Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. It is a pleasure to rise and speak to this bill because today we across this House stand together and declare our commitment to the protection of all women and girls. This bill is a signal that no level of abuse no level of harm is going to be tolerated in our law against any woman and especially against young girls. So we are beginning the process of amending the Crimes (Definition of Female Genital Mutilation) Amendment Bill to bring it into line with what the World Health Organization says is a harmful practice. Until now we've been criminalising female genital mutilation (FGM) of the most serious form but we haven't been eliminating all forms of harm and degradation because we know that other so-called lesser types of mutilation exist so-called ceremonial types of harm exist and that derives from the cultural belief that women and girls do have to be subjugated to some form of harm in order to be—whether it's desirable as a marriage partner or in fact just under the control of a patriarchy. We know that that kind of practice exists in all cultures in different forms but today we are beginning the process of outlawing any kind of cut piercing pricking—any harmful practice—and that's the definition that we're adopting now to genitalia.But it has to be said that while we stand here and say that no incursion on our bodily integrity is to be tolerated no kind of harm is tolerable no matter who inflicts it and in what context we are in fact amplifying the voices from within those affected communities. This is lawmaking by the affected communities for the affected communities because it has been they who have staunchly fought for this. It has been men and women feminists from within the affected communities who have been educating us educating within their communities educating the globe about this harmful and degrading practice. And they've been calling not just for culture change which is something we all do as politicians and activists—we do have to fight for cultural change to win equality for women and for other marginalised communities; that's what they've been doing—but also specifically for this law change. So I do want to acknowledge them. I want to acknowledge as others have the FGM education trust and the community leaders that have come together as Louisa has just listed: the Somali community the Eritrean community the Indonesian community the Ethiopian community and the Kurdish community. They have come together to support us bringing this law change through and I do want to stop and acknowledge that because often when we talk about things like FGM the debate does degrade into an attack on certain cultures over others and this isn't how this bill will go because it is being led by affected communities.We know that in New Zealand we ourselves are living an epidemic of domestic and sexual violence of gender-based violence and that equality for women is still a fight that we are fighting within our culture across different groups. This is one fight that we're winning today and I want to acknowledge the women the co-sponsors across this House who I share this absolute privilege and humbling honour with who have come together. It's every party. It's the National Party the Labour Party New Zealand First and the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand standing together as women and men voting through this change for equality. I think what we're saying today is that we none of us are safe or equal or empowered until we all of us are safe and empowered and equal. So I commend the bill to the House.