O'Connor SimonSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): I am very pleased to speak in this Committee stage of the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind Act Repeal Bill. Can I begin by acknowledging the Minister in the chair the Hon Nicky Wagner. This private bill that we are debating is in her name and as I have mentioned in a few prior contributions I think it is quite apt not only because of her own passion for the subject but because of the fact that she is the Minister responsible for these areas—not just of course for the blind but for other people with a variety of disabilities. This is a very simple bill as has clearly been indicated today by the request that we deal with this as one debate. The provisions themselves are relatively simple and I will touch on some of those in this speech. But I think what is really important to stress and it is somewhat brought out in the bill—in its general policy statement in the explanatory note and so on—is the purpose. The purpose is in fact far more important and symbolic than just the words themselves. This is the desire of the Royal Foundation of the Blind to take control if you will of its own destiny and its own work. The very purpose of this bill is to remove the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind off the statute book. It is probably not appropriate in the Committee stage—and we are not going to go through all the history of the bill and why it is here—but the reason we have clause 3 is to repeal our Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind Act 2002. This is to allow the foundation to now act as an incorporated society for its members and supporters—those who are blind and those with low vision or vision impairment—to be able to control their own destiny and ultimately to send a very strong signal as all parts of this bill do that the statutory requirements are no longer needed. As you will imagine the title itself is very simple—really just indicating what this is all about. I will point out—maybe it is just my love of semantics—it is very unusual to have the words Act" and "bill" in the same place. That is important. The legislation is going to come into immediate effect once it receives Royal assent as is pointed out in clause 2. There was no great debate in the Health Committee around any of these clauses. We know that the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind is working quite hard to prepare the transition; therefore no transition elements were needed. Clause 3 is again a very simple statement—a simple repeal here of the previous Act of 2002. The foundation itself has been around—I think since 1908 if memory serves me right; the Minister will be able to clarify that for me a bit later—for about 126 years. I think last year it celebrated its 125th anniversary. I think in 1908 the original legislation was put in place. As former speakers have pointed out there is a consequential amendment around copyright regulations from 1995—we have just been really clear about that. I suppose in this Committee stage we want to be really clear that although we have brought this to the Committee with no amendments in our report—the bill went through the select committee and was passed unanimously with no amendments—it is not indicative of not having done anything. I know that is almost a triple negative in a series of words there but the committee was actually very careful to go through this bill to ensure it clearly reached its intentions. Importantly too it became an opportunity—and I thought it was quite important; we have not been able to note it in the clauses rightly but unfortunately—for the wider discussion that was had with representatives of the foundation to understand some of the wider issues that are affecting those who are blind or with low vision. Ultimately through all these clauses and by allowing the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind to become an incorporated society the foundation is going to be able to continue to pursue its agenda and lobbying. I am very conscious of this insofar as 2 weeks ago in my own area back up in Auckland I had a good opportunity to go and meet with representatives not only to talk though what was happening with the bill but importantly to hear the issues that they have. The previous speaker Poto Williams was elucidating one of them around the Marrakesh treaty. The other issue which I think is important to note and which is going to come out of this bill is around what was debated here in the Youth Parliament. It is around accessibility. I know—for the foundation and those listening—that was well heard here and I acknowledge my own youth MP who spoke very passionately on it. The foundation has a range of activities it wants to pursue and continue to pursue and accessibility—or the mock bill that the Youth Parliament had—is just one example of them. This bill has four clauses—four very simple clauses. It does not even take more than half a page but that is not symbolic of the larger work if you will that the foundation undertakes and wants to continue to undertake. As I say the Health Committee did spend a good amount of time on this. We gave it all due consideration. What it seeks to do has been very clearly articulated and so we are very pleased to return here to the Committee stage and look forward to any further contributions. Along with my colleague on the committee Poto Williams I am very much looking forward to a third reading and progressing the bill further."