Hutchison Paul: Disability (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Bill — First Reading 
Hutchison Paul: Disability (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:648;Page:17282] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this very important Disability (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Bill. National is very pleased to support this bill’s referral to the Justice and Electoral Committee. 
I appreciate that the Hon Ruth Dyson has made considerable efforts to ensure that all parties were informed of this issue even before her own Cabinet saw some of the papers. However I am concerned about the likelihood of this bill coming up for some long time. It is worrying given that it has been on the agenda that the Government now wishes to see the bill rushed through by the end of September. National members are very happy to do what we can to make sure that it goes through expeditiously but we feel that it should be thoroughly and properly scrutinised during that time. 
National is highly aware of the support given to the convention by our own disability sector. We acknowledge the tremendous amount of work it has done in order to prepare for this happening. We also regard the New Zealand Disability Strategy and Pathways to Inclusion as fundamental documents that need support. But again we are concerned that the ongoing select committee inquiry into disability services and how they might be improved has shown an incomplete implementation of the New Zealand Disability Strategy not to mention Pathways to Inclusion. In fact a graphic example of that occurred in Christchurch just 2 weeks ago. Although it may be slightly insensitive for me to mention it I think I should. 
There was an occasion at the town hall in Christchurch where an elderly man with Parkinson’s disease had been to a concert with his wife. His wife had attempted to pick him up outside the town hall which she usually does only to find the area cordoned off by the prime ministerial entourage. Much to her concern when she approached the young police officer she was told that if she did not move on she might be arrested. Consequently her 80-year-old husband had to shuffle down the street—more than 100 metres in the wet and the dark—before she could pick him up. 
Why this is of concern is that this demonstrates the fact that we have not properly implemented the New Zealand Disability Strategy in this country. The rhetoric is high but it is very important that we meet the rhetoric with practical applications. And although the Prime Minister has said that she was shocked at this incident I have rung the woman several times and she has said to me that there has been no apology whatsoever for the considerable shock and discomfort that this elderly couple experienced. 
Undoubtedly the purpose of this bill is to “amend legislative provisions that are inconsistent with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” and to “amend the Human Rights Act 1993 to clarify the scope of its provisions enabling a person to refuse to accommodate a person’s disability in certain areas of activity.” and New Zealand signed the convention on the opening day for signing which was in March 2007. Just to reiterate the point that I made: anticipating getting this bill through Parliament has actually had quite a lot of time. 
As the explanatory note of the bill states: “The Convention came into force in May 2008 when the Convention received its 20th ratification by a State Party.” I understand that there are now something like 27 ratifications but they do not include ratifications made by Australia the UK or Canada. However the ever-enthusiastic Disabled Persons Assembly tells me that Australia will sign up to this convention imminently. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: Keep up—they have. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: It has already? Well that is excellent. Last week it had not. 
It is very important in our view that the select committee is given the opportunity to scrutinise the bill as the changes to the domestic law are extremely widespread. It is very important that Parliament gets this right as we want to ensure not only that the rhetoric is right but also that the practical implementation for the disability sector is right which is very important. 
Minister Dyson mentioned monitoring. This aspect again is quite important because there is a framework to promote to protect and to monitor implementation of the convention in article 33. Although New Zealand has instruments such as the Human Rights Commission the Office of the Ombudsmen the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner and others—and those are very important—it is also important to ensure that we put a monitoring regime in place. I understand that the Minister is planning for this to happen after ratification and that she have it reported to her by 5 December 2008. It is also important to point out that the monitoring implementation of the New Zealand Disability Strategy to date has largely focused on the activity of central government departments but it does not extend to local and regional government and that is the sort of situation that led to what happened in Christchurch only a month ago. 
The other area that perhaps has been lightly gone over is the financial implications of this bill. Again the Minister said there are no immediate or significant financial implications. However it is really important that the longer term ones are looked into. Again I understand that Government agencies may experience increased pressure from disabled people and disabled sector organisations to accelerate activity to meet the obligations under the convention. As is already the case the risk will need to be managed through a considered setting of Government priorities and budget allocations and open communication in respect of how the Government is meeting the convention’s obligations. This is very important in order to make sure that once again the rhetoric meets the practical applications. 
Thirdly I will talk about the timing issues because it is necessary to get the legislation through by 30 September if indeed New Zealand is to become a party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Certainly the disability sector in New Zealand is very anxious that this happen. That is why National is keen to work rigorously at the select committee with other parties to make sure that we look at this bill thoroughly and hopefully we can expedite it quickly. 
I understand that if the legislation can indeed get through on 30 September then ratification will take place 30 days after the deposit of an instrument of ratification. Thus if New Zealand ratifies at least 30 days in advance of the conference of State parties which must be held by November 2008 it will be able to participate fully in the conference. This would put New Zealand in the best position for ensuring that the standards we advocated during convention negotiations are not diluted. I think that that is very reasonable provided that we ourselves have our own house in order. In addition ratification of the convention will reinforce New Zealand’s reputation as a State that leads and demonstrates in practice a commitment to human rights. 
National does indeed support this bill’s referral to the select committee. We are keen to work hard with the other parties and the Government to see that the bill gets the scrutiny it deserves and hopefully it will be in time to ratify the convention in an appropriate way.