On Saturday 15 August, demonstrations are scheduled in
eight centres as part of a grassroots National Day of Action
to Stop the DSS Bill.
Auckland / Tāmaki
Makaurau | Britomart Train Station, 12A Queen
Street — 12.00 pm
Hamilton / Kirikiriroa
| Civic Square, – 2pm
Tauranga | Te Ngaio Reserve — 12.00 pm;
march to Mount Drury
New Plymouth /
Ngāmotu | Puke Ariki, 65 St Aubyn Street — 12.00
pm
Palmerston North / Te Papa-i-Oea |
Square i-SITE, The Square, City Centre — 12.00
pm
Dunedin / Ōtepoti | Meridian
Mall, 285 George Street — 11.00 am
Whakatāne | Outside MP Dana
Kirkpatrick’s office, 73 The Strand — 12.00 pm
Christchurch / Ōtautahi | Bridge of
Remembrance — 1.00 pm
Today, Parliament’s Social
Services and Community Committee reported back on the
Disability Support Services Bill. The organisers say
the Select Committee changed some words, but it did
not fix the fundamental harm in the DSS
Bill.
The DSS Bill is the Government’s
attempt to undo the Supreme Court’s recognition that
family care is real work. It lets the Crown
deny being an employer, blocks carers’ employment and
discrimination claims, and declares care beyond funded hours
is not work. This is not disability support; it is the
Government protecting itself from the true cost of care.
Family carers are not free labour.
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The Bill still
makes disabled people’s support dependent on available
government funding and Ministerial rules, rather than
recognising adequate support as a right. It
still allows income and asset testing. It still assumes
families and whānau will provide care, regardless of
exhaustion, safety, poverty or choice.
There is still
no independent appeal when essential
support is denied or reduced. No guarantee that support will
continue during a dispute. No proper safeguarding
system. No enforceable commitment to Te Tiriti o
Waitangi, Enabling Good Lives or the UN Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The Bill lets the
Minister choose who to consult and says
that failing to consult does not invalidate a programme.
That is not “Nothing About Us Without
Us.”
Disabled people are not budget risks. Whānau
are not free labour. Care is work. Consultation without
power is not
participation.
