Turner Judy: New Zealand Sign Language Bill — Second Reading 
Turner Judy: New Zealand Sign Language Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:629;Page:1467] 
JUDY TURNER (Deputy Leader—United Future) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of United Future to speak in support of the second reading of the New Zealand Sign Language Bill. Let me say first of all that I was not a member of the select committee the Justice and Electoral Committee that worked on this bill but I have noted the report of the committee and have made a couple of notes that I think are significant. 
Firstly in all the 195 submissions received by the committee no one opposed the bill and all expressed strong support for the recognition of New Zealand Sign Language as an official language of New Zealand. I also noted that 104 people contributed to the submission process by using sign language and that the advent of video conferencing made possible a new and important way for those who are hearing impaired to enjoy greater access to and greater participation in the parliamentary process. Long may this continue not just on issues relating to deafness but on all matters concerning Parliament. 
 It is also worth noting that the committee chose to make reference in its report to the fact that no one on the committee could communicate in Sign Language. Yet with the help of interpreters and the Deaf Studies Research Unit of Victoria University the process went very smoothly. The report pays tribute both to those who supported the committee with advice and interpretation skills and to the Deaf submitters who worked with them so well. 
The passage of the bill is an important milestone for the hearing-impaired community but it should not be and is not intended to be an end in itself. The committee has recommended that an advisory group be established to monitor the effects of the legislation against its stated purpose. Many submitters expressed concern that the application of the bill must not be neglected. They noted that there was a need for sign language to be promoted proactively and that merely giving the language official recognition was not necessarily going to achieve that. 
The initial obligations and applications under the bill will be in the justice arena but the current efforts by interdepartmental working-groups to remove language barriers for the Deaf community in the health education employment and broadcasting sectors need to be encouraged and to have measurable time frames around any goals that are set. The select committee noted that even the justice sector could consider improving services beyond the obvious applications outlined in the bill. United Future supports the amendment which was agreed to by the committee that requires all Government departments to take responsibility for consulting with Deaf communities on matters that relate to New Zealand Sign Language. That is to ensure that departments do not sit back passively and wait for the Office for Disability Issues to initiate discussions on relative issues. 
United Future believes that as the interpretation services workforce capacity is built over time—and that must be a priority—then amendments to the bill should be actioned so that the current barriers faced by deaf people when accessing services and information are removed progressively and deliberately. Funding considerations will be the measure of any Government’s commitment to removing barriers to the hearing impaired. The select committee shied away from making specific recommendations in this regard and suggested that the matter would need more specific attention once the period of monitoring and reporting had been completed. 
United Future is therefore very pleased to be supporting the bill and congratulates everyone who has played a part in progressing it through the select committee process. With 8 percent of the adult population affected in some way by hearing impairment it is good news that the bill moves another step towards becoming law. I take a moment to welcome to the public gallery those people who are affected most by the bill and I want to thank the interpreter for making what I am saying understandable.