Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a pleasure to rise and take the first call in the second reading of the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill. This bill—

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Would you like to move that it actually be heard a second time.

CHRIS PENK: I move, That the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill be now read a second time.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It now gives me even greater pleasure to commence the debate on the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill, the second reading thereof. Just for the benefit of the House and anyone who is following this debate, including perhaps, and I hope, Annie herself and perhaps some members of her family, this afternoon, the House has agreed through its Business Committee and at the agreement of the relevant select committee—for which I’m grateful—that the second reading will take place, as it is now, and the committee of the whole House stage will have the opportunity for discussion and debate, but then there will not be a debate on the third reading. So at that point, the bill will either pass or not.

I do want to acknowledge, actually—and I know I’m going straight to process, but it’s important, I think, if I can frame the discussion not only in terms of the important issues raised in the bill but also the way that parties have engaged in its discussion. I think that it’s important and fair that people understand that various political parties at the select committee table but also in the first reading and throughout have engaged very respectfully and helpfully in relation to this particular bill.

They have been mindful of its wider consequences, perhaps, and also so that all are assured that the Parliament as a whole has engaged with the issue in a way that recognises its importance to many New Zealanders who have been affected by similar but, in some cases, different events surrounding adoption, particularly during a certain period of our history when processes were less open and transparent, shall we say, and when it was fair to say perhaps that a degree of coercion was exercised in some cases, sadly—not in all, of course, I hasten to add, but to the extent that that took place in some cases and also without the knowledge, for many years in some cases, of the person being adopted. I think that is a fair subject for us to revisit in this House in 2023.

As I say, it’s something to which the House may also wish to return to in the future, perhaps in a more coherent and broadly applicable way than is the nature of a private bill. One of the things that the select committee grappled with was the tension between making a law that relates specifically and exclusively to one person and her family—and, of course, to that one person, my constituent Annie Oxborough, and her family, this bill is hugely significant. For others, its significance will be in the indication that this Parliament, at least—and we can’t speak for future ones, but I think it is likely that others will also engage in this subject in a way that may provide some comfort and recognition of the circumstances and the background of many other New Zealanders.

So I’ve sort of traversed a bit the process there and touched on the select committee discussion. I’ll return to that briefly, but first I’d be remiss if I were not to give at least a brief account of the circumstances of Annie Oxborough’s own adoption, because, of course, that’s relevant to the circumstances of passing this private bill now, including as it relates to the question of whether the aim of the bill could have been met in some other way. Members will be well aware that if there is another legal avenue by which a person can effect a change to, for example, their birth records, then they would need to take that route rather than take the time and energy of this House to achieve that. Sadly, it’s the case that for Ms Oxborough and for others in the equivalent situation, there is no such path, and, of course, that is part of the advocacy that she has brought and that others have brought, effectively, to this House by way of the private bill.

So in terms of the story of Annie Oxborough, as she is now, but Lisa Clarke, as she was then, she was born in February 1971, the biological child of Susan Cox—nee Clarke—and Scott Sinel. She was subsequently adopted and, in accordance with the Adoption Act 1955 and practices as well as procedure at that time, a new birth certificate was issued in December 1979, by which time Lisa Clarke had been renamed Angela Joy Marshall, being the legal child of an adoptive mother and father. Her name was changed subsequently. She married, and is no longer married, I understand, but through that series of changing circumstances, her name changed a number of times.

Nevertheless, we do refer to Annie as such, and it is this woman, whom I would not hesitate to describe as remarkable and a force of nature—and I mean that most respectfully, but she’ll know why I’m laughing while I say that. She’s a very forthright character and none the worse for that, and our parliamentary colleague and friend Rachel Boyack also, I’m sure, won’t mind me pointing out that she has also enjoyed that reflection, along with other members of the Governance and Administration Committee. Ms Boyack had the pleasure of interacting with Ms Oxborough, and I think she would probably agree with me that we enjoyed the opportunity to interact with the lady herself, and colleagues from around the House, as I say, did come into that environment.

I will name them, actually, because it’s worth acknowledging that the contribution they made was very constructive, it was helpful, and it has actually led to a couple of changes, which I’ll speak to only briefly because it might be better in the committee of the whole House stage that there are some searching questions being asked by other members. I certainly hope not, but—as I try to find the names of those relevant members of the select committee—I do recall that it was Ian McKelvie, the chairperson; the Hon David Bennett; Rachel Boyack, whom I’ve already acknowledged as being a key figure in those discussions; Naisi Chen; and Jamie Strange, and also a non-usual member of the committee, Jan Logie of the Green Party made a point of joining the committee for its discussions and deliberation because that’s an area of public policy that’s important to her. I do want to acknowledge the constructive spirit in which she engaged with the questions arising not only in relation to Annie but, again, more broadly.

