Presentations

About the Presentations

Most of our presenters did not prepare a written presentation, so we have mostly given just a very brief summary here of what they talked about. Some presentations have copies you can download or read in detail. Some content is adapted from the December 2006 edition of DPA NZ’s newsletter “DPA Bites”, which you can read in full at: http://www.dpa.org.nz/publications/bites/2006/december.html

Unless stated otherwise, copyright of presentations remains with the presenter.

Ruth Dyson, Minister of Labour and Disability Issues

The Minister opened our conference on Friday evening. Her full speech is available from the Beehive website:

http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=27938

As well as mentioning specific initiatives like the United Nations convention, the Sign Language Act and the Office for Disability Issues’ new Nominations Service, the Minister had this to say about collaboration and DPA’s role:

“We are starting to see good and enduring changes, but it takes time to turn around a century and more of discrimination and disadvantage…

“It is only by working together in government and in communities around the country, that we will get change happening. A lot of the initiative and momentum we have now is the result of many people's action over many years.

I want to acknowledge here the cross-sector contribution to issues for disabled people that is made by DPA and I want to congratulate you on your dedication and resolve to advocate for disabled people.

I appreciate the leadership that DPA has provided, along with other organisations in this sector, in getting an increased visibility for disabled people. Although the sector is varied, there is much that disabled people have in common.”

Mike Gourley, Chair of Conference

DPA’s National President Mike Gourley welcomed attendees to Friday evening's conference opening and to Saturday's Allies for Action session.

Dick Hubbard, Mayor of Auckland City

Mayor Dick Hubbard welcomed attendees to his City and outlined his goal of building its social infrastructure. “Building the social capacity of the city is as important as the four Rs (roads, rates, rubbish and recreation) of physical capacity-building,” he said. “It's not easy but doesn't cost as much as a stadium.”

Mr Hubbard described a recent trip with the Council's strategic disability adviser, Minnie Baragwanath. “Minnie took me out into the back streets of Newmarket and Queens Street with a blindfold so I couldn't see,” he said. “I learned how important those yellow knobbly things are at pedestrian crossings.”

“If we're not open to the changing world of social needs, we run the risk of being left behind,” he summed up. “The trick is to predict the future and work with local authorities to make New Zealand a better place for everyone, including yourselves.”

Sacha Dylan, Auckland District Health Board

Member of the Auckland DHB Disability Advisory Committee, Sacha Dylan spoke briefly about the Board’s local role on behalf of Board member Barry De Geest who was unable to attend.

Sacha noted that to improve outcomes for disabled people, Councils and District Health Boards are very important players in every community for us to engage with.

“We’re fortunate that Auckland DHB is taking a strong leadership position about disability, and that they are working closely with Auckland City Council.”

Mark Bagshaw, IBM

Australian disability advocate and senior manager with IBM Australia, Mark Bagshaw talked about taking a practical and more business-like approach to disability reform.

“For the last 25 years, people with disabilities have been trying to get a very simple message across,” said Mark Bagshaw, Conference keynote speaker and Australia/New Zealand director of accessibility for the multi-national firm IBM. “If everybody had to deal with the issues we do, then nobody would get anything done.”

Mark described himself as being involved in disability reform “for as long as Al Gore has been involved in climate change”. Like Gore, he somewhat naively expected 25 years ago that simply laying out the compelling evidence would be enough to get people and organisations to change.

“It's taken nearly a quarter of a century, but finally they have,” he said. “Did you know it's now not possible to purchase a new high-floor bus? They're just not made any more.”

Mark described the business logic of making services more accessible. “In New York, they get an extra 27,000 trips per week from people with disabilities using accessible public transport. Even though they had to be forced by the Supreme Court to do it - it's just so obvious now.”

Mark led the conference through some calculations about the under-employment of disabled New Zealanders, and again emphasised the logic of challenging that.

“Ninety-five percent of working age New Zealanders with disabilities could be working, but the workforce participation rate of people with disabilities is only 30 percent. That's a huge cost to welfare - think how much less it would cost to give them work opportunities.”

“New Zealand is short of skilled workers by 60-70,000. Research shows that the employment cost of a disabled employee is less than that of an ordinary worker.”

“This is a change agenda, not just tweaking,” he concluded. “Disability reform is the most important economic and social change faced by society - and the most achievable.”

Lester Levy, NZ Leadership Institute

Leadership expert Lester Levy delivered an inspirational and engaging presentation about the true meaning of leadership, with a key message that “our society is grossly over-managed and under-led.”

Anne Hawker, RI

Influential disabled leader Anne Hawker spoke of disability politics on the international stage. In becoming the first woman president of Rehabilitation International and its first disabled president, New Zealand's Anne Hawker has broken through a number of barriers. But she says there's still much to be done at global level.

“New Zealand did provide important leadership in achieving the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People,” she told the Conference. “The inclusion of people with disabilities in our delegation was a significant part of that. We must keep the goal in front of us, not our own self-aggrandisement. There is a risk our being used as puppets.”

“We also have to be realistic in our tactics. The disability caucus involved in the negotiations learned political skills and maturity. It needed to be humble, moving from ’these are our demands’ to realistic negotiation. At the same time, there is the risk of the caucus being driven by non-disabled people especially those with access to funds.”

Anne noted however that the DPA motto had traveled overseas. “'Nothing about us without us' has been adopted at international level,” she said.

Chris Blum, NZ Relay

Manager of the New Zealand Relay Service, Chris Blum, outlined how the service helps communication with and by Deaf, hearing-impaired and speech-impaired New Zealanders. Chris was later seen dancing up a storm with the Pacific dancers as part of the evening gala dinner.

Minnie Baragwanath & Sacha Dylan – The Way Forward

Strategic Disability Advisors for Auckland and Waitakere City Councils and co-founders of The Point Network, Minnie and Sacha sketched some future directions from the collaborative approach highlighted by both the Leading Change Together conference and the Unleashing Innovation forum.