Total Mobility: Disabled people lose out in the funding choices being made
The Transport Minister, Chris Bishop, has confirmed that the Total Mobility subsidy is being cut from 75% down to 65%. This is because disabled people are using it and going out and doing things. Ordinary, everyday things like meet-ups with friends, shopping for groceries, and attending health appointments.
The horrors!
How very dare we, as a country, support disabled persons who cannot drive or access public transport to have a cost-effective way to get about the place?!
The Minister is spinning this as “strengthening” Total Mobility, when what they are doing is implementing austerity measures and making it harder to access - and making it so that disabled people get out less. It isn’t “strengthening” anything, other than perhaps Willis’ poorly managed budget which is desperately looking for more cuts to services to justify the millions handed out as tax cuts to the already wealthy.
Scroll down for further reading and links.
What can we do?
Post on your socials. Share this and other Substacks (links below), share the reels tagged #savetotalmobility, make your own reel! Tag in Nick Ruane on Facebook and use the hashtag #savetotalmobility
Write an email! Send to the Transport Minister - C.Bishop@ministers.govt.nz - and to your local MP.
Write a letter to the editor of your local paper.
Comment on the socials about any and all of the points made (above and below).
Read more:
Bernard Hickey spoke with disability advocates Blake Forbes and Nick Ruane earlier this week about their meeting with Transport Minister Chis Bishop:
It’s designed to try to cap the size of Government at 30% of GDP, despite increased costs of ageing and the growing incidence of health issues.
Nick Ruane has written on this topic too:
Total Mobility funding comes from something called the National Land Transport Fund (NTLF), the previous Budget for the NLTF was 7.7B, this funds initiatives such as safety, public transport services and infrastructure, walking and cycling improvements, local road improvements, operations and pothole prevention, and state highway improvements, operations and pothole prevention and investment management.
Conversely, this government allocated $20.5m to Total Mobility in 2024/25. This allocation is, in government terms, a rounding error, compared to the money allocated to land transport & roading activities funded from the NLTF.
What we have is a funding decision driven by the need to find savings, and Roads won out over disabled people.
Read more here:
And Huhana Hickey has written a fabulous piece as well:
Last week I looked at booking a ride, not a luxury trip, not a holiday and not even something optional. I simply needed transport to attend a medical appointment. Like many disabled people, I rely on the Total Mobility scheme because public transport often remains inaccessible, unreliable, or simply non-existent where I live. For many wheelchair users, blind people, Deaf people, those with chronic illness, neurodivergent people, and disabled elders, Total Mobility is not a convenience. It is often the only way to get to work, medical appointments, supermarkets, marae, schools, social events, and whānau. Now the Government has decided disabled people should pay more for that access.
From 1 July 2026, the Total Mobility subsidy will drop from 75 percent to 65 percent. Regional fare caps will also reduce by approximately 10 percent. The Government argues this is necessary because demand has increased and costs have become “unsustainable.” But of course demand increased, that is what happens when people can finally leave their homes and when disabled people are able to attend appointments, jobs, education, and community events because transport became slightly more affordable. The Government is framing increased participation as a financial problem, and that should alarm all of us.
Read more here:
And, lastly, here is a piece I wrote last year about this issue and the ‘consultation’ process:
🤔 It really is such a pitiful cost saving for the govt budget compared to the huge benefits to ensuring the "differently abled" can get to need medical appointments etc, & generally be happy healthy members of society through social connections & living as full a life as can reasonably be expected. 🥹
thanks Bex, and it shows a few of us having conversations, yet I havent seen the ministers out talking to us, as if we are all considered “bottom feeders” by our CEO, oops I mean Prime Minister. There isnt a week that goes by now without a cut to something needed by disabled.