So, just briefly—and I don’t need to take the full time that’s allotted to me, because I sense that most of the parties understand the issues, and I think I’m right in saying they agree with me on where the select committee has landed—there’s a minor and technical change whereby “birth certificate” was amended to “birth record”. That was done on the advice of officials who pointed out that, technically, that’s how one refers to the birth record from which a certificate can be made.

Also, we are adding by way of clarification, effectively, that this bill doesn’t affect any other legal rights of Annie Oxborough in relation, for example, to succession or her ability to make a claim under a will, and so forth. So that’s why a new clause was added, saying that the birth parents of Annie Oxborough are not her legal parents. It’s a fine distinction, but one that all involved should understand, and the reasons for that.

So I’ll leave my comments there at this, the second reading, noting that I’ll have an opportunity to make at least a couple more—if the bill is to pass its second reading—at a subsequent stage. But, again, I thank the members of the House who engaged very thoughtfully and very openly in relation to their own situations, in many cases, at the first reading with the ongoing discussion and good-faith debate that has taken place. I very much hope that the other parties are minded to continue to support the bill. I think it’s worthy not only for Annie herself but as a helpful step forward for those who are in a similar situation who do seek the comfort of this consideration to be given by the Parliament, and, on that basis, I commend the bill to the House.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. In my first reading speech on this bill, I noted that we would treat Ms Oxborough’s bill and her story with the care and respect that it deserves, and I hope that we have done that. I’m aware that Annie will, hopefully, be listening to the debate this afternoon, and I hope that she is as comfortable as she can be with the process that we have followed.

This is the second private bill that the Governance and Administration Committee—that I’m happy to be a member of—has considered this term of Parliament relating to birth records. Through both of those processes, it would be acknowledged, I believe, by most members of the committee and most members of this House, that we need a simpler and less intrusive process. Now, that does have some difficulty with it, and I’ll come to that later.

I note it being an intrusive process because the submission from Ms Oxborough makes harrowing reading. I’m not going to read it out in detail tonight, because part of me wishes to ensure that Ms Oxborough is the one that has that ability to tell her story, and it’s for us as parliamentarians today to follow the process of the bill and to leave Ms Oxborough to be the one that shares her story with the world.

I want to note my colleague Chris Penk, who has brought this bill through in a very considered and constructive way on behalf of his constituent, and I acknowledge him for that. He has outlined the important elements of Ms Oxborough’s story today.

My thanks do go to the Business Committee for agreeing to a truncated process today, which is certainly something that the select committee supported. We are aware that for health reasons for some of Ms Oxborough’s family members, it’s important that we do pass this bill as soon as we are able to, and my thanks to the House for agreeing for us to be able to follow a truncated process, and I do hope that we will be able to finalise this bill today.

There were some changes made through the select committee process that Mr Penk has already outlined, but I did just want to take us through. As I’ve already stated, this bill has had to come to Parliament because there is no process under existing law, and that’s why we’ve had to bring a private bill to the House.

Ms Oxborough wishes for her birth certificate to be updated and corrected. On advice from officials, we did find that wasn’t necessarily the most straightforward approach to take and that what we needed to do was actually amend the birth record. So my thanks to officials—in particular, the Parliamentary Counsel Office—for assisting with some drafting to ensure we had the clarity here in the bill. As you read through the bill, you’ll note that there has been definitions provided for “birth record” and three different definitions provided for “birth certificate”. So we have the pre-adoptive birth certificate, which was the original birth certificate when Ms Oxborough was born; the post-adoptive birth certificate, which was updated when the adoption order was made; and, finally, the new birth certificate, which is what will be able to be issued to Ms Oxborough once her birth record has been amended.

I want to make some commentary around wider reform before I finish my call, because whenever we have looked through these private bills, a lot of commentary has occurred within the House and within the select committee about the need for wider reform.

Can I first acknowledge the private member’s bill in the name of my colleague Tāmati Coffey, and note that he has had a very special day today, in being able to formally adopt his daughter today. Mr Coffey’s private member’s bill is regarding surrogacy law. Now, this is another adoption issue that exists that wasn’t an issue when Ms Oxborough was born, but is becoming more of an issue now and does speak to the need for wider reform. I note that the Government has picked up Mr Coffey’s private member’s bill because it is such a substantial piece of reform that needs to occur.

