Logie Jan: Sullivan Birth Certificate Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: Sullivan Birth Certificate Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 07 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12461. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green):Kia orana. I am pleased to offer the Green Party’s support for the Sullivan Birth Certificate Bill tonight and to offer my thanks to Louisa Wall for giving this House the opportunity to fix a situation that I found when you described it in the third reading of the marriage equality legislation so incredibly moving. I am really glad that Rowen and Doreen Shields who I understand is here tonight have given us entrusted us with the job of trying to fix this and I have faith that this House will fix this situation because it is I think plain to most if not all of us that a wrong has been done. It is something that is quite easily within our power to fix.I will go through again along with others and outline what has happened and what we are here to do tonight to start the process of fixing. Rowen Sullivan was born in England to an English mother and her partner a New Zealand woman. Because of the time that they were living in and the fact that they were a same-sex couple they were not able to both have their names on the birth certificate. It was purely a matter of the times. They moved to New Zealand and when Rowen was 17 her mother who was named on the birth certificate died. Rowen decided to change the name on the certificate to that of her living mother but to do so she had to remove the name of her birth mother.I cannot imagine anyone in this House listening to that story and putting themselves in the shoes of a 17-year-old whose Mum had died—whom she was obviously very close to and really attached to—having to choose between the name of her mum who has just died recognising her lineage and the name of the mother who was there with her. To have to choose between those is a choice no person should ever have to make. It is fantastic that this bill is coming here in order for us to fix that situation. I have hope within this process that although you can never rewrite history I do think it is always open for us to be able to apologise for our past ignorance and I think that will be appropriate through that process to offer our apologies to Rowen and her family for their having to go through that situation.I also want to share the words that Louisa has already shared tonight because it seems most appropriate for me for this discussion to be primarily led by the words of the family so I will again repeat those for the House. They were in a letter that was sent to Louisa on the third reading of the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill and they are I think from Doreen saying: “My partner and I had been together for 7 years when we decided to start a family. When our daughter was born my partner’s name was on her birth certificate as her birth mother. When our daughter was 13 my partner was diagnosed with terminal cancer. We talked to our solicitor and found out that the only way I could adopt our daughter was if the relationship with her mum was legally terminated. How could we possibly do that to a child who was faced with her mum dying? Instead I applied for and was granted guardianship. When my daughter turned 18 the guardianship expired. It was only when my own parents died that it struck home with me that my daughter and I had no legal relationship despite me having been her parent all her life. We talked it over and I applied to adopt her. Fortunately all this happened before she turned 20 because I believe it might have been too late. It was the right thing to do but still hard on her. She gets a new birth certificate and her mum no longer legally exists.”Well I hope this is the start of the process for this House to acknowledge that Diane Sullivan did indeed exist and still exists as Rowen Sullivan’s mother alongside Doreen Shields. We should be celebrating loving parenting and family and this is the House’s chance to do that. Kia ora.