that is what drove her and the Government to bring this piece of legislation to the House.It also says something to me about the process of this House and the value of petitions and the process that happens in select committees to lead to an output such as a piece of legislation that is in effect going to implement everything that the petition asked for. That is an incredibly valuable thing and I think we should all cherish the moment because it says our democracy works.You know we have all contributed to this bill being here today on the backs of our ancestors—all those who have come before us. So I am going to take an opportunity because we are going to also very soon be talking about another very important piece of legislation. What I want to highlight in the Oranga Tamariki legislation that we are about to debate—and it is wonderful that the Minister is in the House at the moment—is that under the Oranga Tamariki legislation we have recognised the child and young person's right to their sexual orientation and gender identity. I think that is an incredibly profound thing.I just want to read a quote from Lord McNally talking about Alan Turing's royal pardon: "the law at the time required a prosecution and as such long-standing policy has been to accept that such convictions took place and rather than trying to alter the historical context and to put right what cannot be put right ensure instead that we never again return to those times." The reason I highlight that is that children in care now have the right to their sexual orientation and gender identity. What that then means for us and for the Public Service and the public sector is that those children who may be intersex and may be trans deserve access to health services that are going to ensure that their identity is supported. They should not have to face and return to times where they are discriminated against where they are persecuted and where actually they are invisible.That is why as a member of our cross-party rainbow group we have been fighting for visibility in the education sector which is why we have said to the Education Review Office: "Why aren't you specifically looking at the well-being of our LGBTIQ when you go to our high schools?". That is why we have highlighted in the health sector—and I have got a meeting with Minister Coleman coming up—that our intersex children's health needs are not being met and that our trans children's health needs are not being met. So for me that is what this provides. It provides now another platform where we continue to springboard forward. So this is never the end. I mean for me it is always like ka whawhai tonu mātou—you know struggle without end—because there are always discriminations in our law and in our system that need to addressed and rectified. Today is an incredibly special day. I also want to commend the Government for the apology. Annette King highlighted that we have done this previously with the Chinese community and with the Samoan community and so it is appropriate today that we also acknowledge that our LGBTIQ our homosexual community in Aotearoa New Zealand deserve an apology from the State because we are not criminals we never were and we never should have been. Kia ora.Bill read a first time. Bill referred to the Justice and Electoral Committee."