Robertson GrantCONVERSION PRACTICES PROHIBITION LEGISLATION BILLThird ReadingHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Prime Minister) on behalf of the Minister of Justice: I present a legislative statement on the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill.SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I move That the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill be now read a third time.I want to begin by thanking my friend and colleague the Hon Kris Faafoi for his shepherding of this legislation. His dignified and empathetic approach has been on display for all to see as the bill has proceeded through its stages. I particularly want to thank him for offering me the opportunity to move this third reading. It is a mark of the man that he stood aside to allow an MP such as me from the rainbow community to move this historic legislation. Fakafetai lahi lele.This legislation does two very important things. First it rights a wrong—a hurtful insidious destructive wrong—but it also sends a message: a message of love support and affirmation to all in the rainbow communities. This is a historic day and I am immensely proud that our Government is bringing this to the House as a Government bill. It will stand us alongside the other Acts on the walls of the rainbow select committee room as a triumph for New Zealand to be able to pass. There are further thankyous to make. To the hundreds of activists who have campaigned over many years to get us to this point. Change is hard: it's 90 percent perspiration and 10 percent celebration. It's even harder when you've been hurt so much by what you are trying to change. As we celebrate tonight I think each and every person and group that has been part of the campaigns. I remember well standing outside in August 2018 with representatives of the Greens and Labour and other supporters to promote this legislation. I salute the work of everyone who has been a part of this. This campaign has and will save lives; there is no higher accolade than that. And to Amanda Ashley: it's nearly done.I thank my parliamentary colleagues who have worked so tirelessly to get to this point along with Minister Faafoi in particular the members of the Justice Committee who have shaped a law that has gained support of much of this House. A special thankyou to the rainbow members of Parliament for your courage and mahi and in particular my Rainbow Labour colleagues. And finally to our dear colleague Marja Lubeck who carried much of the burden of this issue last term. Marja you're a true ally and friend and our communities love you dearly.There are two other groups of people who need to be acknowledged at the outset: the parents like mine who supported and affirmed me as a gay man when I came out; the parents who each and every day support their children to be who they are; and the parents who provide the unconditional love that is the bedrock of growing up confident and happy. I grew up in a religious churchgoing household in the era of homosexual law reform. There were plenty of negative messages for me to hear as I grappled with my sexuality and the challenge of feeling very different from those around me. When I finally gathered the courage to come out to my parents I was met with love. Whatever fears that they held for me and I know that they did they were full of acceptance. My father—who is no longer with us—I knew would find it hard but he expressed only one thing that he was annoyed about—he'd heard it from someone else and not from me. If that was as bad as it got then I knew I was a lucky person. But not everybody is or was so lucky.The other group who need to be acknowledged at the outset are those from our rainbow communities who did not make it. In my case I think of James my work colleague from many years ago; the sweetest most gentle man that you would ever meet. James was brought up in the same church that I was but his experience could not have been more different. When he told his parents he was gay he was met with anger rejection and derision. His parents wanted him to change to be someone he was not. It was intolerable for him. He could see no way through and he took his own life at the age of 23. To James and the many like him from all parts of the rainbow communities and also to those who have been directly affected by conversion practices or attempts at them we want to say: this legislation is for you. We cannot bring you back we cannot undo all of the hurt but we can make sure that for the generations to come we provide the support and love that you did not get and that we protect you from the harm of those who seek to try to stop you from being who you are. We will never forget you. Kia moe pai ināianei.[May you rest in peace.]Let us be clear what this legislation does. Its purpose is to recognise and prevent harm caused by conversion practice and to promote respectful and open discussions regarding sexuality and gender. It deals directly to the falsehood that people's sexual orientation gender identity or gender expression can somehow be fixed. As my straight-shooting colleague Kieran McAnulty said when he explained why he supports the bill: There's just no one who needs to be converted or changed here." I recognise that for some people this bill doesn't actually go as far as they would like in some aspects particularly in the area of the ease of prosecution and in penalties. I can understand that perspective and that in any law there needs to be access to justice and appropriate penalties for those who break it but I believe that the select committee has got the balance right here. The presence of a civil regime using the Human Rights Commission alongside the criminal provisions is in the spirit of the dual purposes of this bill.I want to say something particular to our trans community. Throughout the debate on this legislation and this issue more generally there has been an attempt to somehow separate the right for freedom from harm for those who affirm their gender identity or gender expression from others covered in this legislation. Too often in recent times we have seen trans community members put under intolerable scrutiny and stigmatised. As a rainbow community member I want to say clearly tonight that I am extremely proud that this legislation puts gender identity and gender expression alongside sexual orientation when it comes to prevention from harm. Nothing less than that should be acceptable.It's also important to remember what this bill doesn't do. It does not as some in this House have said undermine freedom of speech or expression or worship. The bill does not cover the expression only of a religious principle or belief; it is only when that is part of a practice with the intent to change or suppress. I welcome the support of many religious organisations for this legislation including those who've had some concerns but understand that at its heart this bill is about the removal of insidious practices that they would never want them or their organisation to be part of.It is disappointing that this legislation does not have the full support of this House and I do want to speak briefly to those who oppose it. Listening to some who've opposed this bill it is clear that they have a view of free speech that is divorced from reality. As Vanushi Walters said in an earlier contribution on the bill free speech has never been absolute in our laws—think defamation think obscenity think profanity. More than that for me it's about the principle that all rights come with some form of responsibilities. The right to speak or act in a way that will cause serious harm does not meet the test of responsibilities that come with those rights.It is actually my view that this bill enhances freedom—the freedom to be who we are the freedom to have the conversations that are needed. Again in the speeches I heard in Opposition it's the tired old view that someone else getting some rights and freedoms somehow or other diminishes the rights that you may have. That's not true. This bill enhances all of our rights. Speeches I've heard in Opposition in this House also seem to see this as some kind of extension of the culture war—it's not. It is an affirming and positive law that protects people from harm. It's what we are here to do. I invite those who seem to see this as somehow a diminution of their rights to ask themselves what they're afraid of and perhaps what they might be able to embrace into the future.To finish I want to speak directly to the younger members of our rainbow communities. This legislation is a promissory note from this House to future generations of the rainbow communities. It's our commitment that we will love support and affirm you for being who you are that we will not give licence to the peddlers of hate bigotry and dogma to impose the ill-informed and dangerous beliefs on to you. We cannot promise to solve all the problems and challenges that you will face in your lives but we can—and indeed in my opinion we must—give you hope for a life of love fulfilment and dignity. Kia kaha kia māia kia ātaahua. Be strong be brave be beautiful. I commend this bill to the House."