Submissions

IHC opposes the repeal of the health sector principles in the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022. Removing these principles would further entrench the systemic health inequities faced by people with intellectual disability, particularly Māori with an intellectual disability.

IHC was concerned that the 'Twenty-Third and Twenty Fourth Periodic Reports of States Parties due 22nd December 2021 New Zealand' only discussed disability in the context of health and did not highlight the most at-risk group of disabled people, being Māori with intellectual disability.

IHC recommends that the Plain Language Act Repeal Bill be voted down and strengthened to have meaningful impact on increasing the accessibility of government documents.

IHC says a fair, consistent and transparent disability support system must be guided by data, person-centred principles and real-world experiences.

IHC supports the Mental Health Act Bill’s shift to include supported decision making and the concept of capacity, with a clear presumption that individuals have the capacity to make decisions about mental health care unless they demonstrably cannot, however we must ensure that disability is not used as a basis to assume a lack of capacity to make mental health decisions.

IHC recommends that the Government ensure that the proposed sentence reduction cap in the Sentencing (Reform) Amendment Bill does not disproportionately disadvantage intellectually disabled New Zealanders.

IHC has concerns about the existing framework for GPs and their role in conducting decision making capacity assessments.

IHC believes that the Bill when enacted has the potential to reduce many of the barriers currently experienced by disabled students.

IHC and IDEA Services say New Zealand must hasten its path to embedding effective and appropriate supported decision-making and ending historic substitute decision-making frameworks.

IHC provides a number of recommendations to strengthen the current Accessibility Bill.