ACT New Zealand

We wrote to each of the registered political parties ahead of the 2011 General Election to ask about their policies on issues affecting blind and partially sighted people. We received the following response from ACT.

Election questions for blind and partially sighted New Zealanders

On behalf of Hon John Boscawen, thank you very much for giving the ACT Party the opportunity to address the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind. Please find ACT's responses below:

Question 1

New Zealand has committed to ensuring that blind and partially sighted people experience the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms. What measures would your party put in place to ensure that New Zealand's commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are implemented?

Response: ACT believes that education is the key to ensuring the rights of all New Zealanders, whether their differences are with regard to eyesight, ethnicity, or economic background, to live in an inclusive society. ACT recognises that disability is an evolving concept and that the key issues around disabilities result from the interaction between those with disabilities and barriers both attitudinal and environmental that hinder their full participation in society on an equal basis with others.

ACT supports systems where the funding for education and healthcare follows the consumer – moving away from the one-size-fits-all state-mandated system which sees so many young people with disabilities left out and excluded. If this is the way our children are raised how can they be expected to be inclusive as adults? The move to an inclusive society begins at school.

Question 2

The rebuild of Christchurch provides an opportunity to create an inclusive city that is fully accessible to everyone. What policy would you implement to ensure that blind and partially sighted people are fully consulted and included in the Christchurch recovery?

Response: ACT believes that the key to creating an inclusive city in Christchurch is to drastically reform the Resource Management Act (RMA). The RMA has generated many absurdities where property owners are constrained in how they can use and develop their land. In the urban setting, councils have adopted plans under the RMA, which have restricted the supply of buildable land and dramatically pushed up the price of sections.  New Zealand now has some of the most unaffordable housing in the English speaking world. To create an inclusive and accessible city to the blind and partially sighted, we should make it affordable for them to live there, to purchase homes, and to allow businesses to adapt to the communities that are created around them.

Question 3

The Welfare Working Group suggested increasing work expectations for blind and partially sighted New Zealanders, as well as increasing supports for them to find work. How will you ensure that disabled New Zealanders are not disadvantaged by any changes to the welfare system?

Response: It is often the case that individuals and families are the first support network for blind and partially sighted New Zealanders. ACT sees the continuation and support of this as vital; families know their loved ones far better than the state or other agencies.

ACT supports a system of funding following the user and where people save towards funding their own education and healthcare. This would take place under a system where there is a much lower tax burden, where people keep more of their money. This places the decision in the hands of the users and their families – they can fund the treatment, the specialists, the schools, or the carers however they choose. It would allow the families the choice of their local public school or a specialised school – depending on what they feel is best for their child. This system is far better for the people in need of care rather than the one-size-fits-few monopoly of the state system.

Question 4

Blind and partially sighted New Zealanders cannot drive, and often face barriers to using the public transport that they rely on. How would you ensure adequate access to public transport for blind and partially sighted people?

Response: ACT recognises that adequate access to public transport can be difficult for blind and partially sighted people, especially outside the main centres. ACT would support work to improve access for people living with impairments to all forms of passenger transport including ensuring any passenger rail services purchased with government funding provide access for all people with impairments. ACT would encourage competition between public transport providers. This inevitably leads to the sovereignty of the consumer, providing accessibility would be an enviable point of difference. ACT would support encouraging business-owners to provide education to their staff with regards to dealing with blind and partially sighted New Zealanders in an inclusive and supportive manner.

Question 5

Success for All, the Government's response to the 2009 Review of Special Education, identified a need to improve our schools' ability to include disabled students. How would you ensure blind and partially sighted students are fully included in education?

Response: The ACT policy of funding following the child allows for greater competition in the education sector. Our current state-mandated education model often funnels blind and partially sighted children into specialised schools even when they can thrive in any school given the appropriate care – with the funding following the child, the schools will have the resources to fund carers/tutors to come to their school.

Providing choice in education is the most effective way of solving the iniquities in the current system. When the Government makes all the decisions, many people miss out. When people choose for themselves they can direct their money to the areas they recognise are best for them.

Question 6

Less than 5% of printed information is available in formats that blind people can read. In New Zealand, the main barriers include limited Government funding for accessible format producers like the RNZFB, low uptake of web accessibility standards, and international copyright barriers that prevent importing of braille and other accessible books from overseas. How would your party increase access to information for blind and partially sighted New Zealanders?

Response: Access to information is the key to the digital age we currently live in. It is also one acutely aligned with the blind and partially sighted community. With our policy of funding following the child, ACT supports the use in education of speech-to-text and other computer programmes targeted to the blind and partially sighted.   Government is not the leader in technological advances. Most of the time it’s not even a fast follower. ACT would support the removal of barriers to access for information such as those which prevent importing of braille and other accessible books from overseas.

Question 7

New Zealand has committed to the World Health Organization's VISION 2020 goal to eliminate avoidable blindness in New Zealand by 2020, but has not implemented a specific plan or budget to ensure this goal is met. What measures and policies will you put in place to work with the eye health and disability sector to eliminate avoidable blindness in New Zealand by 2020?

Response: The New Zealand health system suffers from a severe productivity problem.  Despite huge increases in funding from successive governments, we are actually getting less efficient. Between 1999 and 2008, health funding more than doubled in real terms yet the outputs from our medical facilities did not keep pace with this funding increase.

ACT believes that increasing competition between the public and private sectors will have the greatest effect on the delivery of services to New Zealanders.  It puts the power in the hands of the consumer.  Likewise our commitment to reducing back-room bureaucracy to allow more resources on the front line will give the medical workforce more time to focus on medicine rather than paperwork. This will lead to an increase in both services to the public and to research.