Peachey Allan: New Zealand Sign Language Bill — In Committee 
Peachey Allan: New Zealand Sign Language Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:630;Page:2163] 
ALLAN PEACHEY (National—Tamaki) 
: 
 I appreciate the opportunity to rise to speak in support of the New Zealand Sign Language Bill and to address Part 1. The irony of my doing that is not lost upon me. I do not believe that there will be many occasions in this House when I will rise to support legislation promoted by the Labour Government and its partner in Government New Zealand First. Unlike those parties I believe in the inherent worth of every New Zealand individual and I have no desire at all to see more and more of our people being made dependent on the State. 
I reflect upon my 32 years as an educator and upon the parents I got to know who had children who were deaf. I think that something like 95 percent of children who are deaf have parents who have hearing and I never cease to be amazed by the commitment and the drive that those mums and dads have to learn sign language so they can assist their children. Let us be very very clear about one thing. It is not possible for an individual to function in our community and take part in our economy if they cannot communicate in formal language and that is what this bill will do for the Deaf members of our community. It will give their language a status a standing and bring respect to it. It is amazing what one learns. After 32 years in education I would have thought that I would learn one or two things but I never appreciated that New Zealand Sign Language is actually distinctive to New Zealand. I had always taken for granted that sign language was sign language. On studying this bill I developed a whole new perspective on that and for that reason I believe that the bill is worthy of support. 
I commend the Justice and Electoral Committee for the fine work it has done on the bill. It is a simple law it is straightforward and its purpose is clearly stated and the passage of the bill in this House will mean an enormous amount to the 28000 people in New Zealand who used sign language and in particular to the 7000 Deaf New Zealanders who are using sign language. It is hard to believe that sign language has been in New Zealand for something like 125 years. Yet only in the last 20 years has the drive been there to have it made an official language. Today as a result of the work of this House the select committee and many other people sign language is one step closer to being official. In other words we are one step closer to saying to those New Zealanders who are deaf that their language is important and that their language is the way in which they communicate formally and structurally with other New Zealanders and I think that that is a great thing. 
It is a great thing that we are giving official recognition to New Zealand Sign Language and I think that the principles laid out in the bill are commendable. Sign language is not theatre sport. It is not drama it is not theatrics; it is a formal structured language with grammar and expression and it gives anybody who is using it every opportunity to express the full range of human thought. It is precise and carefully constructed and as I say it has its own grammar and syntax. It is a language in its own right. 
Children who are born deaf to deaf parents learn sign language naturally from their parents. Children who are born deaf to parents who are not deaf face a major challenge. As I spent 32 years as an educator I used to watch the signers who used to assist those children and I was just stunned by their patience and skill. I watched a signer in the House this afternoon. I noted the skill and the patience; it was quite extraordinary. Being able to sign opens up a whole range of possibilities for our young people—for those children who are born deaf and who need and want to make their way in the world on the basis of their individual merits and effort. 
In speaking to Part 1 I take the opportunity as a former educator and as a member of Parliament—as I understand that I am allowed to wear two hats—to pay tribute to New Zealand’s two residential special schools for the deaf and the hearing impaired. Those schools are in Auckland and Christchurch.