Because a private bill addresses a specific matter particular to just one person it offers a more mellow and reflective style of parliament debate.
Evidently it takes a private bill to bring MPs around to a more mellow and reflective style of debate.
That's probably because there's usually something deeply personal in the way private bills are about law change that addresses a very specific matter particular to just one person.
Such is the case with the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill in the name of National MP Chris Penk which had its first reading last night.
"Annie Oxborough was adopted as a child, and the identity of her birth parents was removed from her-young and unmarried as they were-just as she was physically removed from them. Annie has subsequently formed a relationship with her birth parents, and is seeking now to have their names added to her legal birth certificate to formally register her biological and legal parentage," Penk explained.
"As it happens, her original birth certificate, pre-adoption, did not include the name of her biological father, as this was not provided at the time of her birth. In any case, neither Annie's original birth certificate nor her legal post-adoption birth certificate provide a true and accurate account of her lineage. This private bill would rectify the issue and provide to Annie the right to have your biological heritage reflected on her birth certificate," he said, adding that Annie Oborough's biological parents have consented to this step being taken."
You may be wondering if this birth certificate gap was not something that could simply have been fixed with the stroke of a pen at the Births, Deaths and Marriages office. But according to Penk, this Bill is the only legal mechanism that exists by which Annie can achieve this outcome.
"The way that the bill would do this is to instruct the registrar-general to record the names of Annie's biological father and mother on her birth certificate as her two parents, in accordance with section 24 of the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995."
In this respect, the MP pointed out that, his legislation is similar to another recent private bill, which resulted in the Paige Harris Birth Registration Act 2022, when MPs came together to address a technical injustice which speaks to the heart of a person's identity or whakapapa.
MPs open up
The debate was a rare example of accord among MPs across the political divide - a welcome break from the usual arguing and points-scoring - the sort of harmonious atmosphere in which MPs can open up about their own lives, such as Labour's Glen Bennett…