Sullivan Birth Registration Bill

It is a pleasure to stand to discuss and debate the Sullivan Birth Registration Bill during this Committee stage of the bill. It has been equally interesting listening to the previous speakers on the previous item on tonight’s agenda. The opportunity for private bills or local bills to come through is a very significant part of parliamentary work, even if it affects a small number of people. Most of our legislation, of course, is designed to embrace populations, or large parts of populations, or certain sections of them, whereas these bills, this one in particular, affects one individual. It does so in a very particular way, because it provides an identity for a person, an identity that was, in fact, lost and has now been restored—or will be restored by the passing of this bill as it completes its various stages.

I was reflecting earlier on what I might contribute to this bill to assist the understanding of people who are not familiar with the technicalities of it—and it is a very technical bill. But to give it personal reflection, I thought this evening of how fortunate I have been to travel earlier in my life to large parts of the South Pacific basin, in particular Papua New Guinea, which is a country I spent a lot of time in and fell in love with. But I was constantly reminded of the fragility of personal identification, because in that country—and in plenty of other countries in the world, probably, but fewer and fewer all the time—people do not carry personal identification in the form of passports, driving licences, or that sort of thing. Their identity is within their own family, within their wantok, within their groups of people. They are identified because they are known as individuals. And that is very, very fragile, especially when rural comes in to urban community.

In this particular case, this bill would require the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages to record the details of Rowen Sullivan’s deceased mother on her birth certificate. Following the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013, same-sex couples are able to marry and therefore to apply to jointly adopt children. If Rowen Sullivan’s birth mother had been able to marry her long-term partner, this situation would not have arisen. Ultimately, this bill will make what is a matter of fact—that Diane Sullivan and Doreen Shields are Rowen Sullivan’s parents—a matter of law.

I would suggest to anyone who asks why we are doing this through Parliament—that this seems to be a lot of time being spent on an individual—to just try not having these things right in their life. I would suggest it is a breakfast, lunch, and dinner job. It is going to be affecting you all the time.

To give listeners and people who are in the Chamber the detail of how this happened, I will just go through a list of the events. Rowen Sullivan’s parents from birth were Diane Sullivan—that is her birth mother—and Diane Sullivan’s female partner, Doreen Shields. Diane Sullivan died in 2010 when Rowen was 17 years old. Doreen Shields chose not to adopt Rowen while Diane Sullivan was still alive as this, believe it or not, would have required the removal of Diane Sullivan—that is, the birth mother—

Preamble agreed to.

I seek leave for all provisions to be taken as one question.

Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is no objection.

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