There’s further reform occurring being led by the Ministry of Justice. This is looking specifically at how we can ensure we’ve moved from what was a dreadful—utterly dreadful—closed adoption process where, quite frankly, babies were taken from their parents without their permission. We’ve moved from that process to a far more open adoption process, where children were able to retain contact with their birth parents and their birth family.

One of the options that the Ministry of Justice is now looking at is the ability to continue keeping those records in place, the records of the birth parents and the records of the adoptive parents, and having more modern and flexible approaches. The challenge that presents, that I do want to acknowledge that this House does need to grapple with at some point, is that those reforms won’t necessarily apply retrospectively, because that’s very challenging. In Ms Oxborough’s case, because her adoptive parents, who would not have supported this law, have passed away, that has made it somewhat easier for her to progress with this. But there will be thousands of other people out there in Aotearoa in similar circumstances who would like to be able to take a private bill, but know that in doing so, it could cause significant hurt to their family.

The other matter with that is that it would take up a considerable amount of the House’s time. I think what all members of the committee feel—but we don’t necessarily have an easy answer to this—is that we need a simpler, less-intrusive process where people can update their records in a private way without having to expose their life and their story and public in such a way.

For Ms Oxborough, what I do want to congratulate her on is that she’s taken this journey for herself and for her family, but in doing so, she has exposed to the country and to the Parliament a genuine issue that exists that I think we need to correct.

And so it is a pleasure to be able to hold Ms Oxborough’s story with the care and respect that it deserves, and I do hope very much that she will look back on this process and feel that she achieved something for herself and for the country. It is an excellent bill. I congratulate the member again on the diligence and care he has approached this with. I commend it to the House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I’d just like to echo the words of the last speaker, Rachel Boyack, in thanking Chris Penk for bringing this bill through the House, and the way that he has managed that process but also engaged with Annie and made her ambitions a reality, and done so in a very sensitive and understanding way. So a real tribute to you and your constituency work, and also to Annie. This will be something she’s looked forward to for a long time. Those of us in this House may be able to say what we think about the bill, but the emotions that she will feel will be quite probably different, in the sense that they’ll be more heightened. She’ll be more aware of what it actually means to her and her history and whakapapa—going back to her past—and understanding her future as well. So we congratulate her on her efforts to bring this forward, and for the success in getting this bill through the House, and looking forward to all parties supporting it here today.

The last speaker made some very good comments around the reform that’s needed in this area as well. I’d like to acknowledge Tāmati Coffey as well for the work he’s done in that area—well overdue. It’s one of those issues that I don’t think should divide this House like some other conscience issues. I think that it’s more for us as a Parliament becoming a little bit more up with the times of how life can change and things do change, and that we need to reflect that in the laws of the land as well, that were, you know, set up in a different time, with a different space, and a different attitude. Things are quite different now. I look forward to Tāmati’s bill coming forward. It won’t be under this Government, obviously, but, you know, in a future Government, that that actually is the case, and we actually see reform in that area.

This is a bill that—there wasn’t really too much dissention or need to change at the Governance and Administration Committee. The changes were quite minor, in regard to really the actual approach to the definition of how that is recorded. The second one was really around the succession rights. It was just a clarification, really. Not that in any sense there was any ability for any further succession rights to eventuate from this kind of a bill, but really just a clarification to make it clear.

The last speaker also raised the issue of the scale of this issue, if it actually was to progress further. I guess there’ll be other people out there that may be listening or looking at the history around this bill and thinking, “Well, how do I do it?” I don’t see that we’ll see a rash of people going to each MP and asking them to do a member’s bill in that regard. That’s simply not feasible and the department was quite clear that if they had even a dozen of these kind of cases, that would be an overload on their capability.

So really, this is a bill that is a trailblazer in the sense of setting down a direction, I think, for future Governments to actually look at this area and to try and accommodate these kind of wishes, and also to look at the wider area around surrogacy, adoption, to make that more up to date with the reality of how people live their lives now. So, in that sense, I think it actually might push forward—for other people in different circumstances—their wishes to see the Parliament be a little bit more open and up to date in its approach towards adoption. So Annie might not have just supported her cause, and other people that have the same cause, but also supported a wider issue around adoption that needs to be facilitated in this House.

So I commend the bill to the House, and congratulate all those involved in making this reality. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a real privilege I think, as a member of Parliament, to be able to walk someone through their private bill and I do join with my colleagues in saying thank you to the local MP as well, Chris Penk, for bringing this bill to the House. I think it’s, like I said, a real privilege to be able to walk with someone’s journey.

