Pugh Maureen; Sepuloni Carmel; Salesa JennyMAUREEN PUGH (National): Thank you very much Madam Chair. My question to the Minister relates to how New Zealanders in the disability sector can have faith in the Ministry of Social Development (MSD). And the reason I ask that is because if you look at the Enabling Good Lives website it contains links to the MSD website. And an example of that is the link to next steps in disability system transformation and accessibility". So Minister even though Enabling Good Lives is a commitment that has been made in terms of supporting the content of that—and the Disability Action Plan 2019-2023 has a specific commitment in there that MSD will make their website and the information available and accessible for people in the disability community. So when you go into that website Minister you open it up and it's a MSD website and it's completely normal to every other website that you see. The font is really small and the only support that is given to disability users is that it has a table of keys that shows you how to operate a keyboard to change the display. So that's truly not accessible to disabilities. And because it relies on small font and a small font in a table that means that the blind and low-vision community is literally in the dark when it comes to accessing that website and the information behind it.Now the Disability Action Plan 2019-2023 was clear that MSD would accelerate accessibility including the role of legislation and it would make public information accessible. I challenge the Minister to defend the work that has been done so far. This is 2023—the end of that four-year period—and it's still not completely accessible. There is no text-to-voice mechanism on there. So some Government websites do have accessible documents but the barrier is that those documents are within a website that is not accessible so in effect they are not accessible to many in the disability sector. So Minister my question to you is: what are the outcomes and the actions that MSD plans to initiate to meet its obligations under the Disability Action Plan 2019-2023?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): Thank you for that. I haven't looked at the website for quite some time so I'll be going away and asking some questions about the work that has been done on the accessibility of the website but I can't respond to that right now given that I haven't actually got any information in front of me on that but I can ask those questions.We have put a higher amount of investment into supporting disabled people to be able to take up employment. One thing that is overlooked is that often when we talk about the employment statistics the focus is on ethnicity. It is also on the age of those that might be unemployed and what is overlooked is actually the people who have the highest rate of unemployment and are more likely to come on to benefit are people with health conditions and disabilities. So there is a level of focus now on employment for disabled people that was never there before. We also have the action plan for work around disabled people so there are a number of actions there.The Minister for Disability Issues is taking the lead on the action plan and also takes the lead on the accessibility work and Whaikaha and also the work around Enabling Good Lives. All of that is under way but those are not small programmes of work and they need to be done in conjunction with alongside and in consultation with disabled people. So they are things that you can't necessarily rush and it's important that we are in tune and working with disabled people to get it right. And where particular ministries like mine are not then I welcome the feedback because there will always be room for improvement with regards to responding to the needs of disabled people because for too long it has been overlooked. I am proud of the fact that we now have a Ministry of Disabled People—Whaikaha. That again was long overdue and much needed. New Zealand is seen as world-leading in this space and we need to continue to support that ministry to be able to undertake the very important work that they are leading but they are not alone in leading it because it is important they are working in conjunction with every other Government ministry because every disabled person is impacted by the work that every other Government ministry undertakes.MAUREEN PUGH (National): Supplementary to that Minister. The Disability Action Plan that specifically related to MSD over the last four years specifically said it would make public information accessible. After four years do you think that there should have been more progress made to date? And will the Minister give a commitment that it will meet its obligations under the Disability Action Plan 2019-2023?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): We're certainly committed to doing that. And I'll go away and look at where we are at with that particular work stream. Just going back to the question earlier from the Hon Louise Upston about sole parents and access to case management: they are a priority cohort and so of the sole parents getting employment case management there's just under 14500. We do need to keep in mind that some sole parents are not in a position to be able to work because of their care duties and the obligations that they have to their children. We also do need to keep in mind that there is a number of sole parents who are on main benefit working part time but still able to get their benefit and working part time because it is practical and it is what they are able to do while still undertaking the care duties that they have for their children.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): Before I call Hon Louise Upston we have half a minute left for this part of the debate."