Reti ShaneDr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. It's a pleasure to stand and speak as the National Party disability spokesperson on this bill which is a very good bill. I'd like to commend Chlöe and Mojo for having it in front of us today and lead off with the statement that I and we are strong supporters of disabled voters.I want to talk to the three initiatives within the bill and then actually provide some background some of which the select committee hopefully will be able to fill in. The three funding initiatives within the bill are first of all funding for disabled candidates to stand—I sort of envisage sign language interpreters as an example. Yep that makes sense. Secondly for not-for-profits to be able to fund meetings such as meet the candidates. Yep that makes sense also. And the third is for political parties to be able to access the needs of their members. This may need a bit more work in select committee—not clear that that arm clearly ties to elections. It sits within the election bill and within the title but we would need just some affirmation that it's not meaning—or maybe it does—the general needs of disabled people within a party. I'm pretty certain this relates to election requirements and that would be a good thing.So if we look at the recent 2017 election let's look how disabled voters fared. First of all the commission had 1649 fully accessible voting places and 854 were assisted voting places. As my colleague Nick Smith said after the election a survey conducted by the commission showed that 92 percent of disabled voters were happy or very happy with the overall process. The dictation voting—I'll come to that in the Access 2020 strategy but it turns out 586 disabled people used the dictation voting system.Now the overall cost of the 2017 election was $38204000. Of that the disabled budget for 2017 was $343826. That is 0.9 percent of the total election budget. I'll be very interested to see through select committee how that compares internationally and how that compares per capita as well. Kind of interesting—of that disabled budget half of that was actually on trestle tables for the tabletop voting. You might've thought it was dictation voting but no it was actually the trestle tables.Now there are learnings from overseas that we should take into this bill—that we should take into account. More specifically in 2012 the UK had exactly this sort of fund called the Access to Elected Office Fund. It ran from 2012 and it was then closed in 2016. The fund was for a grant of between £250 and £40000 if you were disabled and standing for election across UK Parliaments—even mayoral elections police and crime commissioners. It was kind of interesting.The fund was for disability-related costs. It did not cover general campaigning costs like leaflets or living costs. What it did cover was transport needs sign language interpreters and extra travel and accommodation if you needed a carer. Eligibility for the fund was if you were clearly standing for election and you had a letter from your doctor proving disability. Their criteria also had that you could prove that you were involved or interested in civic community or relevant activities and your application was supported by a member of your political party.I think we should explore why the fund closed down. I actually tried to call the Minister in charge—but wasn't able to get to him or her—and find out what their learnings were and I think we should take those learnings on board. Let's not reinvent the wheel. What was successful? What wasn't successful?I'd also note that in the past 18 months the UN special rapporteur on disabilities told the UK Government The UK Government should reopen the [Access to Elected Office] fund". So clearly and not surprisingly it has UN support.I was going to talk to the Electoral Commission's Access 2020 disability strategy but I think we may keep that for another time. So I'll just conclude by noting two points. First of all some of the questions we want to ask are: who will manage the fund? Presumably the Electoral Commission—we would support that. What is the size of the fund? I mentioned political party access—that third arm to this. Surely it relates to elections. Eligibility criteria—eligible for what? And what are the learnings from overseas?Can I also note a petition that was presented in the House just last week from Kim Robinson a constituent of mine in Whangarei. His petition reads "That the House of Representatives note that 356 people have signed an online petition requesting the House guarantee the right of Deaf or Hard of Hearing voters and candidates to barrier-free elections by 2020 by updating the Electoral Act 1993". So clearly there's another piece of work making its way through the House as well. I think this should be taken into account but I'm happy to see this bill in select committee. Thank you."