I have to agree with Rachel that today, as we pass through the stages of this bill, we need to give Annie the space to tell her story. But I did want to thank her for coming to the select committee, for coming here, face to face, and telling us her story. When she came over to the select committee she presented us with the book that she wrote. There are words I have to omit from this title, but it is “Where the”—[Gestures]—“is my mother?”, so I’ll just call it Where … is my mother?—a book for grown-up adoptees, written by Annie herself.

If I may, I just wanted to read a few pages from this book, which I think tells her story beautifully. But as someone who wasn’t in New Zealand, or our family wasn’t in New Zealand, during the era between 1950s to 1980s and having any personal experience in this area, reading her book really opened my eyes to some of the realities of adoption, at least through Annie’s story and through her own experience.

At the back she writes: “An adopted child is born on the grave of another family. Adoption has a long history of being a celebrated act of love, charity, and saviourism. However, there has been a growing number of investigations and reports indicating that adoption is not what we have been led to believe. Why must I go to court to gain access to my identity? Why was it considered necessary to erase my identity? Why are the adopted treated as second-class citizens? Why are we all repeating this flawed ideology? Why are only some people considered tabula rasa?”

So I think with these words and these questions that Annie has left at the end of her book, for me, it’s about making sure that we correct some of the mistakes where we can. But as my colleagues have alluded to in their speeches as well, it’s that we prevent history from repeating itself and, as we go into the future, that we look at a bigger scale of law change and policy change to make sure that we have laws that serve the best interests of children, of families who are going through adoption, to make sure that the pain and the suffering of having to go through that process is no longer repeated and that we cater for that the best that we can.

It’s been just such a privilege to be able to serve on the Governance and Administration Committee. As we were discussing this bill and as we had gone through the stages and all of the submissions and looked at the intricacies of this bill—I think the changes made have been covered very well by my colleague Rachel Boyack, in the sense that we looked at other details on how we could limit it either to hers or the other options that there could have been available, but also what was unique about her circumstances of the fact that her adoptive parents have already passed and so there was no other interested party, I guess you could say, in a legal sense to this bill, and we opened up for submissions and we have been open about hearing different perspectives and different sides of Annie’s story as well.

But fortunately for us, this has been a really straightforward and really clean-cut case where Annie’s will is to have her birth parents on her certificate. She shared this story and I’ll always come back to her submission to the select committee, her oral submission—she shared her story of how she looked around the room. She has three other sisters that were all adopted as well, and she looked around the room and said, no, she can’t see herself in anyone. And I remember shedding tears that day with her when she said finally, when she had her child, when she held her own baby in her arms, she could finally see someone that resembled her and that had her DNA and that shared her likeness.

I think that is the power that we have in this House—to be able to do this. And I’m so pleased today that we have used that power to do something good and something meaningful for one of our people in New Zealand. So I commend this bill to the House at this stage.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of ACT to take a brief call on this bill, the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill. ACT will obviously continue to support this bill and appreciates the work of the sponsoring member Chris Penk in getting this through the House. We’re also supportive of the procedure of going immediately to committee stage and then to a vote at the third reading.

As others have canvassed, there is a broader context that has been discussed, both in the House and in select committee. And although the select committee was careful in making sure the bill didn’t affect any primary legislation or is at odds with primary legislation, it did outline a bit of a positive framework for how this might actually proceed for others. Is everything OK, Mr Speaker, you’re giving me some interesting looks?

DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, no, it’s fine. Just having a conversation with the Clerk. Carry on.

Dr JAMES McDOWALL: Ha, ha! No worries. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

So as I said, ACT supports this bill. Annie’s story is very harrowing and very impressed by her presence in the media and also sharing her story. There are many historical cases of closed adoption and a lot of pain has come out of that in the past. Those outcomes still exist to this day.

So this bill is positive in the sense that it shines a light on those issues. Not all cases will be like Annie’s, but nonetheless have the same origin that I think a future Parliament does need to look at and take into account the learnings and what the select committee has said and how this law change doesn’t have to be overly complicated to address a lot of these concerns, notwithstanding the fact that many of them are quite different.

The select committee obviously said they encourage the Government to consider reforms that could prevent the need for using private bills to achieve these outcomes, and we agree with that. The select committee made very helpful improvements to the bill around definitions, helped by the Department of Internal Affairs officials, which we think appropriately deals with any unintended consequences evident in clause 5.

