McAnulty KieranKIERAN McANULTY (Labour—Wairarapa): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I'm very pleased to stand in support of this bill the Human Rights (Disability Assist Dogs Non-Discrimination) Amendment Bill. What this bill shows I think is the importance of members' day because so often on members' day you get a bill you sit down and you read it you prepare to speak on it and you think as you're looking through it How on earth was this not already law?" This one just makes sense. Not all members' bills make sense. Some are shockers. But some like this are fantastic and exactly what needs to be done.Now if you look at the guts of it here what it does is change a definition. But it demonstrates the importance of words and what they mean and the impact that a change can have on people's lives. By adjusting a simple definition replacing the words "guide dog" with "disability assist dog" it's going to make a significant difference for a large number of people. When you think of the exact nature of the support that this change in definition will make it's diverse and it depends on the dog and its owner's needs. It's exactly what should be recognised in law because a change like this actually changes people's awareness. It changes their understanding broadens our minds a wee bit. So often unless we experience it ourselves or unless we know someone closely that is experiencing a hardship it's only natural—unless a particular exposure is made—that we may not have a very good understanding. So to make a change like this it actually alerts us that people that have hearing difficulties can get assistance through dogs people with severe epilepsy can get assistance through dogs. Assistance to retrieve objects for people in wheelchairs for example; help a handler with limited mobility; interrupt undesirable behaviour like self-harm—that one there really stood out to me because the power in the connection of humans to animals is incredibly strong. I've just recently become the owner of a dog. We rescued a former greyhound—well it's still a greyhound obviously but a former racing greyhound. Now racing's very dear to my heart but it's fair to say that racing greyhounds don't have a very good life if they're not very good at racing and my dog Zoi was not. It didn't even pass trials. It wasn't even fast enough to race. But unfortunately in that industry those dogs are under the most threat because they're no good to their trainers. Anyway I'm getting off the point. The point is that my partner and I have recently got this dog and because of recent changes we're allowed to bring the dog to Parliament. Now I've never been more popular in my life as people come to my office to pat the dog to walk the dog to feed the dog etc. etc. The point being that I can see the joy that dogs give people in their day-to-day lives. Extending the definition in this bill to allow those that are at serious risk of self-harm to get the joy and companionship of a dog I think is critically important. Also those with epilepsy and cerebral palsy—the impact that a dog can make on people's lives is significant. So to be able to register that in legislation today by passing that—it's actually hard to comprehend the number of people that will benefit from this change a simple definitional change. I commend the member who put this forward in the first place Mojo Mathers and Ricardo Menéndez March for carrying it through. It is indeed a significant achievement for a member to get a member's bill drawn and passed through all stages. I'm sure the member didn't think that he would get this sort of crowd to witness this bill being debated today. But now that we've got just a little bit of time left I'd like to take the opportunity since it's here to acknowledge the contribution of Simon Bridges to this place and wish him and his family all the very best in his next chapter."