Hutchison Paul: Sullivan Birth Certificate Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHutchison Paul: Sullivan Birth Certificate Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 07 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12460. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua):It is indeed a great pleasure to support this Sullivan Birth Certificate Bill going to the Government AdministrationCommittee where it might be fully discussed. Might I acknowledge to begin with Louisa Wall who has been the one in charge of the bill firstly for her extraordinary work in the past and again because of the fact that someone has had the confidence in her to come to her and bring this most unusual case. I will not reiterate the circumstances but undoubtedly this bill is driven by a young woman’s overwhelming desire to have the name of her biological mother on her birth certificate. That clearly is something that all of us would want that all of us take for granted. It is nothing exceptional. In fact it is an extraordinary compelling thing or fact of nature that all children want to have the recognition and attachment of their parents so that they can honour them.I was struck very much the other day—I think it was Monday—by a20/20 programme about a young Indian guy who was born in a very poor village or very poor circumstances 2000 kilometres from Calcutta. With his brother he went down to the local railway station to see whether they could get something to help feed the family. His brother left him on the bench at the railway station. He was aged 5. His brother said: “Stay there and I’ll come back. Don’t move until I get you.” He did not come back. The young Indian boy woke up in a panic and in the stress of the moment hopped on the railway train that was going past. It took him 2000 kilometres to Calcutta. He stayed there in Calcutta one of the most challenging cities in the world. He lived there hand to mouth for several months until he was fortunately discovered by an Indian woman who took him into an orphanage and from there he was put in contact with Australian parents who brought him up in Hobart Tasmania.They were loving and wonderful parents but at the back of this young boy’s mind was what was happening to his mum. She was actually a solo mum with several other kids. He deeply wanted to go back but he had no idea whatsoever what to do. It was only when he was in his 20s that someone showed him the Google Earth technology. He was fascinated and saw that this could be the key to how he could go back to the village which he had only a very young 5-year-old’s image of what it looked like. It was an almost impossible task. He spent 6 years sometimes staying awake all night working on the computer to figure out the thousands of combinations and permutations that might lead him to his home village. By chance one night he saw familiar landmarks in a village that he had detected by tracing the train line back from Calcutta. The long and short of the story was that he got home and he found his mother. It was one of the most poignant stories I have ever come across.Every child should have the opportunity to be able to recognise and honour their birth parents. There is no doubt that one of the other things that this particular bill brings up is the fact that Rowen’s mum conceived through artificial insemination. Thirty years ago this was done anonymously. Today it is not done anonymously by and large and I think that is a very good thing. Openness and transparency are something that is so important to ensure we have as the ethos going forward.I am delighted to support this bill. We will find in the select committee perhaps that there are problems with it but that is the opportunity to find them out. Hopefully we can satisfy Rowen’s desire to see her mum’s name on her birth certificate.