Hutchison Paul: Disabled Persons Employment Promotion (Repeal and Related Matters) Bill — In Committee 
Hutchison Paul: Disabled Persons Employment Promotion (Repeal and Related Matters) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:638;Page:8150] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 Firstly I want to say that the title of this bill the Disabled Persons Employment Promotion (Repeal and Related Matters) Bill does indeed fit in with what this bill is doing. I think it is very important for the public out there to realise that all or most of the amendments the Labour Government has put in up until only 2 or 3 days ago would have had the commencement date as 30 June 2007. However at the very last moment the Hon Ruth Dyson put in an amendment to extend the date to 30 September. Why did she do this? She did it because the bill was flawed. The machinery to ensure that the sheltered workshops would indeed be able to employ disabled people and give them the real choice they wished for was just not in place. 
We have heard time and time again that none of the workshops were confident that those flaws would be remedied in the remaining 3 to 4 months. In many respects it is a victory for the National Party and for common sense that at least we have pushed the Labour Government into seeing a tiny bit of common sense if not a complete bit of common sense which is something it should have. 
This bill undoubtedly should have been called the “Ruth Dyson Let’s Steamroll the Legislation Through and Forget About the Practicalities of Implementation Bill”. 
Simon Power 
: That’s a long title. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: It is a slightly longer title; that is absolutely true. Let us look at one of the other names it could have been called. It could have been called the “Labour Government Let’s Decimate Sheltered Workshops Bill”. Three years ago at the time that this bill was first brought into the House in 2004 something like 4000 disabled people were working in sheltered workshops but due to the pressure that this Labour Government has put on sheltered workshops they now number only about 1000. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: You’re joking! 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: There are only about 1000. There were 4000 in 2004; there are 1000 now. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Labour should be ashamed. They should be ashamed. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: They should indeed particularly when we hear what a woman I know—Jane Watts whose son Lee so benefits and enjoys working at the Abilities Group on the North Shore—said when she heard about the replacement opportunity of community participation. Her words were: “It’s a waste of money. We do those things—take him to the library swimming bowling—on weekends. If the government wants to spend more money they should provide more caregivers at Abilities to help people get their shoes on open their drink bottles. They could build a little gym there or send taxis for Lee so we wouldn’t have to struggle and worry so much about getting to work.” That was from the mother of one of those disabled workers who absolutely loves what he is doing. 
One of the other names that we could call the bill is the “Labour Government Put Pressure on the IHC to Buckle to our Will Bill—the classic thing that this Labour Government has been doing. We know that the chief executive officer of IHC wrote this: “Has the IHC become too PC in some areas? Yes by being a service provider we have bought into the government expectation standards and policies. The $140 million … comes with a cost.” We know that in these 3 years we have seen sheltered workshops go from 4000 workers down to 1000. Hence the name the “Labour Government Put Pressure on the IHC to Buckle to our Will Bill” indeed fits this title perhaps more aptly than what we see there now. 
The real concern is about the commencement of this bill. At least it has been extended by a few months. The other day in the House I asked the Minister whether she could guarantee that no disabled employees or sheltered workshops would be worse off after 30 November as a result of her bill. She said: “No. I cannot guarantee that.” That has to be the ultimate test because it is difficult to bring in such a bill as this—and the Labour Government has not done it very well at all.