Ghahraman GolrizThird ReadingGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): I move That the Crimes (Definition of Female Genital Mutilation) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.It is truly a pleasure this evening to stand and speak to this historic bill. It's historic in a couple of different aspects but I will open really proudly to acknowledge that this House is coming together not only in consensus but for the first time to present and vote on a members' bill that's brought by members from parties across the House. I just want to start by acknowledging my co-sponsors Priyanca from Labour and Jenny from New Zealand First and Jo from the National Party. I also want to acknowledge the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians group and Louisa Wall who chaired our select committee as we deliberated and also supported us in bringing this bill in this unique way to the House.It is I think a night for celebration as well of the communities who came to us and who made this law possible. It is truly I think lawmaking for the affected communities by the affected communities in that this bill and the definitional change of female genital mutilation" (FGM) is something that feminists—men and women—from affected communities have been calling for and educating us about for years and years.This bill amends the Crimes Act 1961 to insert a definition of "female genital mutilation" that is holistic and up to date. Our laws were outdated in that we only criminalised what I guess is now known as the worst kind of female genital mutilation. We've learnt now through the education and the generosity of the communities that have come to us to speak to us about what this practice truly entails that there are forms that we would certainly under standing law call lesser less serious minor or ceremonial and we know that the harm is still so immense both on the psyche of the young girls and women who are undergoing this type of harm but also physically. Others have spoken about the intense pain the scars and the sense of degradation that stays with women and girls. In fact we know with any patriarchal practice part of the purpose of performing any kind of gender-based mutilation—and in this case there's nothing that can be ceremonial that isn't harmful when it is a cut or a piercing without consent and performed most often on very young girls.This bill of course takes away the defence of consent because we know that in circumstances where female genital mutilation is imposed on a young girl or a woman coercion is involved in the cultural aspect and in the fact that it's often parents and senior community members that are imposing the practice on a young girl. So the law is updated in that aspect as well and it also is a criminal offence to take a young girl or woman out of New Zealand for the purpose of performing female genital mutilation on them.But I do want to come back again to those communities that came to us: the female genital trust the Somali community the Eritrean community the Kurdish community the Ethiopian community and Indonesian community leaders. These are all communities that have worked together and separately as part of different groups in the refugee community and have been educating their own within their own communities and they've been educating us as lawmakers as well.I think it stands to be noted that whether it's a patriarchal practice that degrades women through family violence or whether it's something like FGM we all have some form of misogyny some form of equity that we need to work on within our genders and our cultures. New Zealand is a place where we have epidemic levels of domestic and sexual violence against women as well. So while we have this kind of harmful practice in all cultures we also have voices for equality and for empowerment of women in all of our cultures.These communities have really taught us that we as lawmakers do have to pay attention to all of the different communities and marginalised women that we serve. Tonight together we have come to this House and we're changing New Zealand law to reflect what their cultures truly want and aspire to. So I do thank them and I commend the bill to the House."