So family connections are obviously deeply important personally to us as human beings and discovering new connections is also very special. I myself have found many new relatives quite recently actually just using DNA testing, and that’s a very interesting thing that I encourage people to do—

Hon Member: Are we cousins?

Dr JAMES McDOWALL: Many new cousins!

Wrongs have been done in the past, as I said. This bill shows that the solution doesn’t have to be too complicated. The framework sort of naturally evolves out of this bill, and there’ll be many in New Zealand who will be watching this debate with great interest—how it might affect them in future. As I said, I do hope that the next Government, whichever it will be, can look at this issue, and not just this issue but also around adoption, particularly around surrogacy. There’s a lot of liberalisation and simplification that can be done and I hope that it is done. Mr Speaker, thank you. I wish Annie and her family all the best and I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this debate on Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill. I’d like to begin by acknowledging the courage of Annie Oxborough for bringing this bill to the House. It’s a very public process that she went through, and she made herself vulnerable as she went through that process. I’d like to acknowledge her courage for this. Also, I’d like to acknowledge the member Chris Penk for being a good constituent MP, in terms of bringing this bill to the House, in terms of serving his constituent. This was a very interesting bill for our committee, the Governance and Administration Committee. Generally, we deal with matters of local government and such like, but this was—I don’t want to say more interesting, but this certainly engaged us very strongly.

The reality is that, for years, women have had babies at different ages—some women from the age of 16 or even younger; others, like my mother, who at 48 had twins. Yes, 48. My mother actually spanned both spectrums, because she fell pregnant with me when she was 19, and she and dad were estranged in terms of their relationship—to use the pun—and so it was a difficult time for her, actually. Basically, she met with a doctor, and the doctor said, “It’s OK, Noeline”—and I do have permission say this—“we can send you to Australia and just have an abortion.” And she said, “Oh, OK.” But then, when she spoke to a couple of people—her workmate and her sister—they said, “If you go through with the baby, we will adopt the child.” She and Dad did get back together before she had the baby. She went through with it, and here I am today.

Andrew Bayly: And what a beautiful man you are.

JAMIE STRANGE: Oh, thank you. But many young mothers often don’t have that type of support around them. The member Andrew Bayly just complimented me, in terms of how nice it is to have me in the world, and I appreciate that, too. But many young mothers don’t have the support that my mother had, and it’s a very challenging time.

This was the story that we heard from Annie Oxborough—that her 21-year-old birth mother was not allowed to see her after delivery, and she was left with other newborns in the hospital for 16 days after her birth in Auckland. Medical records reveal that, as a baby, Annie cried so much that she had to be medicated. Actually, Annie’s mother had to pay a hospital administration fee of $1 when she left her child there. She even had to pay the hospital to leave her child in the hospital. The child was there for 16 days and then was adopted. When Annie’s mum met her 20 years later, she gave her back the slip of paper—the receipt for the dollar—obviously a very emotional moment for her and her daughter. Annie wasn’t allowed to see her birth certificate until she was 18. When she was 18 years of age, she was able to see her birth certificate. That then sparked a process whereby she attempted to track down her birth mother—her birth parents. It took her 18 months, and she finally did track down her birth mother and formed a strong relationship with her birth mother. This bill here today is the result of that relationship that she formed with her birth mother and her father.

As a select committee, as other speakers have said, there were some complexities within this bill. We worked through that, and I think we’ve landed in a really good place. We did also highlight the fact that there will no doubt be others who have been through similar traumatic experiences who would like their name changed on their birth certificate as well. This could be up to around 100,000 people across New Zealand potentially. It will be interesting to see how many of those people seek out local MPs to go through this process. The reality is that it may be difficult for the House to process 100,000 of these individual applications, so I am pleased to see that some work is being done on the Adoption Act, and I look forward to seeing that work progress. I’m also, finally, in closing, pleased to see that all parties, it appears, are supporting this bill. It’s the right thing to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of the Greens to support this second reading of the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill. I join with others in acknowledging the member who has brought this bill to the House, and also the work of the Governance and Administration Committee, who went through the bill and listened to submitters, including Annie Oxborough. Jan Logie was our person on that committee who heard the kōrero from Annie, and I want to acknowledge Annie today for sharing her story; for sharing her vulnerability; for sharing her words.

