• 1. Total Mobility.
• 2. Getting there - on foot, by cycle.
• 3. Forum: Research on ageing, future priorities and capabilities.
• 4. Office for Disability Issues website.
• 5. National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS).
• 6. Charities legislation and the Financial Reporting Act.
• 7. Human rights in New Zealand today.
• 8. Review of New Zealand's constitutional arrangements.
• 9. Parliament online.
• 10. Community Sector Taskforce.
• 11. Submissions summary.
• 12. Feedback.

Greetings!

This newsletter is compiled by Greg Morgan, Manager Research and Development. The next newsletter will be released in June.

The newsletter is emailed to Policy Analysis and Information e-mail list subscribers. It is also available on the Telephone Information Service option 311 and on the Foundation website www.rnzfb.org.nz/Media/advocacy.php.

If you would like more information on the topics covered below or would like to see any of the Foundation's submissions, please contact Greg Morgan: Auckland 355-6961; toll free 0800-243-333; e-mail gmorgan; or fax (09) 366-0099. You may write to Greg in print or braille or on cassette at RNZFB, Private Bag 99941, Newmarket, Auckland.

You are very welcome to send Greg information and views that can inform the submissions made by the Foundation. Your views don't have to be formally expressed; ideas in note form are acceptable.

1. Total Mobility.

Phase two of the Total Mobility Review is under way. For more information go to the Ministry of Transport website.

Details of the review have been recorded on to the Telephone Information Service at option at 73.

Foundation staff are attending regional consultation sessions, and the Foundation will also make a written submission to this important review.

Page 2

Written submissions are due on 29 April. Members of the Foundation are welcome to send Greg Morgan ideas for inclusion in the written submission.

The Foundation accepts that the partnership between central and local government which funds the use of taxis under Total Mobility will remain, and that the scheme will continue to be administered by regional councils. However, achieving more consistency in its outcomes is necessary if the scheme is to deliver what users need, i.e. the mobility that enables participation in society and promotes personal independence. The Ministry of Transport consultation document suggests possible improvements to the scheme which will be endorsed by the Foundation. These include:

• a scheme which is nationally consistent and which allows people to use TM outside their home area;
• a 50% fare subsidy standardised throughout New Zealand;
• the scrapping of minimum fares;
• a more flexible mechanism for setting maximum fares and for ensuring that inflation does not erode the distance people can travel under the maximum fare cap;
• scrapping any regional rules limiting TM to travel for specific purposes; and
• more efficient administration systems.

The Foundation will support the evaluation and costing of any potential changes suggested by the Ministry. Financial modelling will highlight the factors that would prevent improvements exceeding TM budgets. Key factors are that TM users must themselves pay towards the cost of every journey and that TM users are overwhelmingly people on lower incomes who cannot afford to use TM extensively. Survey results from phase one of the review showed that most TM users are elderly people who use TM only once or twice per week. Many people entitled to use TM do not use it at all.

However, TM expenditure by central and local government must not simply be spread more thinly so that most TM users end up with a worse scheme. It is likely that a small amount of additional expenditure will be required to improve the scheme throughout New Zealand. The Foundation also believes that administrative improvements are essential to ensure that:

• TM is cheaper to operate;
• there is less risk of fraud;
• users, operators and funding agencies can be certain about the amount charged for a journey;
• users are spared the difficulty of filling in bits of paper;
• users are provided with a convenient ID card; and
• taxi companies are encouraged to install swipe card readers and receipt printers that will be useful for a whole range of commercial transactions.

In small towns, where taxi operators may not even have a PC, a swipe card system may genuinely prove a challenge for the local community of operators and users. Yet Eft-Pos has been installed all over NZ; why not consider modernising the technology that makes TM convenient, safe and affordable to operate? It might be that some benefits of a swipe card system can be

Page 3

achieved by other methods, but the national swipe card system should be explored for its merits.

The Foundation submission will emphasise the need for taxi drivers to receive better training. Contracts with operators would be helpful. Such contracts covering TM services would need to be well publicised, transparent, and readily available to users. The contracts would include clear processes for feedback and complaint. The Foundation will support national guidelines that represent the rights and responsibilities of all parties.

In terms of eligibility and assessment, the Foundation will reiterate the one thing true of all its members: they cannot at any time get in a car and drive themselves to a destination. Foundation membership should continue to be an immediate basis of qualification for TM, and there should be no move to introduce any costly assessment process that would impact on Foundation members.

