Annual Report 2002

Goal 4: To monitor services and legislation to ensure that people with disabilities receive a range of quality services and information that meets their needs

DPA is an organisation that brings together the collective voice of all disabled people. It is founded on the principle of equal rights. We want dignity and respect. We want to live as we choice with appropriate support. We want to have our say and be heard.

Partly to ensure we get what we want, we have to be vigilant and monitor what government and other organisations are doing or not doing regarding people with disabilities. DPA policy researcher, Wendi Wicks, does this work, sometimes with assistance from DPA members or organisations who have special expertise or interest in a particular issue.

Advocacy and educational activities, notably those associated with the Health and Disability Commission sessions for disabled people required significant effort during the year. Contact with the Ministries of Health, Women's Affairs and Social Development was also significant.

In this section we outline some of the issues that arose during the year and some of the submissions DPA made.

Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care) Bill 2001

This Bill went before a parliamentary select committee in 2001 with a number of very contentious items. It proposed that there could be compulsory detention and treatment (under extremely restrictive conditions) of people with intellectual disabilities (adults and children) whether or not they had committed an offence, on the grounds that people thought they might be a danger to themselves or to others.

After strong and concerted lobbying, the select committee removed the non-offender population from the Bill. Since then the Ministry of Health has made a number of improvements to services for people with intellectual disabilities. The Bill is still waiting for its third reading.

Though the concept of risk and / or harm was removed from the Bill it re-emerged in a form covering a huge range of disabled people in a discussion paper by the Law Society, who proposed inserting the concept into another piece of legislation (see the following section).

Protecting intellectually disadvantaged from self-harm

Early in 2002 Minister for the Law Commission, Hon Margaret Wilson, asked the Commission to draft a report on possible additions to the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act (P3 Act) that would enlarge its coverage. The additions would cover powers of compulsion of "intellectually disadvantaged" (sic) individuals for whom self-harm is perceived (by others) to be a concern. DPA felt this was an invidious and unnecessary addition to the P3 Act with neither adequate justification nor reasonable underpinnings and we opposed the proposal.

Moving Forward on transport

A good, safe and sustainable transport system is fundamental to the well being of all people with disabilities. So when the government last year started talking about changes to land transport, Bill Wrightson, now DPA president, drafted DPA's position in a comprehensive paper to the Ministry of Transport. The submission highlighted our concern that any new transport strategy had to include disabled people, and that the rights of disabled people to access and use all transport forms was enshrined under the Human Rights Act 1993. DPA also put forward the case that:

public transport must be accessible
routes connecting building, public space and transport systems must be accessible
access to passenger services must be consistent around the country.

Subsequently, a $227 million land transport package, Moving Forward, was announced on 28 February 2002 with the stated aim of ensuring crucial roading projects proceeded, while also emphasising the government's social, economic and environmental priorities.

Review of the Code of Banking Practice

DPA, working with Wellington member Ron Entwisle, provided advice to the independent adjudicator reviewing of the Code of Banking Practice in March 2002 for the Bankers Association. This advice was well received. Eight weeks after we made our submission DPA was contacted by ASB's head office. The ASB Bank had begun a review of its policies and practices to see how these might be made more accessible to disabled people. We sent them a copy of our submission and they planned to contact us as they implemented changes if they needed further assistance.

Home based services

Early in 2002 proposed changes to the contracting arrangements for home-based disability support services in the Manawatu-Wanganui area by the Ministry of Health caused a large amount of dissatisfaction among service users. DPA became involved and developed some suggestions for the Health Ministry on how they might respond to the issue and approach matters in the future. DPA suggested a number of immediate and longer term approaches, based on principles of respect, service-user autonomy, consultation and transparency.

Local elections 2001

In March 2002 the justice and electoral select committee conducted a review of the country's local body elections held the previous year. DPA was asked to comment to the select committee about the voting barriers that disabled people experience. We identified areas related to attitudes, access (in the widest sense) and support as being of particular significance.

Draft ACC Code of Claimants Rights

At the beginning of 2002 a preliminary Code of Claimants Rights produced by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) was substantially criticised on a number of points by key stakeholders at a workshop ACC organised. A draft version that went out for public consultation made some attempt to address those concerns, but there were portions that undermined the basic concept of rights by using qualifiers. For example, DPA was extremely concerned about right 5, where sign language interpreters were to be provided only "where necessary and reasonably practicable". We said this was unacceptable.

Tertiary education review

In 2000 the government began a process of developing a new strategic direction for New Zealand's tertiary education system with the appointment of the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission (TEAC). TEAC provided advice to government on how the future tertiary system could operate. In four reports to Ministers TEAC proposed a new vision for the tertiary system and a various mechanisms to help achieve that vision.

