At the same time, it strips many family carers of the employment status the Supreme Court recognised only months ago, after ruling that they should be treated as Government employees.
As if that were not enough, the Government now says every other caregiving option within a whānau must be exhausted before meaningful state support is provided.
The message is unmistakable: families will carry the burden first, and the Government will step in only when there is nowhere else to turn.
Perhaps the most alarming provision is buried in Schedule 1. Once this bill becomes law, disabled people and their whānau will be barred from taking certain complaints to the Human Rights Commission or the Health and Disability Commissioner.
Mariameno Kapa-Kīngi is the MP for Te Tai Tokerau.
Worse still, complaints that have already been lodged can be shut down before they are ever heard. The Government is deliberately closing the door on vulnerable people yet again.
Te Tai Tokerau has one of the highest disability rates in the country, sitting at 23%. Those are all people and whānau who either care for or work with disabilities. I know that our people can look after our own, but shifting responsibility onto whānau so the Government can step back is wrong.
Our rohe already faces high barriers to healthcare, specialist services and government reach because of our location. This bill asks whānau who are already struggling to carry more with less.
It places whānau and children with disabilities at risk of harm. I had the privilege to listen to the submission of Jane Carrigan, a disability advocate with over a decade of experience in this field. Her frontline work has exposed the reality of suicide for family carers, where 90% have discussed this issue directly with her.
One submitter prompted us as MPs to ask family caregivers whether they felt they could leave their place of work or, in essence, “clock off” for the day. Each time I presented that question, the answers were stark.
For family caregivers, it is a constant 24/7 role that often results in exhaustion, invisibility and guilt. None of that scenario could ever provide an environment that benefits any whānau impacted by this bill. It is the Government’s job to provide support here.
I cannot stress enough the dangers of this bill for our whānau hauā and for the 23% of Te Tai Tokerau who have disabilities.
This bill asks for more from our communities while giving us fewer rights, fewer protections and fewer places to turn.
This is about how Aotearoa treats people with disabilities and those who care for them.
The Government should be judged by how it has chosen to respond to the longstanding issues that exist in the disability sector. I utterly reject this bill and any other of this dangerous nature.
Mariameno Kapa-Kīngi’s career has traversed many paths, each grounded in service to communities with a focus on iwi Māori, hapū, whānau, māmā and wāhine. For Kapa-Kīngi, every decision is guided by mokopuna. Her work is driven by the understanding that actions taken now must ensure future generations will inherit a better situation than the one experienced today.