Initial feedback from Foundation members is that the Ministry of Transport team responsible for the TM review has conduced excellent consultation workshops. Certainly the Foundation welcomes this TM review.

As mentioned above, members are encouraged to send their comments to Greg Morgan. It will be helpful to identify the various reasons individuals do not use TM if it is available in their area. The Foundation's submission will be the stronger for every member who has contributed to it.

2. Getting there - on foot, by cycle.

More information on another Ministry of Transport strategy is at "Getting there - on foot, by cycle" on the Monistry of Transport website

The strategy can be downloaded in Word.

Getting there - on foot, by cycle aims to improve environments for walking and cycling, improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists, and increase the choice of walking and cycling for day-to-day transport. To achieve these goals, it identifies ten priorities for action under four key focus areas. The strategy does refer to the guidelines covering facilities for pedestrians who are blind or vision impaired.

3. Forum: Research on ageing, future priorities and capabilities.

On 25 February the Ministry of Social Development sponsored a forum for researchers, and some of the papers are now online on the Forum: Research on Ageing Future Priorities and Capabilities website.

The aims of the forum were to:

• establish dialogue between government agencies and researchers about key policy areas and research priorities in the area of ageing;
• discuss how to build capability and capacity among groups involved in research on ageing; and
• ensure that there are coordinated multidisciplinary approaches to research on ageing.

Page 4

4. Office for Disability Issues website.

The Office for Disability Issues within the Ministry of Social Development uses its web site to report on actions taken under the Office's work programme for the 2004-2005 business year. Leading policy areas are listed, with links to current activity, background details, and related websites. One of the links is to a summary of New Zealand's involvement in developing the United Nations convention on the rights of disabled people. Visit the work programme web pages.

5. National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS).

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs has awarded contracts to establish two national centres for the development and implementation of a standard electronic file format. The goal is to store materials in a tagged or "marked up" format that will subsequently reduce the time it takes to convert textbooks and other instructional materials into accessible formats such as braille and text-to-speech.

Version 1.0 of the NIMAS standard was developed in 2002-2004 by the National File Format Technical Panel of technology specialists, educators, disability advocates, and publishers. It is based on the DAISY digital talking book specification. See the NIMAS website.

6. Charities legislation and the Financial Reporting Act.

The following comment by Frank Claridge was published in the New Dialogue magazine, February 2005. New Dialogue is published by the New Zealand Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations.

"Reporting and Accountability: Charities legislation and the Financial Reporting Act"

Readers of New Dialogue could be excused for becoming somewhat confused over two recent pieces of legislation or proposed legislation. The first is the Charities Bill, which has had a great deal of exposure since April 2004, and which is currently before Parliament.

The second, the Financial Reporting Act 1993, is currently under review, and has been the subject of two discussion papers - Part I was published in March 2004 and Part II was published in November 2004. As New Dialogue goes to press, submissions on Part II are due to close.

The Financial Reporting Act 1993 creates the framework within which all entities report. It has most direct impact on companies and public entities. Part II discussion document has a detailed section (Chapter VIII) relating to registered charitable entities.

The Charities Act will establish the Charities Commission, and will lay down the requirements for charities to register and file annual returns etc. The Select Committee has recommended considerable changes to the Bill, which can be viewed on the Charities Commission website.

Page 5

Details of the forms to be used and the information to be provided will be in the Charities Regulations, which are still in the process of being drafted, and will go out for some consultation before being finalised. The Charities Act and Regulations are scheduled to be passed and become effective in 2005.

The review of the Financial Reporting Act will not have been completed by then. Currently that Act has little effect on charities. New Zealand has decided that it will adopt International Financial Reporting Standards which will apply to virtually all entities including charities, and the proposed amendments to the Financial Reporting Act will achieve this.

The Part I discussion document attracted many submissions from charities and individuals. As a result, Part II contains considerably amended proposals. It is encouraging to see the extent to which those responsible for the document have noted the various submissions.

The main thrust of the Financial Reporting Act is likely to become the creation of a strengthened Accounting Standards Review Board which will determine generally accepted accounting principles for reporting purposes apply to all organizations which prepare general purpose financial statements.

The Charities Act and Regulations will be amended to determine which registered charities need to report and what they need to report. They will also determine particular requirements for specific types of charities if necessary.

