making a unanimous stand for tolerance and equality
and diversity and I am so very pleased
to commend this bill to the House.
this bill to the House. I call the Hon Grant Robertson.
Thank you Madam Speaker
for the opportunity to take a call in this
third reading debate. Madam
Speaker, a few years ago after one of the
Labour Party's leadership contests
a few years ago after one of the
out. I
out. I went down to Dunedin to the Hockin
Library. I went there to look into a
person who in many years
to come when I leave this place I
want to write a book about. His
name is Rodney Kennedy. Rodney
write a book about. His name is
into the connection I had with Rodney
into the connection I had with
patron of the arts supported incredible people, had a
potentially platonic relationship, with Charles Brash the poet and
was an incredible person and he's never
really
really been recognised, in my belief, for what he did in
his contribution to the arts. When I
was looking at some of his records, I
came across a very, very small
envelope which he in it was here to,
he had addressed it to a
Charles Brash who was
living in Christchurch. This would be in
the late 1950s, early 60s. Inside the
envelope was a very, very small
newspaper clipping which said,
discharged from the conviction of indecency
discharged from the conviction of
Rodney Kennedy had obviously done is he had clipped that out of the paper
and he had sent it in an envelope
to Charles Brash. There were no
other words in the envelope, no letter,
nothing. It was just this clipping.
Rodney Kennedy and Charles Brash
moved in circles, particularly
Charles Brash, moved in
circles where the shame and the fear and
anxiety and the depression caused
by the illegality of homosexuality
and by the arrests and by the
attitude of the police of the time would
have been unbearable and in
this incredibly poignant moment, it
captured for me the impact that it
had on these men's lives. They could
barely speak to one
another about this. Rodney Kennedy added no words
to that clipping. He
couldn't express himself and how he felt to
a man he was close
express himself and how he felt to a
That was the state of fear these men lived with. It is to Rodney Kennedy,
to Norris Davey and to the less
famous
to Norris Davey and to the less
famous men we stand tonight as a parliament and we say, we're sorry.
And I say more than that as I did in
my first reading. I say I'm sorry.
my first reading. I say I'm sorry. As a man who has been able to live
my life relatively freely as
a homosexual male, a
person who's able to come to this Parliament and
get heckled and abused by the National
Party because it's
a Finance Minister, not because I'm a gay man.
That's a fantastic advance that is
built on the shoulders of those men
and not just of those men who
were arrested or convicted or who
spent time in prison, but of those men who
just lived their lives as a gay man,
who actually just
tried to survive through those years. So to
all of the men who were not arrested and
their families, we also say sorry.
This law was and is wrong. The
fact that we can expunge the
convictions today is a mighty step forward
for addressing that. But the constant
fear and the reminder
of the worthlessness and the shame of
your mere existence
mere existence is not something we can put away so easily.
mere existence is not something we can put away so easily. It
echoes through generations. I've been
deeply moved by the men
and their families who have written to me
since this legislation came forward
and since the first reading. They
have expressed the fact that
finally there is a time for them
to feel some
there is a time for them to feel
what's been done to them. We can now say that it was wrong, we are sorry
and we want to say that out loud. To
me these men are heroes, they are
people we should look up to. They
are people who now need to know that
their country actually
does value them. I want to thank, as
others have, Wiremu Demchick, for starting
this through his petition. It
was a brave act and was supported by more
than 2,000 other people, all of
them deserving credit. I want to add my
thanks to Amy Adams, the
Minister of Justice, who introduced
the legislation and to my
colleague Andrew Little who shepharded it
through T select committee
made it, particularly in terms of
travelling overseas, I
overseas, I believe they have strengthened
strengthened what Parliament is trying to achieve here,
so that hopefully when people travel they
won't be required to disclose
a conviction that is no longer with
them.
conviction that is no longer with them. Madam Speaker, it is
important for me to address the
topic of compensation tonight. There were
many submissions
compensation tonight. There were
committee, that sought compensation. That was for the men involved. I
have to say you, to
tell you that the men themselves had mixed views
on that matter. Some would like, I
believe, to see compensation. Others
believe that is
an impossible thing to calculate. And actually
not what they want the focus of this to
be about. So we have to recognise
and accept that there are mixed
views about that question. What I want to
focus on is that while there may not
be compensation, I can give
my personal commitment that there will
be a legacy, that we as a Parliament
in the future will be able to find
a way to pay tribute to those who have
gone before and give to those who
are to come. Madam Speaker, it is
because the journey that
this bill, that
because the journey that this bill,
represents another step in a journey, a journey that we can point
to great milestones and Chris Bishop
has already done some of this,
to the Homosexual Law Reform Act
and the incredible work of Fran Wilde,
at the Human Rights Act and forward
to the Civil Union Act with
Tim Barnett and others who did such a
fantastic job there and forward to
marriage equality with my
colleague Larissa Ward driving that piece of
legislation
legislation and supported by fantastic people.
fantastic people. Those are important steps on
the journey and this is another one. We
should not be naive that if you
are a young trans person
growing up in rural New Zealand today,
your life is not easy, you're likely to be
subject to discrimination. You're
likely to feel the stigma and
hurt that these men felt.
Actually f you are a young gay man growing up in is
some of those places you will still feel the
same. Not every school in our country is a
safe place if you are gay or
lesbian or bisexual or transgender or
Not
Not every
Not every community in New Zealand is a safe place, there
is still more work to do. There
is still some legal recognition to sort out when
it comes to
our trans community to make sure they believe that the
Human Rights Act actually works
in their favour and there is a
tremendous amount of work to do to
make sure that every young New
Zealander grows up believing in
Zealander grows up believing in
themselves, believing in their
own themselves, believing in their own
value and knowing that society
value and knowing that society
supports them, that society
says,
important person. You have great important person. You have great
potential and whether you are gay
or whether you are gender diversity or
you are questioning
that, we will support you through
you are questioning that, we will
tonight for me has to be that we continue the
continue the journey towards not just tolerance but acceptance
and embracing diversity and in
saying that is what makes our country
a great country
great country to live in, but we know we have more to do. So there
will be more that comes from tonight
but for now, I commend this bill, I
celebrate the fact that we
are expunging
celebrate the fact that we are
sorry again to the men and their families and commit again to
supporting a legacy from this
that will ensure that
in the future, generations of young
people know they matter. Love is
not a crime. They should
They should be who they are.
I
I call the Hon Maggie Barry. Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am very proud
tonight to be part of this group of
people who are making change. As we
reflect on the amount of
change that we have witnessed going back
32 years to the
homosexual law reform bill. In another life I was