The package of reforms is meant to lead to a more connected and collaborative tertiary education sector, world-class excellence in areas important to New Zealand's economic and social development, greater specialisation of investment, and less duplication of effort.

However, DPA and Achieve, the national advocacy group for students with disabilities, were concerned that this tertiary education review took no account of the legitimate concerns and requirements of disabled tertiary students. DPA executive committee member, Victoria Manning, compiled a submission for Achieve pointing out that the tertiary strategy had little in it for tertiary students with disabilities. Subsequently, Minister for Disability Issues, Hon Ruth Dyson, wrote to Minister for Tertiary Education, Hon Steve Maharey, supporting the points Achieve's submission made.

Meanwhile, the Tertiary Education Reform Bill was reported back by the education and science select committee to the House on 20 May 2002 and its second reading was completed on the last sitting day of the parliamentary session. The Bill was included in the carry-forward motion and was to be set down for the committee of the whole House once Parliament resumed in the new session, after the 2002 general election.

Health of Older People Strategy

DPA responded to the Ministry of Health's draft strategy on the health of older people in November 2001 with considerable concern, notably to do with the focus on socio-economic issues and the re-medicalisation of younger disabled people mixed inappropriately with older people. We believed the strategy needed to be re-worked, that there was need for (non-medical) workforce development, we had serious concerns about assessment and the lack of demonstrable linkages with the Disability Strategy.

Our concerns were echoed in a separate submission from the Wellington Public Health Forum, in which Wellington DPA's Frances Acey was involved. We believed the strategy showed disturbing issues for disabled people in who are currently over 65 years; and also for the considerable number of disabled people in the "baby-boom" grouping who are approaching 65 years. We found the lack of inclusion of disability and the re-medicalisation of the strategy worrying.

Health and safety in employment

The transport and industrial relations parliamentary select committee considered new legislation relating to health and safety in employment, the Health and Safety In Employment Amendment Bill 2001 introduced on 31 October 2001. DPA supported the general tenor of this Bill, in particular the explicit recognition of stress and fatigue as a workplace issue and the inclusion of volunteers within the Bill's coverage.

The Bill amended the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 to prevent harm to employees at work. The terms "harm" and "hazard" were extended to cover mental harm and hazards arising through physical and mental fatigue; "place of work" was amended to include vehicles; people working on ships and aircraft were covered; a volunteer and an employee "loaned" by an employer to another person were both given protection by treating them as employees for the purposes of the principal Act; and a place of work includes a place where a person is working in a transitory sense. Penalties were also increased.

Women's Health Strategy

The Ministry of Women's Affairs produced a draft report on Status of Women In New Zealand and DPA provided commentary on that in February 2002. We found the draft disappointingly problematic and inadequate in conflating disability with health, and for ignoring socio-economic rights issues for disabled women.

DPA made other submissions during the year, sometimes both in writing and in presentations, to the:

Ministry of Health (10 July 2001) on the Health and Disability Services (Safety) Bill Auditor Fees.
Land Transport Safety Authority (31 August 2001) on a Vehicle Safety Consultation Paper, that contained miscellaneous safety proposals by the LTSA including seat belt and air bags.
Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee (31 August 2001) on the Minimum Wage Amendment.
Justice and Electoral Select Committee (28 September 2001) on the Human Rights Amendment Bill.
State Services Commission (1 November 2001) on the On-Line Authentication Project, prepared with the assistance of Robyn Hunt.
Department of Internal Affairs (8 November 2001) on a review of Building Act, prepared with the assistance of Bill Wrightson.
Social Services Select Committee (22 November 2001) on the Social Workers Registration Bill, where DPA recommended that a code for competency assessments be inserted into the act and the code be developed in consultation with disabled persons.
Social Services Select Committee (22 November 2001) on the Commissioner for Children Bill.
Finance and Expenditure Select Committee (4 February 2002) Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Genetically Modified Organisms) Amendment (HSNO) Bill.
Health Workforce Advisory Committee (HWAC) (February 2002) on a draft chapter in the HWAC stocktake document when we made a number of suggestions and envisaged further work.
Review of Building Act (January 2002) commentary on a Ministry of Health submission to this review. DPA was one of the organisations asked to comment on their draft submission.
Health and Disability Consumer Advocacy Service (4 March 2002) on its revised Health and Disability Consumer Advocacy Guidelines. The Health and Disability Commissioner Act provides that these are reviewed every three years.

More from the 2002 Annual Report

Index Vision, Mission, Philosophy Acknowledgements President's Report Chief Executive's Report National Executive Goal 1: Lead 2001 AGM Photos Relay Service Rally Photos Goal 2: Advise Goal 3: Empower Goal 4: Monitor Goal 5: Community Obituaries Financial Statements

For previous reports contact gen@dpa.org.nz.

DPA New Zealand