Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): This legislation is long overdue. It's a great start and it's a necessary start. I think there's an irony—that this place should reflect New Zealand society disabled people—along with some young people as well—and they are probably the least represented. There's an irony that this place which is about enabling our communities is one of the hardest places for our disabled communities to get into. So I think the pathways in here should not just be institutional but also through every political party. I would say to the Green member who spoke Jan Logie and to the National member who just spoke Harete Hipango that that is worth reflecting on. So how does that lack of representation play out? Well we've seen it in outcomes in education employment income housing and health. COVID has certainly exacerbated the inaccessibilities and it has also shone a light on the disparities which is something that we can learn from. For me one of the biggest and most revealing things for us to note is that there is no positive duty on the Crown to include disabled people; that it is up to those people to complain when that in fact can be very very difficult and inaccessible itself. It's people like Chris Ford in my Taieri electorate from the Disabled Persons Assembly who has tirelessly advocated for the last 22 years who is making this progress. It is people like Dave King from People First in the southern region; he's the vice president who revealed COVID self-isolation disparities—what it would mean his concerns for disabled people around self-isolation and what we could do as a society to help and make that situation better. People like Heidi Parks who is a teenage champion for accessibility from Kawerau. She was a winner of the Local Impact Award in 2021—she spoke at Festival for the Future over the weekend. She wants to use her prize money to start getting wheelchairs into schools simply so that students can have a go in the wheelchair and see what it's like. She is so frustrated with people not understanding what her lived experience is. So how do we change all this? Well I can see that it would be tempting to immediately regulate to mandate legislation and certainly that's what this Access Alliance have wanted to do. And I tautoko their advocacy. It would be quick it would be economically efficient but it would also be hierarchical. So it is no surprise to me that the National Party is advocating for this. Because one of the issues we have with quick legislation is that when it comes to implementation if it hasn't been thought through properly and if it is not properly represented it will result in a divide and conquer culture and that is the last thing that this community needs. So requirements like standards enforcement complaints procedures and so on—the step change that is needed—will come at the right time. But if we want to bring the whole of New Zealand with us which is what Toni Severin from the ACT Party has said—and others have said as well in this House—then it needs to be done appropriately. Currently there simply is no framework to work from. The data collection is just not good enough. So in order to do this properly and to have enduring and flexible legislation that adequately and more than adequately meets the requirements of our disabled communities we need to do the process properly. As tempting as it may be to rush it through and to try and have a restrictive and compliance-based quick fix in legislation the outcomes could be terrible for some members of those communities because not everybody agrees with what the solutions are. Hence the need to get the committees appropriately represented and put into place. Hence the need to do this thoughtfully and carefully.One final point I would like to make is the line that we've heard in the House today that one quarter of New Zealanders live with a disability. Now that statement still puts the focus back on the people. The social model of disability requires us to look at the enabling or disabling environment. It requires a fundamental rethink about how we operate as a society and that requires a framework and a culture change. It does not need a quick fix which is going to further marginalise some people and which is likely to be changed in very short order when the problems become apparent. This bill creates that framework. This bill is the first step towards a truly inclusive Aotearoa New Zealand for all people and therefore this is the right way to go. I strongly recommend this bill to the House.