Disability (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Bill

I stand on behalf of United Future to speak in support of the Disability (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Bill. United Future does not enjoy representation on the select committee that heard the submissions, but I have no doubt that they were robust and passionate. What I celebrate in this bill is the fact that people will finally have an opportunity to participate in governance options based on their individual merit and will no longer be blocked from participation because they fit into a particular category of person. I think there are some exciting opportunities that will come off the back of that. For instance, there are organisations like school boards of trustees and tertiary institution councils, and there are opportunities to serve on juries, local authorities, Māori Trust Boards, boards of directors, the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, scholarship boards, licensing trusts—the list goes on and on. A famous pop song came out a few years ago where the songwriter encouraged people to get physical. I would suggest that one of the consequences of this bill passing in the House is that people from the disabilities sector can now be encouraged to get political.

Some of the areas in New Zealand where we still want to see a much better connect between policy and practice will be better facilitated when people with disabilities are able to serve on boards of trustees without question, similar to what has happened previously with tertiary institution councils and local authorities. Frustration has been expressed by people around transport issues, for instance, and there has been a feeling that sometimes certain bodies are slow to take up their responsibilities to ensure the active participation of people with disabilities and to pull down those barriers that exclude participation. People will no longer be able to be do this without having to sit across the table from somebody who lives day in and day out with that barrier, and they will have to continue to oppose it or neglect it while eyeballing that person across the table. I think that is an extremely good thing, and I encourage the ongoing development of further participation by people within the sector.

I was really interested to note that one of the Justice and Electoral Committee’s considerations was the financial cost of implementing the bill. United Future believes that every change will cost us, and any change that does not cost us is probably not worth the paper it is written on. Of course this bill will cost—it should cost. United Future is less concerned about that aspect than, obviously, some members of the select committee are.

One of the great things is that this ratification will increase the scrutiny of compliance with obligations by both the private sector and the public sector. The select committee noted in its report that it considers it “imperative that organisations, companies, and institutions should consider the convention when any pertinent changes are being made or policies are being developed, to avoid having to make changes to comply retrospectively.” I think the great thing about what this bill does tonight is that from hereon in we should not be constantly having to retrospectively apply new gains for this sector, and that those in the sector should start to see in a much more proactive way their needs for inclusion considered right at the beginning of every new issue as it comes before both national government and local bodies.

United Future does not want to prolong this, but we are very excited. We congratulate the Minister on ensuring that this bill is passed by 3 October for all the good things that come off the back of it, and we congratulate and thank all the people from the Disabled Persons Assembly for being here to oversee tonight’s proceedings.

I will take just a brief call, because other members have really said it all. The aim of the Disability (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Bill, as we know, is to make amendments to certain New Zealand enactments, including statutes and regulations, and this will enable New Zealand to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As the Minister said, New Zealand signed the convention at the United Nations on 30 March 2007, along with 80 other States. Since then 129 States have signed the convention and 28 States have ratified it. The convention came into force in May 2008, when the convention received its 20th ratification by a State party.

Part 1, which we will come to in a few minutes, deals with certain amendments to Part 2 of the Human Rights Act 1993, which deals with unlawful discrimination. Part 2 deals with disqualification from certain public or fiduciary offices, commonly on the grounds of the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1993. As the previous speaker, Judy Turner, observed, when one goes through the bill one sees that there is a very interesting miscellany of statutes, like the Juries Act 1981, the Taranaki Scholarships Trust Board Act 1957, and the River Boards Act 1908. Finally, Part 3 deals with some amendments to certain regulations, like the Child Support Rules 1992.

I congratulate the officials on the work they have done. It must have been a very exacting task to trawl through the statute book to identify the statutes in Part 2 and to make the consequential amendments, but it is an important task if the job is to be done properly. Much of the legislation needing change—and I refer to the statutes in Part 2—are older enactments that have not been amended for some time and that carry over wording from the past. An example is the River Boards Act 1908. I refer to section 29, which provides that certain persons may not be members of river boards. The bill refers to section 29(1)(b), where a person is detained in a hospital under the Mental Health Act 1969. I observe in passing that this legislation was last amended in 1986, and it could be that it should have been amended in 1993, when the statute to which I referred was passed—that is, the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1993. But it is that kind of reference that needs to be dealt with if we are to have legislation that complies with the convention.

What the convention does not do is create new rights for disabled people; rather, it builds on conventional understandings of what is required to implement existing human rights as they relate to disabled people.

National supports the first reading and we will support the bill through all its stages. The sooner it is the law the better. I observe that in March 2007, when signing the convention, the Minister Ruth Dyson stated: “It is important to bring the Convention into force as quickly as possible, so as to fill the gaps that exist without it and to redress some of the discrimination and injustices that persons with disabilities have faced over many years.” However, legislation was introduced to this Parliament only in July 2008. With those comments I say that National will support the legislation, and we can take a closer look at Parts 1, 2, and 3 in the Committee stage.

I wanted to take a short call on this Disability (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Bill, particularly after it seemed to me that a National member who spoke earlier was less than wholehearted in supporting it. I remind National members that they did try to delay the process of this bill. I offer my congratulations to the submitters. I acknowledge the people from the Disabled Persons Assembly whom we have here tonight, and who I believe helped to change the National Party’s mind on the importance of this bill for the disabilities sector.

I pay a tribute to the Minister for her consultation with the sector, for her promotion of this very important bill, and for her dedication over a very long period to removing barriers for disabled people and to working towards a fully inclusive society. I can say that as someone who was for some years the chair of the committee of my local district health board that dealt with the disabilities sector, and I know of the very good work this Minister has done over many years towards building a fully inclusive society. The debate on this bill tonight provides an opportunity to offer congratulations to the sector and congratulations to the Minister on some very good work on an important acknowledgment about just how important it is for the sector for us to address discrimination in New Zealand and in other countries.

This bill does several things that are really important. It removes outdated and discriminatory provisions in some of our New Zealand legislation that automatically disqualified people from certain public offices on the grounds of their being mentally disordered. What we will now have is a situation where a person’s capacity to perform will be important—and that, for the sector, is a very important change. Secondly, the bill clarifies the provision of reasonable accommodation in the Human Rights Act in certain areas where this provision is currently rather uncertain. That is pretty important, and it is very important for the sector. The removal of barriers is important. We have put a lot of dedicated work into saying to the sector that we recognise the barriers, we recognise the importance to these people of removing those barriers, and we will deliver on doing that.

This Disability (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Bill delivers something very important: an acknowledgment to the sector. I am proud that I can support the bill tonight. I offer my congratulations to everybody who has been involved in it. Again, I offer my congratulations to those submitters who actually convinced the National Party to change its attitude and to acknowledge how important it is with regard to the legislation to get to this point in time for that date in October.

I say in closing to those people who have come here tonight to actually listen to this final passage just how important it is for them to be involved, to have their voices heard, to be on the committees, to tell us as parliamentarians what they want, and to be part of the important consultation that helps us to deliver to a sector as important as theirs. So I thank them for being here tonight. I thank them for having submitted and having been part of the process. I look forward to working with those people in the future on what is important, on removing those barriers, and on addressing discrimination, and I say to them that they are part of the population of New Zealand whose lives we work to improve. Everything we do in this House is important in their day-to-day lives. I am really proud to see so many of them here tonight, and I thank them very much for the work they have put into what we are delivering.

Bill read a second time.

In Committee