A committee of MPs is pushing for a law change which stops some children of parents born outside marriage getting New Zealand citizenship.
Earlier this year, BBC journalist Laura Ancell told 1News about her journey to uncover her family's history, and her subsequent fight for her New Zealand lineage to be recognised with official citizenship by descent.
Ancell had struggled to obtain this for herself because of her father's "illegitimacy", and was told that because her father had been born to unmarried parents, he would not have been granted citizenship.
The rule applies to people born overseas before 1977.
As an individual, unrelated to her work as a journalist in the UK and New Zealand, she petitioned for Parliament to amend the Citizenship Act 1977 to allow people whose parents were not NZ citizens by descent, due to having been born out of wedlock, to apply for citizenship.
Laura Ancell said she hoped the Petitions Committee would recognise the historical injustices of the law. (Source: Supplied)
Now, Parliament's Petitions Committee has said it had considered the petition and recommended to the Government that, when reviewing citizenship policy, it amend section 9 of the Citizenship Act 1977.
"To see the Committee acknowledge the injustice at the heart of Section 9 is incredibly moving," Ancell said.
"It feels really surreal, but deeply validating. It means that our story, and others like it, are finally being heard in the places where real change can happen."
Ancell, who made a BBC podcast series about her fight, said it had taken a long time to be recognised. She said this was partly because of the "stigma of illegitimacy" which lingered long after society thought it had left it behind.
"Laws don’t always keep up with social attitudes, and sometimes the groups affected are too small, scattered, or unheard to push for change.
"My dad was a war baby and I want to stand up for others like him. It takes persistence, lived stories and visibility to cut through," she said.
The Government’s response to the Committee's recommendation was due in October this year.
Ancell said she hoped the Government would recognise that this was "not just a matter of technical law but of human dignity".
"Amending Section 9 would right an historic wrong and treat all those born out of wedlock before 1977 with fairness and inclusivity. No one should be penalised for the marital status of their parents," she said.
Cross-party support for change
The petition was signed by 190 people, and was presented to the House in September 2024 by Ricardo Menéndez March.
March said he'd worked with Ancell on the issue since 2022, saying it was clear that current policy settings "had failed her and her family".
"We know that, for example, there are Kiwi families who ended up living overseas after the World Wars, facing disconnection, in some cases family trauma and without the ability for their descendants to come back to New Zealand as citizens," he said.
"I then had the privilege of being able to write in support of her case to the then Minister of Internal Affairs to ask for her to look at the case and intervene."
He said it was "really encouraging" to see a cross-party committee recommending an amendment to the law, and the Government had an "opportunity to remove the stigma and discrimination that people born out of wedlock continue to face not just in Aotearoa but throughout the world".
He added: "While the committee believes that this issue is not urgent, it’s important that the Government does not default to keeping the status quo and forcing people like Laura to go through so many barriers to access citizenship.
"Unfortunately we still see outdated notions of what a family unit looks like reflected in many Government policies. While discrimination towards people born out of wedlock is mostly a thing of the past, the fact that people born out of wedlock face huge barriers to access citizenship is a sign that reform is absolutely needed.
"While there are many pressing issues facing our country, including the high cost of living, this would be a small amendment that is unlikely to take too much energy from our Parliament as there is cross-party agreement on the issue."
'Belonging isn't just about bloodlines'
Ancell said the journey had taught her that identity was something that could be uncovered, protected, and - sometimes - fought for.
"For so long, there were missing pieces in our story, and uncovering them was both painful and healing. To then discover that the law in New Zealand still treated my dad, (and by extension me) as somehow 'less than' because of the circumstances of his birth was heartbreaking.
"And belonging isn't just about bloodlines, it's about being recognised," she said.
"Fighting to change that for others has made me realise that identity isn’t just about who your parents are, but also whether the world recognises your place."
If the law was amended, Ancell said it would send "a powerful message that Aotearoa New Zealand is willing to acknowledge past injustices and actively put them right".
Ancell's podcast series DNA Trail: The Promise is available to New Zealand listeners here.
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