New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill

Kia orana, Madam Chair. This is a short bill that will have significant effect on so many of our people with disabilities: our families, whānau, and carers. The repeal of Part 4A removes the discriminatory elements of the current legislation. Repealing Part 4A will enable future complaints about policies, especially funded family care, to be made to the Human Rights Commission. Repealing Part 4A will also allow the Human Rights Review Tribunal and the courts to hear complaints from families, carers, and whānau. This change will ensure consistency with the human rights law as well as our commitment under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

There’s also a technical Supplementary Order Paper that amends the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill to reflect the name of the Care and Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement Act 2017, changing it to the Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlements Amendment Act 2020, and it also repeals section 9A(3) of the Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement Act 2017. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It’s our intention to support this bill through to its conclusion. I really have one small question of the Minister—a question that was raised in some of the official documents—is there any sense of the quantum of the retrospective liability associated with this bill? There were several options. One of them did include putting a legislative bar—that wasn’t what was taken. So I’d be interested to know: has that been looked at? What is the size of that number?

In the Wellbeing Budget of 2019 there has already been funding that was allocated for the next four years, including last year, of $32 million. We understand that that amount is adequate for funded family care. There are other provisions as well. There was actually an amount that was ring-fenced for some who had gone through the court system.

Madam Chair, thank you. That may well be for forward funding, but my question really is retrospective liability, which I believe, through some of the consultation in the Health Committee, was anticipated at maybe being in the hundreds of millions. Just looking if there’d been any further work done on what that figure could be.

This legislation is actually not for retrospective funding. This legislation is to ensure that future families can actually take their complaints for these policies to the Human Rights Commission and through to the courts.

The question was put that the amendments set out on Supplementary Order Paper 568 in the name of the Hon Jenny Salesa be agreed to.

Amendments agreed to.

Clauses 1 to 5 as amended agreed to.

House resumed.

The Chairperson reported the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill with amendment.

Report adopted.

Third Reading