Removing the Barriers - the Greens Disability Policy and UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities bill
Green Party is very pleased to support this bill today to begin the process to enable the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This convention along with the New Zealand Disability strategy is a step towards the recognition of human rights as including all human beings. It is the first human rights treaty to be adopted in the twenty-first century. It is the most rapidly negotiated human rights treaty in the history of international law. It is the first to emerge from lobbying conducted extensively through the Internet. 30 Countries, including Australia, have already ratified it. The Convention does not include any new rights for people with disabilities, but rather spells out the rights people with disabilities already possess alongside everyone else. And the expeditious ratification of this Convention is another signal to people with disabilities that we acknowledge how important and overdue this is.
New Zealand signed on the opening day for signing on the 30th of March 2007, with 80 other states. The signing was the result of hard work by government agencies and the disability sector.
New Zealand consumer rights advocate Robert Martin, a member of the delegation, was the first person with an intellectual disability to speak before the UN General Assembly. Special thanks are due to Disabled Persons assembly, the Association of Blind Citizens, IHC Advocacy, CCS Disability Action, Royal NZ Foundation of the Blind and the New Zealand representatives of Disabled Persons International and Inclusion International, who were so active and effective in the negotiating of this Convention using the platform "Nothing about us without us!"
One of the key issues identified by those with disabilities is the need to develop and have access to their own leadership. The Green Party believes that people living with impairments are entitled to take leadership roles and to have a powerful voice for effective change in communities and services. In the disability field, independent advocacy organisations (including Disabled Persons Assembly, People First and the Downs Syndrome Association) struggle to get the resources they need to be effective. If we nominate a percentage of funds allocated to services to go directly to these initiatives, their share will increase automatically as services grow.
So I am pleased to announce that today we have released our Disabilities Policy: Removing the Barriers. And one key policy is that 3% of the Disability Services budget should be set aside to directly fund leadership training for people living with impairments and for independent advocacy organisations. These resources are critical especially for advocacy and the proper audit of disability services.
People with impairments are entitled to take leadership roles in auditing of services. And through this convention we’ve seen how much value they add. That auditing must focus on the ability of services to meet individual needs, provide inclusive support and improve quality of life. Too often it concerns the money and the buildings but not the people who lives are made either joyous or wretched by those services. Many of those ‘tick box’ audits are done by teams who lack the skills to evaluate whether the needs of tangata whenua and other groups are being met by a particular service. So the Greens say that people with impairments are entitled to take leadership roles in evaluation and auditing of services. And tangata whenua must also involved in auditing all mainstream and kaupapa Maori services. We fully support the provision of services by Maori for Maori. And will also work with the sector to resource and implement improved pay, conditions and training for disability service staff and caregivers.
Also key to the Disability sector is the provision of lifelong educational services. Despite the rhetoric, parents constantly have to advocate so school principals and trustees understand their obligations and work in positive, non-discriminatory ways. Some teacher education still does not include any component on supporting children with diverse needs. Many children living with impairments are made to feel unwelcome when enrolling at their local school, partly because of prejudice, but mainly because resources are not adequate to meet their needs. With individual funding capped this means that children with moderate needs often miss out – and then we wonder why there are behavioural issues in schools.
A recent report by the organisation “See Here” which focuses on supporting those NZ children with mild and moderate vision impairment has found that only 44% of Maori and 29% of PI children access vision screening. Up to 20% of children have mild to moderate vision impairment, which, if undiagnosed, can greatly impact on their learning and confidence, leading to learning difficulties and behavioural issues.
We support the 2006 IHC Code for Schools and agree with the Disabled Persons Assembly (DPA) that schools need to be brought into the New Zealand Disability Strategy implementation and reporting process.
All children have the absolute right to attend their local school and have the resources to enable this. Schools must be accountable for the way they use disability funding. ORRs funding must be doubled and the SEG grant ringfenced. CCS Disability Action’s recent campaign Early Family Support has highlighted the fact that if a whanau has proper access to community services, their lives as a whanau can be significantly better simply because they have the support they need for an ordinary life. Our Childrens policy fully supports an integrated framework to monitor the development of every child and young person through co-ordinated assessments at key life stages. And we would review the Child Disability Allowance with a view to increasing the levels given the extra financial needs that parents and caregivers have when raising a child with special needs.
We know that a quality education is key to accessing quality employment. People living with impairments are still over represented in lower paid occupations, among the unemployed and have many more people on benefits
Supported employment has been shown to be cost effective but only a very small number of people benefit from this. Increasing numbers of people with impairments are setting up small businesses but with little support. The government’s mainstream programme, which provides subsidies for government departments employing people with impairments, can be effective but urgently needs expanding.
We must begin to replace segregated sheltered workshops with services that promote inclusion and enable all people to contribute their skills to their communities – there are some excellent models all ready out there. People with impairments who are in employment must have the same employment rights as all other workers. Exemptions to the obligation of employers to pay the statutory minimum wage to workers who have impairments should only be granted on the basis of the individual’s productive capacity, as assessed by the Department of Labour. Employers should have financial assistance for adaptations, equipment and personal support where they employ people with impairments.
Many people living with impairments, particularly those with intellectual impairments, are subjected to discriminatory treatment when it comes to sexual and reproductive rights. Currently some people with intellectual impairments are subjected to compulsory sterilisation and/or chemical castration. The Green Party believes that people with impairments are entitled to the protection of their bodily integrity as much as anyone else, and should not be subject to treatment or invasive processes that they would not be otherwise subject to if it was not for their impairment. We would ban all sterilisations/chemical castrations of individuals under the age of 18 years, unless it this being performed as a life saving measure or medical emergency. Implicit in this is the recognition that individuals under the age of 18 years cannot be expected to provide informed consent to sterilisation/chemical castration.
The 2007 report from the Minister for Disability issues on implementing the New Zealand Disability Strategy noted that three core government agencies did not deliver on their obligation to report on progress. This is highlights the need for advocacy and implementation. We would establish a Disability Issues Commission to provide the leadership needed to ensure that disability services become more responsive, flexible and empowering. The Commission would work with key sector leaders and families to develop a national strategy, oversee and monitor its implementation, and provide advice to the Minister.
We support individualised funding for all people living with impairments and their families who wish to choose this option. And services available based on level of need, not cause of impairment, so we would get rid of the discrimination between ACC and health funding.
Our new Disabilities policy is very comprehensive and I simply can't describe it all here. So much still needs to be done. We have amazingly skilled advocates in the disabilities community. We want to speed this legislation through the house as quickly as possible so that we can refocus ourselves on the implementation of the details, especially our policy, so that we can truly make a difference to the lived lives of the 100,000’s of NZers with impairments.