SpeechTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. I'll keep an eye on the clock. I'm incredibly proud to be able to stand here as part of the rainbow caucus and the New Zealand Labour Party and acknowledge the significance of the third reading of this bill. The goal posts have kept changing throughout my lifetime. When you sir were fighting for homosexual law reform back in 1986 I was a 7-year-old boy and I realised at the time that a big thing was happening in New Zealand and that actually it was going to be OK and that whatever I chose to be—and I think I knew from a pretty early age—actually it was going to be OK because there were giants whose shoulders we stood on. So to all of those people that helped champion that reform this is the evidence this is the product. In 2005 when the Civil Union Bill went through it was another momentous shift in the psychology of what it was to be a rainbow person here in New Zealand. It made it OK for me to acknowledge the love that I have for another person and be it male be it female it didn't matter. It always struck me that I felt such a deep sense of injustice that both of my sisters could get married and that I couldn't because I was gay. What that bill did was that it normalised this. When it came to marriage equality in 2013 it was another momentous step. It actually put us on par with those of our heterosexual brothers and sisters who were out getting married and enjoying everything that went with it and suddenly we were able to get married as well. So I acknowledge that tonight as we read the third reading of this bill here in 2022. This the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Act will come into legislation and I want to take a moment to appreciate that as I stand here and do this—as we stand here in this Chamber and do this—there are kids out there that are watching their TV screens right now that are listening on the radio and they are the ones that are going to be standing here maybe in 20 and 30 years' time talking about the momentous shifts that this House has created in modernising our laws so that what it is to be a member of the rainbow community makes you valid makes you important makes you seen makes you heard. As a new dad I think about my son. I think about the decisions that he'll make in his lifetime. I think about the New Zealand that he'll grow up in and I want him to have the best of everything like all of the parents in our country do. We want the best for our kids. But I don't want a New Zealand which thinks that it's OK to shout hate speech where they think that it's OK to convert you to change your identity. And that's not just us saying it as parents as MPs; actually through the submissions process listening to our psychologists listening to our doctors listening to our nurses it was them that came forward with their voices and said This is not appropriate. You do not need to change these young people. They are young and they are beautiful." If only we all looked at our young people and saw them for what they were which is a taonga which is a beautiful little spirit and whether or not they choose to one day love a male love a female or somewhere in the middle there as well that actually they'll be OK. They'll be looked after they'll be lifted up by the community that they live in but most importantly they'll be lifted up by their family. And that's where it starts. These conversations do start in the home. It is still really nerve-wracking to come out as a young rainbow person in our community today. If you think that it's all gone it's not. The pressure is just as hard for somebody that has to have a challenging conversation with a person in their house who's either going to do two things: go "You're a wonderful person. Let me give you a hug." or "I don't want to talk to you. You'd better think about packing your bags." And that's not the New Zealand that I want.Before I sit down I want to acknowledge the words of the late Dame Whina Cooper—and she brought it all back. While we talk about conversion practices here tonight she was talking about just the beauty of children in general. She said "Take care of our children. Take care of what they hear take care of what they see take care of what they feel. For how the children grow so will be the shape of Aotearoa." I commend this bill to the House.SPEAKER: Joseph Mooney—a five-minute speech."