Sharma Gaurav; Dean JacquiDr GAURAV SHARMA (Labour—Hamilton West): Thank you Madam Speaker. As the co-chair of the cross-parliamentary PCAL or the Parliamentary Champions for Accessibility Legislation group I stand here in the House today in support of the Human Rights (Disability Assist Dogs Non-Discrimination) Amendment Bill put forward to the House by Green Party MP Ricardo Menéndez March.Section 21 of the Human Rights Act lays out the prohibited grounds for discrimination enshrined at the heart of our human rights framework. Specifically it identifies guide dogs under the clauses that relate to the discrimination against disabled people. This term however is very narrow. Disabled New Zealanders are assisted by a much wider range of support dogs than guide dogs alone. The bill in front of us today amends the Human Rights Act 1993 to enhance the protections from discrimination for people who rely on disability assist dogs. Currently section 21 of the Human Rights Act references guide dogs in its definition of disability. The bill here changes this wording to the broader term of disability assist dogs" as defined in the Dog Control Act 1996 ensuring that those who rely on other kinds of disability assist dogs are afforded the protections that currently exist for people with guide dogs. This will help ensure that Kiwis are protected from discrimination under the Act.Disability assist dogs provide vital support for the disabled New Zealand community that rely on them across a range of areas. The exact nature of the support is diverse depending on the dog and its owner's needs as my colleague Jamie Strange mentioned. The exact nature might be related to for example a deaf person who might need help with hearing sound alarms or doorbells. There might be somebody with epilepsy who needs management with seizures or somebody in a wheelchair who needs retrieval of objects for them. Disability assist dogs significantly enhance the quality of life of those they help and can support disabled people to lead more independent lives. In some cases they can even save lives.Now if this bill had come into the House maybe last year I would have probably wondered about whether I sit on the fence or not because when I was three years old I was actually bitten by a dog so I've been quite scared of all dogs. But over the last year working during the election time I got to walk the streets of Hamilton with quite a few of our members who had dogs and I realised how good they are in terms of providing therapy and none of those dogs were actually guide dogs. So it goes to show that there is a wide range of definition for dogs that are able to provide support to New Zealanders who need it.I also want to mention that this specific Act also amends the section 2 of the Dog Control Act 1996 which outlines that a "disability assist dog" is one "certified by one of the organisations [the Act specifies] in Schedule 5 as being a dog that has been trained (or is being trained) to assist a person with a disability". There are eight organisations outlined in the schedule as being able to certify dogs. It is important to note that this definition still sets a very high standard for a dog to meet the criteria to be included in the Human Rights Act. They must be certified by one of these eight organisations I mentioned and must meet specific criteria in order to be certified.This Government is committed to building a more inclusive and accessible society and to ensuring disabled people have the same rights and opportunities as the rest of New Zealanders. Progress on disability issues continues to be realised through disability-focused funding across many Government portfolios such as ACC the Ministry of Health the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Education and I specifically want to mention Minister Carmel Sepuloni who has done a lot of good work in the disability space in between her various portfolios in this Government and in the last Government as well. In the disability issues portfolio the Government aims to progress the rights and opportunities for disabled people through the New Zealand Disability Strategy 2016-2026. The strategy and the Disability Action Plan are the key mechanisms for progressing New Zealand forward and realising the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.The Disability Action Plan is the primary vehicle for implementing this disability strategy over the next four years and I believe that moving this bill forward will make a huge difference in the lives of New Zealanders who for a long time have been discriminated just because of the way the Human Rights Act defines the kind of dog they can use to get assistance with their everyday activities. So I would like to highly recommend the bill to move forward in the House. Thank you. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): In reply Jan Logie."