Jan shared with me, actually, some of the quotes from the book that was given to the select committee, and for me it really speaks to the search for connection, the sadness of what could have been if the person hadn’t have been adopted out. I just wanted to share some of those quotes because I think it resonates—it resonated with me when I read those quotes, but also I know that there’s around about 100,000 people that have been adopted in Aotearoa New Zealand, and perhaps some of this is similar to their experiences as well. I quote, “I couldn’t have my own children, so God sent you back to me.”; “Why has my mother not picked me up yet?”; “We are getting a puppy but can’t bring it home yet, it has to bond with its mother so it can be a happy dog.” This is another quote, “People say ‘real’ or ‘natural’, mother. But she’s just my mother. She is so pretty. She has long red hair like an angel. But I cannot find her. I will look for her tomorrow at the shops.”

I want to acknowledge all parties around the House, particularly those that were members on the select committee who could see this for what it was; could see that there was no pathway, actually, to do the things that needed to be done to support Annie and to acknowledge that we needed a new piece of legislation. The Governance and Administration Committee did do a thorough examination of the bill, and as some of the members highlighted, the main proposed amendments included replacing the term “birth certificate” with “birth record”, to ensure accuracy and alignment with contemporary terminology. Furthermore, the bill’s definitions have been clearly specified to avoid ambiguity in the interpretation, and it is essential that every aspect of this bill be precise and transparent so it can really honour the significance of Annie’s journey. Some of the members also touched on the need to actually sort of deal with some of those succession issues, so it doesn’t run into bumps into other pieces of legislation.

The committee also recognised the importance of addressing certain concerns, but I felt from reading and listening to the select committee that they really held on to the sole intention, which was to reflect Annie’s true lineage on her birth record, because that’s what she was after, and also safeguarding the integrity of her personal journey. The committee also reflected on the need for possibly wider reform—and people did speak about earlier that, if the department had 12 of these or 20 of these, that would cause problems. But I’m well aware, as are a lot of members all around the House, that this isn’t the first type of bill to come to the House; it does point to something that does need to be done.

I do want to conclude to let us remember that the purpose of this bill is to rightfully reflect Annie Oxborough’s lineage to her birth record. The committee’s examination and recommendations of its passage through the House is something that we support, because it supports that need for people to bridge that gap, to help them complete that journey in terms of who they are and to build those connections back to their connection to their parents, and also acknowledging much of the history that people have shared around some of those—way back in the day, where they used to be able to take your children off you, and how horrendous and how tragic that history is, and for us to remember that that history has happened. And also, the need to actually wrap support around those people that are actually looking for those connections, looking back to find those connections with their whakapapa. The stories are tough; the stories are sad, but those are stories that are really, really important to people like Annie.

So I would like to end this by saying: Nei te mihi atu ki a koe, Annie, kia whai wāhi koe ki tō tuakiritanga. Otirā tēnā tātou e te Whare.

[Here is the greeting to you dear, Annie; you have this space to develop your character. And, so, greetings to you all.] 

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a delight to speak on this second reading. I have reflected between the readings on how good it is to be able to progress this bill swiftly, particularly as I heard Chris Penk acknowledge in his introductory comments that the Business Committee has looked to have an expedited third reading stage, which I think is a great thing and shows the way this House can work together once a case has been clearly made and members are in agreement and have fully debated the merits, and put on the record the merits of such a bill and the challenges that the current law presents to people that rightly want to make sure that their identity is recorded authentically. It’s great to have that agreement and willingness to work together to achieve a good outcome, in this case, for Annie.

I also, in reflecting on this bill, noted the media commentary, which reflects on the way in which this House does its business and can do its business in such a cooperative way, particularly when it touches on personal matters. I think that that is something that we don’t celebrate enough: the way in which this House can work together, the way in which we, as politicians, are expected to debate matters robustly and that relate to our policies and the way we relate to each other and can separate that from the lives of individuals—sometimes in our own families and beyond—and make sure that we are actually doing justice to their lives without trying to point-score is really worthwhile.

So we heard stories from Glen Bennett about his mother seeking her adoptive parents. In the first reading, I relayed the story of my mother seeking information about her birth parents and my experience as a child going around the South Island seeking her birth parents.

Times are different, and we are able to put this wrong right. I am very much in support of doing that promptly, swiftly, and directly. With that, I commend this bill to the House.

I’ll ably fill in for my colleague Todd Muller, who’s buried deep in his phone. I beg your pardon. Look, like previous speakers, I’ve also been reflecting on the tone and content of what we’ve been hearing in this House this afternoon. I just find it extraordinary what we do learn about the power of human endeavour. I have to say, Jamie Strange, that was quite an extraordinary relay of your own personal story and very touching and thank you for sharing that.

