Planning for disabled criticised

By Mike Houlahan - The Press

A new Government committee to oversee disability issues has been condemned as “window dressing” by the Disabled Persons Assembly.

In February the Government announced it would establish a ministerial committee on disability issues as its response to a scathing select-committee report into support for disabled people.  That report said the needs of disabled people were frequently neglected, and its 22 recommendations included setting up a Disability Commission a move the Government rejected, calling it a “significant and costly structural change”.

On Friday, the Government revealed the make-up of the committee, which will be chaired by Disability Issues Minister Paula Bennett.  The ministers of finance, justice, health, education and transport and the Associate Ministers of Education and Disability Issues will make up the committee, with other ministers called in from time to time.

The committee would provide a coherent overall direction for disability issues across government, Bennett said.  “Currently, no group oversees the Government’s substantial disability spending channeled through several agencies,” she said.  “This committee will ensure that disability support works well for disabled people, is distributed fairly, and represents value for money.”

However, lobby group the Disabled Persons Assembly (DPA) said the committee would not be able to deliver for disabled people unless it listened to them and understood their needs.
“I feel very strongly that its window dressing,” DPA president Wendy Neilson said.  “There is no Minister of Economic Development, who should have been part of that team. Also, as far as I am concerned, we have not been consulted as the advocacy group, and we should have.

“The Government signed up to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disability, which very strongly advocates nothing about us without us.  “To my mind if they were forming this committee they should have brought on people with disability who are movers and shakers in the disability sector to work alongside them.”

Neilson said the committee might do valuable work, but at this stage she lacked confidence it would understand the issues disabled people faced.  “A lot of people know about disability things, but if you are not a person with a disability you don’t understand the lived realities,” Neilson said.  “It’s really great that they want to get together and focus on the issues, but they’re not saying anything about including people with disability.”

Census figures show one in five New Zealanders has some form of disability, a number expected to grow by 60 per cent over the next 40 years as the population increases.  Bennett said decisions on disability services had tended to be based on heath and welfare considerations, without regard to other issues.  “It may be more cost-effective to build the needs of disabled people into planning stages, rather than retro-fitting later at considerable cost,” she said.

“One of the committee’s first tasks will be to look at disability services provision with a view to giving disabled people greater choice and control over the supports they receive and the lives they lead.”