Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Kia ora mai rā tātou ngā mema o te Whare. Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. It's a privilege to speak tonight on the Human Rights (Disability Assist Dogs Non-Discrimination) Amendment Bill. May I start by acknowledging all of those who live and work with dogs in service whether they are disability assist dogs or those who serve in the line of active duty whether it's in the police or the armed services or in customs and biosecurity. Every one of those dogs has an important role and the training and their welfare is of utmost importance. I want to acknowledge how important those dogs are to your lives.This bill would ensure that people who rely on disability assist dogs are afforded the same rights as those who use guide dogs and those might be people with epilepsy with Alzheimer's with post-traumatic stress disorder or with neuromuscular disease and that disability assist dog can have the freedom to go to all of the places that they can including shops and public transport. It's important that everyone regardless of their ability to get around of their mobility can access transport. It's at this juncture that I want to acknowledge the work of Barney Koneferenisi from South Auckland. He's a tireless advocate for mobility of all people in our area. He's a Paralympian. He has fund-raised for a ride-sharing service to make it easier for people not just to get around on public transport—which he also advocates for and he's a big voice for using the trains in Auckland and the buses in Māngere—but also to link up those services with a ride-share service which acknowledges people of different levels of mobility and people who find it difficult to use ride-share services like women and young people after certain hours. His work is important in ensuring that people can get around and can get to the places they need to go and this bill helps in doing that too in that people will be able to bring the dogs that they need with them.How does this bill do that? Well it amends the Human Rights Act 1993 to enhance protections for discrimination for people who rely on disability assist dogs. It's important that it happens at that level of our constitutional framework in the Human Rights Act which is a foundational piece of legislation and gives rights in a number of other pieces of legislation which are empowered by it. Making it at that level is an important part of this bill and I want to acknowledge the member Ricardo Menéndez March and also Mojo Mathers for her work in this space which is all about human rights. People's access to services shops and public spaces like libraries is absolutely about someone's fundamental rights to participate in the community in which they belong and it's right that it's acknowledged in that piece of legislation.Now let me talk a little bit more about why this is so important as what looks like a small change. On the question of whether it's the only thing for people who rely on disability assist dogs: well the answer is no. Disabled New Zealanders have the right to live free from discrimination and this bill realises that for some but it's a change happening on the backdrop of further Government progress in this area. A commitment that this Government takes seriously is around building a more inclusive and accessible society and ensuring disabled people have the same rights and opportunities as other New Zealanders. I want to add there that it's not just about these people who this bill helps; it's also about their families and their community who would miss out on having them participate in their lives were we not making active strides in making it more possible for them to participate. I think of people like my own father who has limited mobility and will at some point need a great deal of assistance to get around. The amount that his community and my own family would lose if he was not able to go to tangihanga if he was not able to go to the meetings that he loves to go to would be huge. So the cost of this has to be weighed against the contribution of those people who we really care about and who offer so much.Progress on disability issues continues to be realised through the disability-focused funding across many Government portfolios. Those are things like ACC the Ministry of Health the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Education. Within that the aim is to progress the rights and opportunities for disabled people through the New Zealand Disability Strategy 2016-2026. It's that action plan that has key mechanisms for progressing New Zealand's realisation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. When we talk about how important it is in New Zealand's constitutional framework to make changes to the Human Rights Act because it is foundational it is also important that we give effect to the UN convention and be seen on the world stage as a part of a global community that is doing more for people with disabilities and to empower everyone around them to help them lead the best lives that they can. I believe it's critical that actions and work programmes agreed in the Disability Action Plan are progressed and this will improve the lives of people in New Zealand who rely on disability assist dogs and everyone around them. The importance of this bill has been well traversed and I want to thank the committee that very carefully considered the submissions of this sector. It is important to take time to listen to what those advocates are saying to us in this space. It is important to get this sort of legislation and all of the legislative architecture around it right so that in future we're able take progressive steps forward to deliver more and more of what people with different mobility needs in our community are saying to us.It's also special for me to be standing here to support my Green colleague's bill because it is something that aligns with my deeply held Labour values. Those are the protections of the basic rights of disabled New Zealanders to live free from discrimination and this being a pretty simple but effective change to human rights law to help ensure that it covers a wide range of support dogs that assist disabled New Zealanders today.Sorry Mr Speaker; you'll forgive me if I sound a little breathless. It's not because I'm excited about this legislation although it is a great bill; it's because I recovered three weeks ago from COVID. Section 21 of the Human Rights Act which lays out the prohibited grounds of discrimination is enshrined at the heart of our human rights framework and specifically identifies guide dogs but it doesn't include all of the dogs who perform these roles that we've heard about tonight. That change might seem like something we could gloss over like something that the organisations who are accredited to provide the accreditation for these dogs—the eight that have been mentioned in this House—might be able to ignore but that's not really the point. The point is that this legislation needs to empower those organisations to empower the people who train and work with the dogs and to empower the people who the dogs serve—and to empower the dogs themselves. This is also about recognising that they are an important part of someone's life that they are an extension of someone's body and that they are far more than just a pet or a very well-loved part of the family; that they have a job to do as well. It's too narrow and this change is important in widening that.I hear the calls around the House about possibly extending the nature of those organisations. I think this bill is empowering for those organisations by naming them as well. It's important that we recognise the good work that's going on in this sector for many years by organisations who are staffed—many of them by volunteers; some paid—by a huge number of people who have dedicated their lives and a huge amount of care and love to this sector. I want to acknowledge those organisations tonight. Those are Assistance Dogs New Zealand Hearing Dogs for Deaf People New Zealand K9 Medical Detection New Zealand K9 SEARCH Medical Detection Mobility Assistance Dogs Trust New Zealand Epilepsy Assist Dogs Trust Perfect Partners Assist Dogs Trust and the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind Incorporated. All of those organisations should be acknowledged tonight because of the work that they do and the important role they have in serving the community.I want to finish by saying that I support this bill and my Green colleague who is taking it through. All of the work of the committee and of him should be celebrated because it is a step forward where we can all as parliamentarians agree on a small change which we can make and that we can all agree to. It's an example of great cross-partisan work and consensus building. So well done to him. Thank you Mr Speaker for the opportunity and I commend this bill to the House.Motion agreed to.Bill read a second time.