Halbert ShananSHANAN HALBERT (Labour—Northcote): Te Māngai o te Whare tēnā koe ki runga e mihi ana ki a koutou i tēnei rā mō tō manaakitanga mō tō tautoko mō te kaupapa nei tēnā rawa atu ki a koutou. He mihi aroha nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa. Nāku te rourou nāu te rourou ka ora ai te iwi.[To the Speaker and everyone above greetings to you all today for your generosity and support for this matter thank you all with all my love thank you all. With my food basket and your food basket the people will thrive.]With my food basket and your food basket and even your food baskets [Directs speech towards the National Party benches] our iwi will thrive.As the chair of our Labour rainbow caucus it's my pleasure to take a call on this bill; a vital bill and an important bill and piece of legislation for our rainbow whānau our LGBTIQ+ plus plus whānau the takatāpui whānau and their communities parents and families. Today we see you we hear you and here we are together. I see this legislation as another step to building a progressive and inclusive Aotearoa New Zealand and Labour has always always stood with our rainbow communities: in 1986 homosexual law reform; 2001 inclusion in the property relations Act; 2004 civil unions; 2012 equal marriage; 2018 expunging historical homosexual convictions. In this term of Government we established the rainbow legacy fund to support organisations working to improve mental health and wellbeing of our rainbow communities we increased access to gender affirming genital surgery we increased funding for HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention services and research. And Labour is relentlessly proud of our rainbow communities and their whānau.I want to thank the Minister of Justice the Hon Kris Faafoi for getting this bill into the House so quickly after the general election only last year and for working with our rainbow caucus and committees to finalise its provisions that are before us today. I also want to acknowledge the MPs from all sides of the House that have supported making lives better and more equal for our communities and their whānau. I would particularly like to acknowledge also other MPs in history that have made a contribution: the Hon Katherine O'Regan for her amendments to the Human Rights Act in 1993 to prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or disease status; the Hon James Shaw for his work in the last Parliament which will see sexual orientation and gender identity questions in the next census; and of course my colleague and friend Marja Lubeck who received this petition from Young Labour and Young Greens which led to her member's bill which is the precursor to the bill we have in front of us today. I mihi also to my takatāpui sister and whanaunga Dr Elizabeth Kerekere and my brother across the House Rawiri Waititi for their strong advocacy and support on this issue today.This indeed is a part of our whakapapa and the story that I have just shared is whakapapa. And today it is in the spirit of kotahitanga that I believe our Parliament should approach this bill and move forward. One's sexuality or one's gender identity or gender expression is not a political issue it is an issue of humanity. Members from all parties represented in this House have members of their whānau or someone else they love who belong to our rainbow communities. Our loved ones are looking to us all to collectively work together to prevent these harmful practices and give the dignity to unapologetically be who they are. So I have to say that today I am hugely disappointed with the National Party for not supporting this bill even through to a select committee process where we can iron out any issues that they face. If we cannot be united as a Parliament to at least debate these issues and work through them for the betterment of our rainbow communities we must question why we are here. Your decision today only creates division and when division is created it puts our most marginalised people at the centre and the backlash will take place again. By not supporting this bill even to its first reading it is a support to continue the practice of conversion therapy as status quo and it is shameful. Now we all know that despite all of the years of progress that we have made in Aotearoa in the past 35 years since law reform many in our rainbow communities still find it difficult to come out and live their authentic lives. The 2021 Youthline health and wellbeing survey of 36000 students led out of Auckland University and Victoria University of Wellington reported that just over half—53 percent—of same-sex or multiple-sex - attracted students reported significant depressive symptoms. Half said that they had self-harmed in the past year. More than one in 10 had attempted suicide. Only 42 percent of rainbow rangitahi Māori report good wellbeing. More than half report symptoms of depression and close to half report serious thoughts of suicide in the last year. Just over half—52 percent—of Pasifika rainbow young people report good wellbeing. Close to half report clinically significant symptoms of depression and over 40 percent report serious thoughts of suicide in the last year. We hear you today and we see you and these challenges are much higher than those recorded by non-rainbow young people. We have to act to protect our young people from the further harm that subjecting them to bogus conversion practices would cause and let us be in no doubt that our rainbow communities are being targeted by these harmful practices—yes even still today. The 2019 Counting Ourselves Aotearoa New Zealand trans and non-binary health survey of more than 1000 people found this: more than one in six or 17 percent reported that they had experienced conversion therapy—17 percent—and the same proportion said that a professional had tried to stop them from being trans or non-binary. A further 12 percent were not sure if this had happened to them. They questioned it. Participants reported a much higher rate of high or very high psychological distress than the rest of the population and very high rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts of suicide. It is time for us to act and put a stop to these destructive practices which can include aversion therapy where subjects are physically punished or forced to take cold showers if they become aroused by same-sex erotic images or thoughts; psychoanalysis; talk therapy where subjects are repeatedly told their sexual orientation or gender expression is a mental illness that can be healed—and evidentially it cannot. These practices have no science evidence or medicine. Our rainbow communities do not need or want to be healed. We want to be respected we want to be valued and most of all we want to be loved for the people that we are. I accept that some people hold a different view to me and may not support this bill even through the first reading. I hope that in time all New Zealanders of Aotearoa will come to an acceptance of each other and not opt for the status quo. But this bill will not stop New Zealanders from expressing their opinions. The right to free speech is not impinged upon by this legislation. As I wrap up I acknowledge RainbowYOUTH OUTLine my friend Shaneel Lal and the Conversion Therapy Action Group Young Labour Young Greens Young Nationals InsideOUT Silent Gays and the many many people that have come to support our first reading today. Today we kick off our journey to ban conversion practice. It is time we see each other. We want to be loved. Today we start the journey and I commend this bill to the House.