We didn't vote for this

This National-led attack on disabled people and families must stop

The actions of this government are hurting disabled people and their families.

Emily Writes

details the full list of harm in her post here:

This government won't stop attacking disabled people

We need this government’s attacks to stop.

Awhi Ngā Mātua

have created a campaign that highlights the challenges facing parents of disabled children:

Did you vote for this?

The full “independent report” into Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People has some worrying comments. Not only were ZERO disabled people organisations spoken to by the three reviewers, but they also utterly ignored families, charities, and carers engaging in on-the-ground everyday work.

Buried in the concluding comments was a direct attack on Enabling Good Lives as a disability support system:

the Reviewers are uncomfortable about the continued operation of the NASC-based system of needs assessment, allocation, and service provision, alongside three longstanding EGL trials. This needs to be addressed. The continuing coexistence of these two very different forms of DSS is confusing and muddled, and results in inequities in the services and support being provided to clients. The EGL principles are, in our view, worth giving effect to, but a revised approach needs to be developed.

This is deeply concerning.

Disabled people and families have been clear about what they need and want for over a decade. There have been multiple reviews and papers. There are substantive documents that clearly describe what disabled people and families require. The UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People (UNCRPD), the Abuse in State Care Royal Commission of Inquiry Reports, the NZ National Disability Strategy, the current Waitangi Tribunal Claims, and Enabling Good Lives all describe in detail what works for disabled people and families.

Not only is what we want well described but how this can happen in practice has been co-developed in the three EGL sites and in the high-level design process.

Disabled people and their families don’t need to describe what they want. They need to experience the change they have already described.

And yet, the Minister for Disability Issues just said today that “access to disability support services is an unfair postcode lottery based on where someone lives, not their level of need.”

Once again, this is a direct attack on Enabling Good Lives as a systems-level support. The Minister’s statement misrepresents the rationale for why there are EGL sites; the concept was never to exclude anyone.

we’ve already said what we want, yet disability supports remain labyrinthine

The purpose of having three EGL sites was to co-develop ideas, monitor outcomes, and learn. Limiting system change to three sites was to provide the chance for real partnership and understanding to happen before system change was expanded throughout the country. It was always intended for the pilots/demonstration sites to inform national change.

These EGL prototypes have fulfilled their function. We know what to do and we know how to do it. People report better lives.

This National-led government has failed to live up to their end of the bargain - system change expanded throughout Aotearoa New Zealand so that all disabled people and families benefit from the new and better way of doing things.   

Mealy mouthed promises of yet more consultation simply isn’t good enough.

This government must stop the funding cuts to the disability sector

This government must protect and adequately fund Enabling Good Lives

This government must ensure adequate respite and support for family carers

The government must stop making decisions without talking to the disabled community

The government must uphold what disabled people have already said they want and need

Nothing about us without us.

#DidntVote4Dis #NotInMyNameNZ #PleaseStopTheAttacks #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs

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