Pallett SarahSARAH PALLETT (Labour—Ilam): Thank you so much Mr Speaker. I rise with pleasure this afternoon to speak on the Improving Arrangements for Surrogacy Bill which has been brought here by my friend and colleague Mr Tāmati Coffey. I'd like to congratulate and commend him for bringing this bill forward to the House. We've heard from many of the previous speakers about the importance of this bill. I just wanted to highlight that the petition that was brought to Parliament in 2019 had on it 32239 online signatures that recognised that this law should be changed because it does need to be simplified. At the moment we need to update the legislation in order to balance the needs and rights of both the expecting intending parents the surrogate themselves and of course the child. This bill is designed to simplify those arrangements.Currently in New Zealand the law doesn't actually give any automatic rights to what the law describes as the intending parents". So when born the child's parents in law are the surrogate and their partner and the intending parents then need to go through the full and dense adoption process. The child itself may have come from the implanted embryo that was made if you will from the intending parents' egg and sperm and it may bear no genetic similarity to the surrogate but still the intending parents are not regarded as the parents until they have gone through that full adoption process.Now Mr Coffey in his first reading speech did say that this is not a gay issue and it's not. It's not a straight issue either. There are a multitude of reasons why a person might seek the support of a surrogate. The reasons for infertility for example are many and are often the cause of great distress. Having worked myself with people who are experiencing loss after sad loss in their attempt to complete their family I've seen the benefits that the use of a surrogate can bring. Some women may not have a uterus; for some pregnancy might be dangerous; or yes like my colleague Mr Coffey and his husband they may be a same-sex couple who seek the support of a surrogate.To be a surrogate is in my view an extraordinarily altruistic thing to do for somebody else. I can't say with all honesty that it' something that I could do myself so I stand in awe of those who do because as a surrogate you really are putting someone else's needs before your own. Even if you experience a completely uncomplicated pregnancy in birth you're going to be experiencing challenges you're going to be experiencing physical and emotional challenges and that is really for the benefit of somebody else.So surrogates will know that some of those challenges are unavoidable but one of the challenges that I feel should be preventable is the financial challenges that might come from actually carrying a child and giving birth. Personal reasonable and actual expenses in this bill are to be covered. This isn't the same as being paid to be a surrogate. I think that all of us can quickly see that paying somebody to be a surrogate in itself could open a whole new can of worms but also that it's completely reasonable and fair to cover actual expenses. I'm thinking back to my own pregnancies; I probably would've needed some financial support for my Russian fudge cravings that I experienced in both pregnancies! But also more reasonably things like if the pregnant person needs to pay for additional scans if they need new clothes to fit their changing body transport to appointments and there are many things I don't really feel that it's fair for them to be paid for by the surrogate themselves.But we do need to have this conversation; it does seem fair and sensible at first glance. I'm really looking forward to this bill coming to the Health Committee ably chaired by my colleague Tangi Utikere. I commend Mr Coffey for bringing it to the House. I'd like to commend this bill to the House."