Mathers Mojo: Human Rights Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMathers Mojo: Human Rights Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 24 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11170. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MOJO MATHERS (Green): I would like to focus my comments in support of Supplementary Order Paper 175 which reinserts the separate designation of the Race Relations Commissioner and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner as well as that of the Disability Rights Commissioner. I want to stand and acknowledge the Māori Party for lobbying and enabling that and I acknowledge Minister Amy Adams for listening and bringing this Supplementary Order Paper to the House.The Supplementary Order Paper expresses one of the major concerns that the Green Party and many submitters had about the bill which the Minister of Justice at the time refused to address. It was clear to me from listening to the many submissions that the removal of the specific titles was perceived by the communities that these commissioners support as a lessening of the roles and a change in the specific special character and focus on disability of these roles.So the change in this Supplementary Order Paper I would say is not minor. It is significant. It is significant because titles do matter and for each of the priority areas of the Human Rights Commission it is vital in our view that the titles of the commissioners do reflect these priority areas. Specific designations not only create clarity and increase visibility; they affirm the critical importance of these issues to the groups represented in a way that downgrading to generalised commissioners leading the areas of priority does not.This is because the priority areas in the bill are just that—priority areas that really focus on the community where there is still a long way to go to ensure that their human rights are recognised for disabled people are amongst the most marginalised and discriminated-against people in New Zealand. They are under-represented in employment and homeownership they are overrepresented in prisons and they face major challenges in accessing health and other services. Over 30 percent of complaints to the Human Rights Commission are related to disability. Gender issues are as critical as ever with record levels of domestic and sexual violence in this country and a significant pay gap for women in many sectors. We see appalling—absolutely appalling—levels of abuse and racism directed at Māori in this country on an almost daily basis. All of these factors combined affirm that this is absolutely not the time to be disestablishing the specialised designations for the human rights commissioners.First I want to put on record again that the move by the Government to create the position of a Disability Rights Commissioner was partly prompted when a member’s bill by my colleague Catherine Delahunty was pulled from the members’ bill ballot in 2010. That bill by Catherine established a designated disability commissioner to sit alongside the existing specialist designations of the Race Relations Commissioner and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner and it was long overdue because for far too long the needs and rights of disabled people have languished far behind those of other people in part due to the major structural and systematic failures that disabled people face in this country along with systematic negative attitudes towards people living with impairment—towards disabled people.Catherine at the time was doing her best in good faith when the Government announced that it would be creating a disabilities commissioner under the assumption that such a position would be created to stand alongside the existing designated positions and that is why we objected so strongly when it was found that the bill was going to go much further than that and actually restructure the commission and downgrade the specific designations. So it is a huge relief in fact that this Supplementary Order Paper now reinserts these specific designations. Thank you.