Meetings in 2007

March (15 and 16)

Members present at this meeting were: Marion Wellington, Mereana Hermara, Murray Peat, Mike Gourley, Christine Zander, Cheryl Wallace, John Ward, Kim Robinson, Tina French, Graham Stairmand, and Lose Tu’i’ile’ila.

Progress with the Office’s work programme was discussed. Council members commented on the need for government to prioritise making its information more accessible, such as having publications available in different formats.

Possible barriers to disabled people accessing affordable housing and ways to promote employment of disabled people were discussed.

Council members discussed the five-year review of implementation of the New Zealand Disability Strategy, which is being conducted by Litmus Ltd. Options for including the disability sector and disabled people in the review were explored.

The Office updated progress on its Review of Long-term Disability Supports, and outlined current directions of work.

The Ministry of Social Development discussed their development of Working New Zealand: Work Focused Supports, which are to be delivered by Work and Income. This discussion followed on from the last meeting, where improvements to supports and services aimed at disabled people and people with ill health getting into employment were discussed. The Ministry had recently advertised for both a Principal Disability Advisor and a Principal Health Advisor to assist the development of Working New Zealand.

Progress with the Council’s register of emerging issues was noted, and new issues for inclusion discussed.

The Families Commission presented on recent research on families with disabled parents, and parents with disabled children. Issues impacting on families, especially support for disabled parents to enable families to stay together, were discussed.

The Ministry of Economic Development presented on the New Zealand Relay service, and current plans to promote use of the service.

The Ministry of Transport presented on current work impacting on disabled people’s ability to use public transport, including the collection of information and guidelines for accessible services.

June (14 and 15)

Members present at this meeting were: Marion Wellington, Murray Peat, Christine Zander, Cheryl Wallace, John Ward, Kim Robinson, Tina French, Graham Stairmand, Lose Tu'i'ile'ila, and Karyn Walker.

Council members discussed current issues, including the impact of digital television and new technology on disabled people’s ability to access public broadcasting and entertainment media.

Progress with the Office’s work programme was discussed, including work on promoting the accessibility of government.

There was discussion on the Office connecting with local government and facilitating their implementation of the New Zealand Disability Strategy.

The Ministry of Social Development presented to the Council on progress with implementation of Working New Zealand: Work Focused Supports. The appointment of a new Principal Disability Advisor in Work and Income was welcomed. Council members noted some current issues with access to supports needed for disabled people to get into work, such as transport, filling in complex forms, funding for assistive computer software/equipment, flexibility in transition from school to work, access to New Zealand Sign Language interpreters in provincial areas, and access to counselling support. Members noted that Work and Income needs to improve the accessibility of its communications, such as letters, brochures, etc. The Ministry noted the new roles being established, such as employment co-ordinators, are intended to work with existing disability employment services and not duplicate them.  The new service will be working with all Sickness and Invalid benefit recipients, which is about 100,000 more people than those who currently use vocational services funded by the Ministry.

The Ministry of Social Development later presented on work to increase the skill and knowledge of Work and Income staff about disabled people and people with ill health. This is particularly important as the Working New Zealand initiatives are being rolled out around the country, and Work and Income staff will now have greater contact with people receiving Sickness and Invalid’s benefits. Initial training has resulted in an improvement in client satisfaction ratings of Work and Income.

The Office for Disability Issues reported on its review of the Council, and noted that some minor changes to the terms of reference will result. Government agencies have indicated they found feedback from the Council to be of high quality and useful to their work.

Litmus Ltd presented on the process they have used to gather information for the five-year review of the New Zealand Disability Strategy implementation, and noted the types of people they interviewed. They will report to the Office for Disability Issues by August 2007.

The Office for Disability Issues discussed the impact of access barriers in the built environment on disabled people. This area is a priority for the Office in its advocacy with other government agencies and in their implementation of the New Zealand Disability Strategy.

The Centre for Housing Research Aotearoa New Zealand (CHRANZ) presented on its recent research report, jointly funded with the Office for Disability Issues, Housing and Disability: Future proofing New Zealand’s housing stock for an inclusive society (May 2007). It was noted that New Zealand’s housing stock does not meet the current or increasing future needs of disabled people. Accessible housing should be seen as primarily an issue for sustainable housing and not marginalised as a disability issue. The solution is to build universal design into all housing stock.

The Department of Building and Housing presented on its review of the Building Code. Current issues that are under discussion in the public consultation phase were discussed. It is proposed to mainstream access issues for disabled people in the revised Building Code.

August (30 and 31)

Members present at this meeting were: Mereana Hemara, Dick Stark, John Ward, Beverley Grammer, Marion Wellington, Lose Singh, Karyn Walker, Murray Peat, Christine Zander, Susan McDonald, Denis Wederrell and Kim Robinson.

Council members noted that Murray Peat had been appointed as chairperson by the Office for Disability Issues. There was discussion on the review of the Council, and improvements in support to members by the Office.

Recent work by the Office for Disability Issues was noted.

Progress with the Office for Disability Issues’ Nomination Service was discussed. The process for government agencies calling for nominations and making appointments was noted. Suggestions for encouraging disabled people to apply to the Nomination Service were explored.

The Office for Disability Issues described changes in the way it managed issues presented by Council members, including ways to improve the collection of information for future response.

The Ministry of Social Development updated on the Working New Zealand initiative, including the appointment of new staff in Work and Income to improve its service to people receiving Sickness and Invalids benefits.

Council members discussed priorities for improving access to transport for disabled people. Responding to the Human Rights Commission’s “Accessible Journey” report was noted as important.

The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management discussed their work to support disabled people in emergencies. Possible resources were discussed to inform and support people who are the first to respond in an emergency.

The Office for Disability Issues explored with Council members ways to involve disabled people with monitoring implementation of the New Zealand Disability Strategy and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Ministry of Transport discussed the development of a consultation document on “Implementing the New Zealand Transport Strategy”. Council members noted priorities for disabled people on improving access to public transport.

November (8 and 9)

Members present at this meeting were: Dick Stark, Terry Ututaonga, Denis Wederell, Beverley Grammer, Karyn Walker, Kim Robinson, Marion Wellington (Acting Chair), Mereana Hemara. Substitutes for absent Council members: Carolyn Weston (for Murray Peat), Simon Coe (for Susan McDonald).Terry Ututaonga was welcomed to her first Council meeting.

The Council noted that:

• the five-year implementation review of the New Zealand Disability Strategy should be ready early in 2008
• information from the Disability Survey carried out by Statistics New Zealand in 2006 is now becoming available
• the Office has commissioned the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind to reproduce the text of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Braille and audio formats. These are available from the Office on request. The Office is arranging for permission to use an easy read version of the Convention that the UK Office for Disability Issues has commissioned
• ratification of the UN Convention will mean not just removing legislation that is inconsistent with the Convention, but also making sure that policy and practice are consistent
• the States Services Commission has established a joint agency accessibility group which encourages government departments to operate accessibility
• the Office held two workshops to assist the disability sector representatives making submissions relating to the review of the Building Code.

The Council discussed possible future priority areas of work for the Office for Disability Issues.

Representatives of the:

• Ministry of Social Development joined the meeting to discuss the development of the Carers’ Strategy
• Ministry of Women’s Affairs joined the meeting to discuss participation of disabled women
• Ministry of Transport, Land Transport New Zealand joined the meeting to discuss the Public Transport Management Bill.

The Minister for Disability Issues visited the meeting. The Minister said:

• she is keen for the Council to look at reducing inequalities
• she wanted the Council’s views on how the Council could be better used