this, to be able to see this bill through to its fruition and see
it pass unanimously which
I hope will happen very shortly. Thank you
very much, Mr Speaker.
House, thank you Mr Speaker and greetings one and all. I
speak on this third reading of the Criminal
Records (Expungement of Convictions for
for Historical Homosexual Offences) Bill.
for Historical Homosexual Offences) Bill. I thought I would take us
through a bit of a history lesson. I
want to start with a quote
from the Kaleidoscope Trust speaking out
the rights of
rights of LGBT citizens from across the Commonwealth. It reads,
the abolition of slavery, the decriminalisation of home sex in our
time
decriminalisation of home sex in our
quote from Sir John Wolfendon when he urged Britain in 1957. He said,
by society, acting through the agency of the law,
to equate this sphere of crime with that of sin,
there must remain a realm of private
morality and immorality which is
in brief, in crude terms, not the
law's
publication which was published in 2005 ends with the conclusion by a
contributory that says, I quote,
the countries of the wealth to rid ourselves of this archaic legal
inheritance. We are here to call for
that decriminalising act
of law and by it an end to the wrong we do to
our brothers and sisters who, like
us, all members of what Dr Rowan
Williams t former after Bishop of
Canterbury called, the Commonwealth
of
Canterbury called, the Commonwealth
because at the moment there are 72 countries in the world where
being LGBTIQ means you are a criminal.
There are 13 countries in
the world currently where if you are
LGBTIQ the punishment is
death and unfortunately of those 72 countries,
36 of those countries
are Commonwealth countries. That's
36 of those countries are
of the countries in the world that criminalise
criminalise homosexuals are Commonwealth countries. So our ex
persons of the criminalisation of
homosexuality started 151 years ago
with the 1867 Offences
Against the Person Act. It was in that year that
the punishment ceased to
be execution, but it
actually was imprisonment for life. So 151 years
later I think I stand here proudly
as a member of this House to end
what I am going to label a crime
against humanity and I label it a
crime against humanity by
definition because it's acts that
are deliberately committed as part of a
widespread or systemic attack or
individual attack directed
against any civilian or an
identifiable part of a civilian
any civilian or an identifiable part
International Lesbian Gay Transsexual Trans and Intersexual
Association released a report
last year. It's titled State
Sponsored
are ending the remnants of state sponsored homophobia. I would like
to thank Wiremu Demchick, who in
July 2016 with MP Kevin Hague,
presented a petition to Parliament
that has resulted
in an apology and I want to acknowledge the
Hon Amy Adams for that apology and it also
called for legislation that expunges
convictions for homosexuals
doing what homosexuals do, which is making
love to other homosexuals.
what homosexuals do, which is making love to other homosexuals. We do
do other things, but in fact that's
what we were criminalised for, for
loving the person that we
chose to be with. Now, the
definition of expungement is a process by which
record of criminal conviction is
destroyed or sealed and then we
treat this conviction as if it
had never occurred. For me, that is the
beauty of this piece of
legislation, because we are saying
that homosexuality, being a crime,
people going to jail,
people being punished,
punished, should never have occurred.
occurred. But this legislative
reform actually began with a petition in the UK in
2009 by John Graham Cumming. John
Graham Cumming wanted an official
apology for Alan Turing. We know who
he is. He broke the German
enigma code. He was convicted in
1952 for being a homosexual man who engaged
in consensual
in consensual homosexual acts with a
between prison or being chemically castrated. He chose to be chemically
castrated and in 1954 at the age of
41, he committed suicide. And
so John Graham Cumming wrote
to the Queen and he wanted a posthumous
knighthood for Alan Turing. On
9 September 2009 the PM of England,
Gordon Brown, apologised to Alan
Turing. In 2007, that apology was
extended to all homosexuals
convicted of consensual
homosexual conduct which in the UK is between
50,000 and 100,000 men. Now, what
that set about was a process
that I'm really proud New Zealand is at
the forefront of with Australia.
South Australia, NSW, Victoria, ACT,
Tasmania, they have all
enacted expungement legislation and tonight
we also join Canada and we join
Germany and
Germany and every jurisdiction there's been issued an apology. The
importance of that apology I don't
think can be underestimated. As
I pointed out, we should never have
been criminals and we should never
have endured, I guess, the legacy of
what that criminality
said to ourselves and also said to society.
I do want to highlight that in other
jurisdictions they
jurisdictions they have actually compensated people. In Canada,
they created an
compensated people. In Canada, they
they have settled a class action because people who were in
the military and people who
were federal employees lost their careers and so
Canada has a
employees lost their careers and so
compensate those being themselves. They have a
community projects to combat homophobia and in
2019 in Canada will be the 50th
anniversary of homosexual law reform. In Germany,
they had
they had 150,000 people criminalised for being homosexuals. 5,000
are still living. They have engaged in
a personal compensation process. 3,000
Ururoas as a base payment and
3,000 euros and 150 for every year spent in prison. I came back from
Geneva. I was there as part
of the
it or not, since 1889, we have never had a debate at the IPU
about LGBTI rights.
rights.
Of the 162 member nations we had a forum where we were able to
talk about LGBTI rights. The outcome
of that process in Geneva was a vote
the next IPU for the first time in its history they will discuss the
rights of LGBTI peoples
in the role of Parliaments in ending this
abhorrent discrimination
abhorrent discrimination perpetrated by the state. I'm incredibly
proud to come from a country and a
Parliament that after 151 years
of colonisation, lest we forget,
these laws came from our coloniser. This
is part of a colonial history. It's
incredibly interesting when you go
to these IPU forums and you have
the African countries and you have the
Asian countries and they all talk
about this being abnormal behaviour,
but the reality is the con term
nation of this behaviour came
from England and I believe that England
is a colonising power, it still has
a lot of work to do to help us move
from a world that is filled
with hate to a world that is filled
with love.
love. So
love. So I'm incredibly proud of our
Parliament
Parliament because we've stood up for love tonight and I want to
thank all those involved in bringing this
piece of legislation to the
House.
The question is that the motion be agreed to. Those of that
opinion will say Aye. To the contrary, No.
The Ayes have it.
The Ayes have it. The Criminal Records
(Expungement of Convictions for Historical
Homosexual Offences) Bill, third
reading.
I
I call on
I call on Government Order of
Day No. 3. Residential Tenancies (Prohibiting
Letting Fees) Amendment Bill.
Letting Fees) Amendment Bill. Interrupted debate on first reading.
Members, the last time that the
House was considering the
Residential Tenancies (Prohibiting Letting Fees) Amendment
Letting Fees) Amendment Bill,