Like others across the House, it seems, I stand to support the passage of the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill through the House this afternoon for, hopefully by the end of the day, the third and final time. Can I also congratulate my colleague Chris Penk. I think it is a very honourable thing to do, for a member of Parliament to bring a bill to this House that will so profoundly change the life of a New Zealander.

I have to say, on that note, it is an enormously brave and powerful thing for said New Zealanders to approach a member of Parliament and seek to change a law. Most people, I think, would be put off by it or frightened by it, or overwhelmed by it, but not Annie Oxborough, and I’m very pleased that she has had the courage of her conviction to come to Chris and, indeed, come to this Parliament to seek for something that, to her, has not been right throughout her life. It is very important for us, as legislators within Parliament, particularly when an individual has been advised that there’s no room in the New Zealand statute to change something, that they do have the courage of their convictions to seek a private member’s bill and, again, for the member in charge to also take hold of that and create a private bill and bring it to Parliament.

So Annie, now, will be allowed to change her birth certificate to reflect the names of her biological parents, replacing those with her now deceased adoptive parents. We do admire that and we do wish her all the very best with her future endeavours and hope that this brings her, indeed, the peace and the understanding that I think she has sought.

I would also like to commend Naisi Chen for her comments. She obviously sat on the select committee and was able to have a really intimate understanding of Annie’s journey. I felt a twinge of envy, actually; I would have loved to have been a part of that myself. As I say, this is one of the reasons that we do come to this place, for all of its quirks, because every now and then you can change a life and you can make a real difference to someone and I do, on that note, like my colleagues, commend this bill to the House and wish Annie all the very best.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise to make a short contribution to the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill, and I am really pleased that I’m able to take this opportunity. I begin my short contribution by thanking the member Chris Penk for bringing this matter to the House. I am not a member of the Governance and Administration Committee, and I do thank and acknowledge the select committee for their work. I also want to thank Annie Oxborough, not just for her determination and her perseverance but her aroha in wanting to know her whakapapa, which is really important as a New Zealand citizen—it is her birthright to know and to have the accurate records, in terms of her birth certificate, reflect it. And I really support her journey through that, because, under the current law, as we’ve heard from our colleagues, it does not reflect that.

So, respectfully, we’ve heard contributions from our members across the House that adoption—it’s actually quite a huge topic. In this day and age, we are in quite a different circumstance in terms of whānau and families, and especially individuals such as Annie, who want to have the rightful words on their birth certificate.

Just lastly, this is a huge issue for Pasifika communities, who have not had the courage or not had the education in terms of this issue on their birth certificates. So, respectfully, the Adoption Act does need to be updated. And I want to congratulate Annie Oxborough for her courage in bringing this to the House via Mr Penk. On that note, I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a pleasure to speak on this bill—the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill. It was fortunate that I was subbing in on the Governance and Administration Committee looking at this bill. The previous speaker, Lemauga Lydia Sosene, mentioned whakapapa, and this is what the underpinning of this bill is about. It’s about identity.

So what Annie has said is: quite frankly, after her parents have passed, she wants to reclaim her identity and ensure that her birth certificate reflects the name that her birth parents gave her. If you look back at the history, you’ll see that she was born in late 1971. It was in 1973—so only a few years later—that the late Norman Kirk brought into place the domestic purposes benefit, the DPB. Many people have criticised that. Can I say this—that fundamentally changed the rights of women, and started the process of stopping the shame and stigma towards those women who had children whose parents were embarrassed or otherwise, and society scorned them for having these children.

I’m one of those children too. I was adopted, and it took a full 18 years before the law—this country’s law, still in place today, the 1955 Adoption Act, that gave you permission to find out who your birth parents were. The person turned up from the then Department of Social Welfare; they present to you a couple of forms and say, “We’ve photocopied these from the electoral rolls; we think these are your parents”. You go through a process, and then out comes a birth certificate, with a bit of a red stamp on it and it says, “This is what your name was when you were born. These were your parents’ names. Good luck in finding them.”

That practice has changed, but the law remains. Can I acknowledge all of those MPs across the House who have done some work to say, “This is not reflective of the modern New Zealand world that we live in.” In saying that, can I congratulate Chris Penk, the local member, on taking this up on behalf of one of his constituents and saying, “We need to rectify this”.

The good news is change is coming, hopefully. The 1955 Adoption Act is being reviewed. I want to acknowledge the officials from the Ministry of Justice who have worked hard and have picked up some of the concerns of the previous speaker and said, “We know that this has been dreadful in practice to our Pacific communities, Māori.”, and there’s a good 100,000-plus. I don’t think we will really know the real figure. But none the less, I hope that that Act is reformed—for the many Annies out there living across this country who want to know, rightfully so, who their birth parents are and understand more about their identity, where they are from.

