Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. I want to begin by acknowledging the shuhada of the masjidain terror attack on March 15th 2019 when our collective hearts were broken. As the shockwaves of that attack rippled through our nation we heard from Aotearoa that we had never thought something like that could happen here. We heard that we stand for inclusion we stand for equality. But the other thing that we did hear—and it's important to acknowledge that—is that we heard from our most marginalised communities about all the ways that that hate that extremism that to some extent formed our experience was known. We heard from Māori who lifted the voices of the Muslim community. We can't shed our skin or our disabilities or change who we love. One of the heartbreaking lessons of March 15th was that the Muslim community had been reporting an absolute increase in incitement in threats of violence in hate against their communities. They had travelled around New Zealand to meet with different police chiefs in different police stations and our systems and our institutions had no way of recording or responding to what that community was trying to alert us of.So when the Opposition says that this law is about banning debate I want them to also answer this question: how then—how—can we change our systems and our laws to become responsive to incitement that those marginalised communities are experiencing and in many cases are reporting? How do we prevent the next real-life act of atrocity from happening? I want to say as someone who has spent years of my life working in atrocity crime courts and having to read thousands of pages of witness evidence and looking at the history of those atrocities that they begin with hate. They begin with dehumanising a particular group based on its inherent characteristics. Those groups are race groups they are gender minorities they are the rainbow community disabilities groups and they are faith communities.So we know that the faith communities do need those protections. In that respect this is a good change. It is one that is overdue by many years. We know that this work began with a comprehensive review conducted by the Human Rights Commission in 2016 and that that review more or less shadows what we found in the royal commission report on Christchurch that our hate speech laws and our hate crime laws are not fit for purpose. They don't reflect what modern extremism looks like.Now it's important to hold that we do limit speech in many many ways already in our laws to protect individuals. We do outlaw incitement. We even outlaw defamation which is damaging someone's reputation. But all the ways that we recognise that harm through speech is possible and not acceptable in our laws only apply to protect individuals never groups. But we know and we have learnt first-hand in now modern memory that atrocities are begotten of harmful speech—not debate; incitement harm. All modern human rights - based democracies recognise this and acknowledge it with strong hate speech laws so it's well defined and it exists among jurisdictions that we normally compare ourselves to. It exists even in the United States that bastion of free speech; in the European Union; in Canada; and the UK. They recognise that hate speech is harmful that it leads to real-life violence but also that it is in fact a threat to free speech itself that it silences groups silences marginalised communities from debate from public life. Every woman in this House knows a little bit of that.The Holocaust and Antisemitism Foundation the Islamic Women's Council and the Human Rights Commission support this law change. To write all of those groups off as woke or leftist is absurd. What we owe and what this Government owes is to listen. One of the responses to the recommendations of the royal commission report that came quickly—and this one did not come quickly so this law is still overdue and I hate that we'll be debating it in an election year where we will hear from all of the traditional groups that have something to gain from marginalising groups further. But one of the things that the Government did respond to quickly was to commit to holding annual hui on extremism nationwide to include all the groups that are affected by extremism by hate by terror and bring them together with experts with Government agencies and talk about what the threat looks like now to be forward-looking. That's what the royal commission recommended. This year I sat through every session of that hui and in Auckland we heard over and over again on what threats are on the rise. We saw the charts. Yes faith communities are still at risk race communities are still at risk. But the one that everyone was screaming about in terms of their research and experience was violent misogyny. So I want to talk about what this bill does not include and the U-turn that the Government did from its initial released draft. It does not include gender the disabilities community or our rainbow communities; that is a failure. From a month or so ago when this bill was first announced we heard from the communities that are being left out. They were forced to campaign to make themselves visible to those traditional threateners of their peace of their safety in order to campaign for inclusion. While we have a Centre of Research Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism an annual hui being held as a response to a royal commission report that has told us that violent misogyny that the threat against rainbow communities and in the wake of COVID the threat against disabilities communities is what is in fact on the rise in New Zealand. It breaks my heart that those communities now have to make themselves visible and vulnerable in order to retell their trauma to reprove their vulnerability for lack of a better word. They are strong but they are also vulnerable in order for us to act.So this bill whilst it does a little bit of what we need in order to make our nation truly inclusive truly equal is also a failure in courage for standing with the communities and responding to what real extremism looks like in Aotearoa today.I want to go back to those days following the Christchurch terror attack. I want to remember that our nation came together with courage and with love that we gathered together across this beautiful country in all our public places. We wrapped our arms around our Muslim community. We held our little ones a little bit tighter as we cried and we committed to making that safe inclusive equal place a reality. The city of Dunedin ran out of flowers because they were all at the mosque. Those people out there are watching. They expect us to show courage. They expect us to shine a light in all of the dark little places where hate where extremism where those threats do exist among our otherwise loving society. So we the Green Party will continue to fight. We will continue to stand in solidarity with the communities that are now being exposed having to publicly campaign again for a responsive progressive human rights - based law change. We will stand with you and we will ensure that you are protected. Come to select committee tell your stories and we will stand with you and lift your voices.Kia hora te marinoKia whakapapa pounamu te moanaAroha atu aroha maiTātou i a tātou katoa[May peace be widespreadMay the ocean become like pounamuGive well receive wellLet us show respect for one another]