National will vote for gender self-ID law, supports further scrutiny of it

The National Party will vote in favour of a bill that makes it easier for people to change their gender on a birth certificate.

Leader Judith Collins said National's caucus on Tuesday has "approved" a vote in favour at the bill's second reading, which will likely happen on Wednesday or Thursday this week.

The changes will make it easier for transgender people to update birth certificates without going through a protracted court process.

Changing sex on a birth certificate has been possible since 1995, but requires a long and potentially difficult Family Court process.

Collins compared National's second reading vote on the legislation with the party's decision to vote against a ban on gay conversion therapy. Both bills are important to the LGBT community.

"We would have voted for the first reading of conversion therapy if we had been able to be assured that the concerned parent of a 12-year-old wanting to take puberty blockers, would not be criminalised by trying to convince their child not to take those," Collins said.

This is technically the bill's second reading. It was introduced to Parliament in 2017, as a bill to make it easier for people to access information about Births, Deaths, and Marriages digitally.

The bill was introduced by National but only had its first reading after the election, after the new Government picked the bill up and decided to support it.

The bill was substantially changed at select committee, which suggested changes that would have made the process of self-ID on birth certificates much easier.

The previous Minister of Internal Affairs, Tracey Martin, decided to park the bill at that point because she felt there had not been adequate consultation on those changes.

New Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti has picked the bill up.

Following the second reading, Tinetti plans to send the bill to another select committee where the self-ID changes can have another round of public consultation.

Collins said National was happy that the bill would get another round of scrutiny.

"We're going to support it because of the changes. There's going to be an inquiry ordered into it and so there's another process on top of it.

"So the reason we're supporting it is to get to that inquiry and to help with that process," Collins said.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said they would also support the bill acknowledged the work that had occurred to get it to this stage.

"We support our takatāpui community full stop. Our Te Ao Māori perspective does not allow labels to determine how we see each other, we are whānau.

"We are hoping this will help takatāpui feel they can be themselves.

"How our takatāpui whānau choose to identify themselves is entirely up to them, it's not up to others to decide what that looks like.

"It's our job to ensure we create safe and fair pathways where our takatāpui whānau achieve mana ōrite, equality without prejudice and stigma."