That’s taken a full 50 years for me to say, “This is where I’m proudly from.” But you can’t repair things that quickly, and some will still be saying that they find this process—for some, they may never want to know, and that’s OK too. But in this case, Annie Oxborough has said, “I do want to know. I do want to have my identity reflected on my birth certificate; that represents who I am.” She’s been respectful, noting that her parents have passed. I think that we won’t see this coming up. I want to reassure members that I think the process is well under way with the Justice officials to say that we will see reform.

The good thing about today is that it’s a good yardstick to say when the reform comes, we can reflect back on this, and make those changes once and for all. Because there have been many members who have tried to make some change within the adoption space, and not got very far. So, to the member, Chris Penk, for your work, to the committee, and the fortunate occasion that I had to be subbed in and to be approved, the material that made me want to speak today, on this particular matter: thank you. I commend this bill to the House.

This Parliament is a place that definitely reflects our society, reflects the values of our society, and as a House of Representatives it is a place that decisions are made which I want to say run parallel with what’s going on in the outside world. But sometimes I feel like we’re often a bit slow to the game or we have to be pushed and nudged a little to get to a place of making decisions that affect what our society reflects. If you look at things like adoption, if you look at things like our rainbow issues and rainbow reform and inclusion, if you look at things like Te Tiriti o Waitangi and including that as part of our founding document, when you look at the environment or climate or women’s rights and reproductive rights, the list goes on. This bill, this piece of legislation, is a reflection of our society and of us moving forward.

Now, I’ve got to say to the Governance and Administration Committee: thank you for the work you have done on this. It’s always encouraging to read the report that comes back and to see that together across the aisle of Parliament here it was agreed to in terms of getting this right so that Annie Oxborough could be recognised and have her birth parents recognised on her birth certificate.

I want to thank Chris Penk, who was been mentioned this evening, for his willingness to take this on. This is a justice issue. This is something that is important for people—for Annie, but I’m sure there are others out there who can reflect on what this means for them. So it is good, as a House, to be working together to get something right. For many people it might be strange that this is just for one person, but it’s a symbol of what it means for that one person and what it means for us as a House as we look to mirror and reflect the values of our society. So as my colleague Paul Eagle just said, looking at the review of the 1955 Adoption Act is something that we need to consider and we are considering. And it is time, because the early 1970s was a very different time when Annie was born to the early 1980s or the early 2000s, which are very different to the 2020s here and now.

In the first reading I reflected on my mother’s own journey and what that meant. I had the privilege last month to meet Annie Oxborough, thanks to Chris Penk inviting her here and spending time. It was lovely to briefly meet her and to see her face to face, to realise the significance of something that for many might seem so small but it is impactful—the fact that she can have a birth certificate that represents and names her biological parents. The fact that she can have a birth certificate that represents and names her lineage, her whakapapa, is crucial for so many of us. And I’m glad that this House has taken time to consider that for her. I’m glad that we’re able to make this change so that she can have that opportunity to be able to seek the change and to see the change on her own birth certificate.

For me as I reflect, I think of my mother today. The fact that she doesn’t have that opportunity, not because this House wouldn’t allow it but because she doesn’t know her lineage or her whakapapa. She has a small connection. But records of the 1940s have long since been lost to find who she was and the whakapapa that she has. So for me as a member of Parliament and someone who stands in support of this bill, I am glad to cheer and champion and say, “Yes. Let’s get on with it and let’s get this passed.” But it also makes me slightly sad to know that for myself—although I have my parents’ name on my birth certificate—there’s a part of me and my whakapapa that is missing because generations past and the way that life was lived and done and what we thought was right for the sake of a child or a baby has been lost.

But it is good. And I don’t want to dwell on the negative. I want to dwell on what is possible, and the fact that today we get to pass a law that Annie Oxborough gets to change her birth certificate. The fact that we get to think about what it means to make change in this country, in this House, so that we live in a 21st century nation where adoption rights, where the ability to have records to represent who we are are there and are in place. So thank you to Chris Penk. Thank you to the committee for working collegially together. Thank you to the fact that we live in a democracy that can do something seemingly so small but yet so great and powerful for somebody and for her generations to come. I commend this bill to the House.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

In accordance with a determination of the Business Committee, this bill is set down for committee stage immediately. I declare the House in committee for consideration of the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill.

In Committee

Preamble and clauses 1 to 6