Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour—Hutt South): Thank you very much Madam Speaker for the opportunity to speak on the third and final reading of the District Court (Protection of Judgment Debtors with Disabilities) Amendment Bill. First and foremost I would like to acknowledge the member in charge of the bill Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki. She has been a passionate and strong advocate for her community and I think examples such as this bill really speak to the heart of what democracy is: it is a member of Parliament being able to represent his or her community and to identify gaps in the law that cause everyday people difficulties or problems or obstacles that they cannot counter without a law change.So to have people like ourselves no matter what side of the House they sit on to be able to be in our communities working alongside people to identify opportunities such as this one is exactly what we are here for. So I would like to acknowledge Anahila—her emotion today is apparent for the fact that a small change can also mean a huge amount. It confirms to people at home in everyday life that you do matter and if there are things that prevent people from having inclusion and full enjoyment in society they are the sorts of issues that this House is here to remedy.So what the bill does is it makes a small but necessary change in order to provide that inclusion that we need to enable. We really heard at select committee many submissions that confirmed what the initial thoughts were—that there needed to be an express prohibiting of seizure of goods from a judgment debtor if there was someone with a disability who relied upon that item for inclusion and who relied on that to be able to engage in the community and live their life.So what was interesting is that while it was a small legal change one of the points that I would like to pick up on is that we actually heard from the front line of bailiffs who have that role of knocking on somebody's door and having a court order which they are required to enforce. When you are a bailiff you are operating under operational guidelines and sometimes it's at the discretion of the bailiff to determine whether it would be appropriate or not to uplift a certain given item. It is always a discretionary call at the time; it is difficult to understand.So one of the reassuring things for me through this bill is that we heard from bailiffs that as a result of Anahila's bill there would be a rewriting and a review of those operational guidelines.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! The member will use the member's full name.GINNY ANDERSEN: Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki—apologies Madam Speaker. We heard the requirement in this bill that there would be a review of those operational policies to make sure that those front-line people who are undertaking the work of uplifting goods would be paying full attention to the requirements.So essentially what this bill has done what this member's bill has achieved is really codifying and reinforcing certain rights that we knew were there that we know exist whether they be human rights or other undertakings through disability conventions that exist. It codifies those areas to really make sure that we are providing people with those rights but also on the front line making sure that when the law is being enforced all of those parts are being taken into account. Existing operational practice in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act already provides some of those protections but what this this bill does is it essentially codifies the protection of disabled judgment debtors into the District Court Act. It will ensure that bailiffs respect the rights and needs of disabled New Zealanders and that is an important thing to be able to do.I'd like to also reflect upon how this bill contributes to a body of work that's been taken over the years to continue to push for greater inclusion and for greater accessibility for those in the disability community. I would like to particularly pay tribute to the Hon Ruth Dyson who was a champion for many years in this space and to acknowledge her recent acknowledgments in the Queen's Honours List. Ruth was one of the people who has championed pieces of legislation such as this in the past.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! The member will use the member's full name.GINNY ANDERSEN: Hon Ruth Dyson—sorry did I say Ruth"? Ruth Dyson—apologies Madam Speaker. So I think it's important to take this bill as not standing on its own but it contributes to a body of work.A similar member's bill under the name of Chlöe Swarbrick formerly Mojo Mathers' bill enabled greater inclusion in terms of standing as a candidate in the general election to be able to enable full inclusion and accessibility to the disability community in those aspects. I'd also like to acknowledge that work has been undertaken through having a disability strategy in New Zealand and being able to make sure that we continue to push for greater inclusion in those areas.In the select committee process we heard some excellent submissions from a range of people. We heard from Age Concern New Zealand Auckland Disability Law and we had the Disabled Persons Assembly. The Human Rights Commission gave an incredibly helpful submission in terms of enabling the committee to consider what was to be done next. Based on these submissions and the consideration that the committee gave it we unanimously recommended several changes to the bill in order to make sure that its objectives were successfully achieved and I think that it was good to do that with the full agreement of the whole committee.There were no arguments in terms of what was right or wrong. There was always a strong sense that this needed to be done and the committee worked collectively to enable that to happen in the best way possible.As I already mentioned the submissions from Age Concern looked particularly at this issue—Auckland Disability Law also argued the same—where we could have a scenario where something essential for the care of a disabled person was uplifted by a bailiff because the caregiver was owning that debt. So that was an important extension that was agreed by all members—that if there was a caregiver to a person with a disability it would also apply in that context because uplifting it from the caregiver would also have an impact upon the inclusion of the person with a disability within the wider community. So it was important to extend it to that further level.In terms of where the next steps are in terms of this bill I think it's important to note that this House has a strong record of always working collectively on issues that affect the disability sector—making sure that when we see issues such as the one that the member in charge of the bill has identified we are able to pick up on these issues engage with them and make our law fit for purpose to enable full inclusion in New Zealand society and community. I think that the more that we are able to do this and work collectively the stronger our community will be. I know that those people who submitted on behalf of the community impacted and affected and who have to work and continue to be a part of our community with a disability acknowledge when legislation is specifically passed to promote inclusion and I'm proud to see that we have a bill that continues to do that.I would like to conclude today by acknowledging that this is not kindness. This is not in any way a do-good thing in general; it's the right thing to do. We know if there is an ability for someone to be prevented from being included we need to amend that law and that is exactly what this bill does. It is not a major legislative change indeed but it will make life a lot easier so people can live and be assured that items that they rely upon for inclusion cannot be uplifted by a bailiff and that they cannot be prevented from being included in New Zealand society. I commend the bill to the House."