Mathers Mojo: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMathers Mojo: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 18 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1695. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MOJO MATHERS (Green): I note that in the Prime Minister’s statement he emphasised that the Christchurch rebuild will be one of the Government’s four key priorities and I want to focus on that. Although it is welcomed by residents of Christchurch it is disappointing that there is no mention of the importance of ensuring accessibility in the rebuild. It is worrying that there is no acknowledgment of the policy and legislative changes that are needed if they are going to ensure an accessible city for everyone whether young or old able-bodied or disabled to live work and play.It is very surprising that there is not that commitment expressed because it is one of the key priorities that the people of Christchurch want. There was a Share an Idea forum hosted by the Christchurch City Council and accessibility came out as the second-highest priority—second only to generally ensuring a place for everyone. Because of this it is really really important that the Government fix that because if it does not then we will see buildings going up now that are not accessible that have major barriers in their way. It is also a critical issue because we have an ageing population. We have now nearly one in four New Zealanders with a disability.An accessible environment is incredibly important from a whole number of viewpoints. It is important because it reduces social isolation so that people can participate in and access services. It also has significant economic benefits because it removes a barrier to employment for disabled people. There is no point constantly bashing disabled people on benefits on the head and telling them they have got to get out and work when they cannot often even get to a job interview because they cannot get in through the door. There are benefits for tourism. Christchurch has a unique opportunity to be the most accessible city in the world. It also makes Christchurch an attractive venue as a host for international conferences for sporting events and for study. It reduces reliance on paid support such as for transport and so should immediately save public money.Last week more than a year after two petitions were presented to Parliament calling for the Government to take accessibility seriously and ensure an accessible city in the rebuild the petitioners were finally heard at the select committee. The Earthquake Disability Leadership Group handed around photos to members of the select committee that showed just what was happening with the rebuild. They showed buildings that had wheelchair accessibility signage at the front door but there were steps immediately in front of the door. There is no legal requirement that says that you cannot use that signage even when the building is clearly inaccessible. They talked about how developers were avoiding their responsibility by exploiting the loops in the building code to avoid meeting access requirements such as not installing lifts in buildings that should require them by putting in artificial false dividing walls and that sort of thing. So the group has asked that the Government takes urgent steps to ensure that assessed buildings are accessible for everyone and that it really gets the policy and legislative changes that are needed now as urgently as possible because buildings are going up now. The inaccessible buildings that are going up now are locking in inaccessibility for the next 20 30 and 40 years—a whole generation of people’s lifetimes. This is just simply not OK.I do want to acknowledge that the Government has started a review of this through the Office for Disability Issues. A major report came out last year but that report did not say anything new. It repeated the kinds of things that people have been saying for years. Access issues are continuing to be designed into buildings in New Zealand as a result of the way that the legislation is drafted and the resulting approach by architects by developers and by building owners. The purpose of the Building Act which does say that the buildings need to be accessible is not flowing through to the building code and acceptable solutions. This is resulting in buildings that are code-compliant but not accessible and they do not meet the access needs of the users of the building. This is just simply not OK.These issues are not new. We have known about them for years. The Human Rights Commission wrote a report on this several years ago and yet this Government is still not taking the actual steps that need to happen to change this situation—really decisive action. There is a need as I have said for urgency because of the buildings that are going up now. There is concern that the changes in the Resource Management Act that are being proposed by the Government are actually going to make things worse. We have an opportunity with the Resource Management Act to actually require these issues to be considered right at the start of the process. But in the Government’s rush to go ahead and allow developers to build willy-nilly around the country and the removal of some of the perceived constraints around planning it is also going to mean that an opportunity is missed to ensure that accessibility is considered right early on in the process.We have an opportunity to make Christchurch the most accessible city in the world. We are missing that opportunity and it is a crying shame. It is a crying shame for the people of Christchurch but it is also a shame for the whole of the country because the changes to the building code and the solutions that are needed to ensure that buildings in Christchurch are accessible will also of course affect all new buildings going up anywhere in New Zealand. So it is part of making the whole of the country more accessible for people with disabilities. If only you knew the number of people for whom access issues almost dominates their lives who have to ring up and check with every building that they go to and ask whether it has really got an accessible entrance. And when they get to the building and maybe get inside they cannot reach the push button to open the door or a lift because they are put in corners where people in wheelchairs cannot reach them or they are put too high or they are put too low.There are so many things that are just simply fundamental design flaws that are being allowed and certified as code-compliant either because of a lack of awareness in the planning and consenting authorities and also because they are inherent design flaws in the building code which is actually enabling these kinds of inaccessible solutions to be consented and developed. Developers have spoken to me and said that until access is actually a fundamental requirement inaccessible buildings will continue to be built.