Those charities required to report will then need to do so using generally accepted accounting principles as determined by the ASRB under the Financial Reporting Act and to those standards. In some instances, the specific requirements of the Charities Act and Regulations may require reporting to a higher standard than that contained in the Financial Reporting Act.

The requirements for statements of service performance, or their equivalent, and for financial audits, will be determined in similar fashion.

Charities that have been incorporated under other legislation (Companies Act, Incorporated Societies Act etc) are likely to find that their base legislation will be amended in the future to achieve similar results.

The specific legislation will determine who needs to report and what they need to report, and the Financial Review Act (through the ASRB) will spell out the standards to which they need to report.

This is still a discussion document, and further processes to change the Act will be developed. Readers of New Dialogue must continue to take part in the formulation of this legislation as no one understands the charity sector as well as those who are engaged in it every day.

Page 6

7. Human rights in New Zealand today.

See the Human Rights Commission website for the first comprehensive assessment report of the status of human rights in New Zealand Aotearoa. Section two covers the rights of disabled people.

8. Review of New Zealand's constitutional arrangements.

See the Constitutional Inquiry website.

This review has five key strands to it:

• New Zealand's constitutional development since 1840;
• the key elements in New Zealand's constitutional structure and the relationships between those elements;
• the sources of New Zealand's constitution;
• the processes other countries have followed in undertaking a range of constitutional reforms; and
• the processes which it would be appropriate for New Zealand to follow if significant constitutional reforms were considered in the future.

Electronic submissions are encouraged. The deadline for making a submission is 14 April 2005. For more information consult the website or email: john.thomson@parliament.govt.nz.

9. Parliament online.

Government websites are reporting the development of an all-of-Parliament website and an Electronic Committee pilot. As from January 2006 the Parliamentary website and that maintained by the Office of the Clerk will be combined as a single interface to all Parliamentary services for the public.

The Electronic Committee project seeks to replace dozens of paper-based official documents with online versions and to allow submitters to lodge their submissions electronically. All submissions will be made available to the public on the web, which has already been occurring on a trial basis. The Foundation will follow these developments with great interest and take every opportunity to remind agencies that they must offer downloadable documents in Word or plain text format as well as PDF. Accessible electronic systems are among the ways in which the government can encourage more citizens to take part in government consultations and processes, including elections.

10. Community Sector Taskforce.

The role of the Community Sector Taskforce is to establish a new entity to coordinate and be a focal point for community, voluntary and Tangata Whenua organisations. It will place emphasis on community advocacy and social justice. See the Community Sector Taskforce website.

Panui 3 contains details of the organisation's first AGM in May. Six trustees will be sought, three from Tangata Whenua and three from Tangata Tiriti (or Treaty partners).

Page 7

11. Submissions summary.

In 2005 the Foundation has made formal submissions in the following areas:

Accessible public land transport.

Ageing New Zealand and Health and Disability Services: Demand projections and workforce implications, 2001-2021.

Allied Health Sector Services draft standard.

Environmental Support Services project (Enable and Accessable funding).

Financial Reporting Act 1993 Part 2.

Inquiry into 2004 local authority elections.

National Health Emergency Plan.

Preventing injury from falls, draft strategy.

Reserve Bank of New Zealand "silver" coins review.

Retirement Villages Act draft code of practice.

Telecommunications Act 2001.

Tertiary Education Commission draft strategic plan.

In its submissions the Foundation draws attention to the inequities blind, deafblind, and vision-impaired people continue to experience. Designing places, information and services to be accessible to the Foundation's membership is consistent with the Direction of the New Zealand Disability Strategy. The comment on the Telecommunications Strategy explained the importance of reliable broadband access for the development of services that can give more people access to New Zealand's public information. It also picked up a theme of the draft New Zealand Digital Strategy and the Ministry of Health's discussion document entitled Ageing New Zealand and health and disability services: in the future telecommunications technology will enable new ways to monitor the health of seniors choosing to remain in their own homes and live independently.

Recipients of the policy emails sent by the Foundation are encouraged to make comment on any matters they believe they Foundation should comment on. Forward any ideas to Greg Morgan. See the beginning of this newsletter for his contact details. Also, contact Greg if you would like to obtain a copy of any submission made by the Foundation.

12. Feedback.

Please email gmorgan with any feedback on this newsletter or the emails sent to the RNZFB policy list. Do you feel that the balance of emails and the newsletter is about right, or would you suggest a different approach?