Wagner NickyHon NICKY WAGNER (Minister for Disability Issues): It will be a celebration the day that this bill passes. The Blind Foundation in numerous iterations has been working in New Zealand supporting and working with blind people for over 126 years. I think most of us know where the original Blind Foundation buildings are in Parnell—enormous brick buildings. In those days there was a residential facility. There was a sheltered workshop. There was a whole lot of support where people lived on the place.I think that really reflects the changes that have happened in disability over those 126 years. Originally the organisation was named for the Blind". It was all about looking after people who could not manage in the real world and had to live in a sequestered regime in residential places in a place where ordinary New Zealanders did not come very often. I think it is really incumbent and actually a real celebration for this organisation that it can come to this stage where it is now becoming an incorporated society of the blind. It is no longer "for" the blind; it is "of" the blind. It is about people who are blind or who have low-vision impairments who can live a life as any other New Zealander does who can have more choice and more control over their lives. If you look at the history of the 126 years you can see how that has changed. I do think we need to pay tribute to the organisation for advocating for that change for cannibalising its own organisation in the beginning and becoming a truly empowering organisation for blind people.Right now the services that the Blind Foundation provides are to support people so that they can live a full life to make sure that they can make the most of every opportunity that New Zealanders have in this country. I think we have had some mention of technology today. Interestingly enough the blind community has always been good at taking up innovation. After all Braille was one of those early technologies that allowed blind people to live lives as close as possible to ordinary New Zealanders in terms of reading and in terms of communication. Now we are seeing some fantastic new software and computerware that blind people can use to support them in the adoption of technology; the foundation is very strong in that area. There is a famous bit of software called Job Access With Speech (JAWS). It is fascinating because they use it in terms of software and computing. What it does is it reads words aloud really really fast. You and I probably would not pick up the speed of the reading but blind people are attuned to JAWS and they can speed it up. It is fascinating to watch them using that technology.There have been several turning points along the line because the legislation has changed but the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind Act 2002 was a turning point because that allowed the foundation the opportunity to become an incorporated society. Even though it took until 2012 for it to do that it opened the door for it to take that control over its organisation. It was also the time that it changed the name to the Royal New Zealand Foundation "of" the Blind rather than "for" the blind.I think that this repealing is particularly important. It is important not only because it has given the organisation the opportunity to highlight in Parliament the work it has done but also because it wants to make it very clear that there is no confusion between having a statute and giving it the independence going forward. I think that the fact that it is now totally on its own controlling its own destiny looking after its sector and being completely independent of Parliament is a really positive move. So I would like to say thank you to the organisation. Thank you for providing those services for 126 years. I would like to thank the select committee for the work that it has done to get to this stage. Finally I would like to say kia kaha to the organisation for the next 126 years. Kia ora.Preamble agreed to.Clause 1 agreed to.Clause 2 agreed to.Clause 3 agreed to.Clause 4 agreed to.House resumed.Bill reported without amendment.Report adopted."