Hayes Joanne: Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind Act Repeal Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHayes Joanne: Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind Act Repeal Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 02 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9348. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JOANNE HAYES (National): I am pleased to stand and support the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind Act Repeal Bill. We have heard tonight the many reasons why the Act is to be repealed so I want to take my contribution a little bit to the side and talk about some of the services that the foundation has provided. I want to do this by talking a little bit about some examples of where I have seen this actually happen. I want to hark back to my university days.Back in the day I was doing a first year social work degree at Massey University. They had all sorts of first year students doing that degree but one was a woman who was born blind. She came into the university and had studied right up to then and wanted to complete a social work degree and I thought that of all the people studying towards the social work degree she would have been to me the most deserving and the most rewarding student—if I had been a lecturer—to teach.I was really amazed at the guidance that the foundation supplied to the university and to her to help her get through the exams. We all know that to first year students exams seem a little bit overbearing; they are a little bit more structured and intense than schooldays. I was quite intrigued about the way that they examined her—all verbal—and the number of volunteers who came in to read the exam papers out to her and some of her papers as well. I was very impressed with the services that the foundation gave to this young woman who went on to gain her degree and no doubt become a very good social worker working in the community.The next example I want to talk about is farmers because farmers over time are quite susceptible to visual impairment because of their exposure to the sun. My next-door neighbour came to me—he was only in his early sixties—and he said: “Oh you’d better wear sunglasses.” and he had just been diagnosed with glaucoma. He started his journey receiving advice and support not only from the doctor but he also went to the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind to ask for things that could perhaps actually help him to come to terms with the fact that he had glaucoma and there was really nothing that he could do and eventually he would go blind. He had to come to that realisation—really we saw it in his face: it was devastation right through to acceptance.In 2014 I collected for the foundation in Christchurch and one of the volunteers on that stand with me was a farmer from Southland—from Clutha Southland—who knew Bill English very very well. He told me that he went blind fairly suddenly. This man would have been in his late fifties early sixties and he had a guide dog and he said to me that ever since he had made a connection with the foundation it had helped him immensely. He had had this dog for 6 months. He must have been very good with animals because he basically had this dog eating out of the palm of his hand or the dog had him eating out of the palm of its paw. I was really impressed. This man and all the people with whom I have come into contact who have either been born blind or have gone blind over time always have this absolutely wonderful wonderful attitude and that drive to carry on and live really great independent and full lives.The last one I want to talk about—I met a trainer of guide dogs and she had a pup sitting next to her. He was 6 months old and I can tell you that my 6-month-old huntaway is not as well behaved as this young guide dog pup. She asked whether I would be interested in helping to raise one as a puppy and I said I knew my husband would never let me have a puppy because I would not ever let it go and I would ruin all chances of its training because I would spoil it rotten.This bill is a great bill and I know with the backing across the House that this bill will go through and is well supported by everybody. I commend it to the House.