Turner Judy: General Debate 
Turner Judy: General Debate 
[Volume:643;Page:13105] 
JUDY TURNER (Deputy Leader—United Future) 
: 
 Yesterday in a debate in the House Jeanette Fitzsimons employed an interesting term. I think she talked about a “phoney debate” to describe the misinformation and political point-scoring that has been dominating the political landscape at present in regard to parliamentary and election funding legislation. I suspect that the 17 percent of New Zealanders who live with a disability would rather that we spent the same amount of passion the same amount of energy and the same amount of time prioritising and focusing on their ongoing and unmet need to enjoy inclusion. 
In New Zealand we have a first-class strategy document which means that we cannot hide behind the excuse that we do not know what needs doing. We have established a Minister for Disability Issues which I presume means that we have at some time in the past identified the need to put some effort into advocating for this sizeable sector. We have an Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner that provides disabled people with somewhere to register complaints. However that is only as long as those complaints fit prescribed parameters. We have closed down residential institutions because we now subscribe to a philosophy of support that believes disabled folk are well able to live a normal life. 
We have the theory right but the fact is that this sector is the only one that is given virtually no say in the services and support it gets. Most of the people in it live a long way from normal lives. As the political momentum builds and picks up speed and as we start hurtling towards an election will we be trying to outdo each other with policies to improve the development of a world-class workforce to support those with disabilities? Will the two old parties be trying to outbid each other with promises to improve respite services for parents who are exhausted by the day-to-day care of children with high and complex needs? Will they be competing to see who can come up with the most innovative way to develop more individualised packages of care and funding so that disabled adults can take control of their lives and their own destinies? I seriously doubt it and this is why: the challenges are complicated and they are often considered to be in the too-hard basket. In New Zealand we talk about celebrating diversity but we do not seem to include the disabled as a vibrant part of our diverse make-up and because we do not value their contribution we do not prioritise their inclusion. 
Of the 570300 adults with a disability that Statistics New Zealand tells us about 209500 have low support needs 268000 have medium support needs and a whopping 97700 have high support needs. Sixty percent of adults with disabilities have multiple disabilities. Three-quarters of those with disabilities do not qualify for support under Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) provisions and they look over the fence with justifiable envy at their ACC counterparts due to the measurably better services and support that they receive. 
Who is going into the next election championing the need to close this very unfair gap? I want to put up my hand and say United Future is going to do that. So where do we begin? A good suggestion as to where to begin is found in a motto often quoted by the Disabled Persons Assembly about not doing anything to or for disabled people without including them in the decision-making process. Currently we are committed to developing relationships across the sector and to listening and we are currently on a sharp learning curve. We put up our hands and say we are not experts but we have met to date with lots of people who are authentically connected to the issues faced on a daily basis by people in this sector. In our travels to date we have encountered considerable frustration by those who see huge amounts of money wasted on unwanted services while at the same time they experience funding shortages for items that they consider to be absolutely vital. 
As we go about on our travels we ask these people what their priority is. It is unsurprising that the answers vary. So at this stage we are not jumping out with some clever policy or platform. We have about a year before we will face an election and we have that considerable time to make sure that we go into the next election with a policy platform for those who are in this sector who are voters—17 percent of all New Zealanders as I mentioned at the beginning of my speech—and who are just looking out for somebody to be their advocate.