Speech notes for Ruth Dyson, Minister for Disabilities Issues, Celebration of Acceptance of the Roosevelt Award at Government House, Wellington

Rau rangatira maa,

tenei te mihi ki a koutou i runga i te kaupapa o te ra.

Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

 [Distinguished guests, greetings to you gathered here for this purpose today. Greetings once, twice, three times to you all.]

It is my honor to be here with you all, as we celebrate our receipt of the prestigious Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award. I would like to thank His Excellency for hosting this event and for giving us an opportunity to commemorate our achievements in making New Zealand a more accessible and inclusive place.

It seems hardly any time since we announced last December that we’d won the award. And now, we actually have the bust of President Roosevelt that commemorates our success. It has accompanied the Govenor General on his flight from New York, and will now be displayed in a place of honour in the Parliamentary complex.

Next time you’re in Parliament I encourage you to go and see it. It will be a reminder of the work we’ve done to promote and advance the interests of disabled people, as well as being a symbol of the importance of our ongoing efforts towards an inclusive New Zealand.  

Today is a day to applaud our successes. a wide range of New Zealanders, have had a major role to play in getting us to this point.

I’ve been told that for the first time in the history of the Roosevelt Award there was no dispute over which country should receive it. New Zealand stood out as the clear choice – and we should feel proud of that.

The award is a reminder of New Zealand’s commitment to the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It acknowledges the leadership we have shown by following the ‘nothing about us, without us’ principle.  

We have come a long way in the last 10 years. We are one of a small group of countries in the world to have a disability strategy.  Disabled people are now living in the community, not in segregated institutions.  Disabled workers can now expect to receive the same pay and conditions as any other worker, and we’ve taken steps to ensure that our public buildings and public transport grow more useable by all New Zealanders.

There’s no doubting New Zealand is a leader in disability issues. A major reason for this is the incredible range of organisations in New Zealand working for disabled persons.

The Roosevelt Award recognises the vital role such organisations play and, therefore, includes as part of the award a 50,000-US-dollar grant to an outstanding non-government disability group chosen by New Zealand.  We asked for applications for this grant, and in response we received an impressive 24 high-quality applications. I think that is a good indicator of the strength and quality of disability organisations in this country.

I want to congratulate all those organisations that applied - some wonderful projects were proposed. I know that many of you are here today, and I commend you for your achievements and your innovative ideas.

As I am sure you all know, DPA New Zealand, supported by  CCS Disability Action and People First , won the grant. They will use it to promote the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as a major ongoing event in the lives of New Zealanders, and to create a diversity programme, using disabled people as teachers. 

It is great to see disability organisations working together to achieve common goals. It is exactly this sort of cooperation that will keep New Zealand moving towards the vision of our Disability Strategy: a society that disabled people say highly values their lives and continually enhances their full participation .

Mike Gourley, the National President of DPA New Zealand, accompanied the Governor-General to the Award Ceremony in New York, where he picked up the cheque for $50,000 US dollars.  Matt Frost of CCS Disability Action went with him and had an opportunity to also celebrate the coming into force the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

This is another reason for celebrating here today.  Most of you will be aware that New Zealand was a key player in developing the Convention. In March last year, I joined representatives of United Nations member states, along with 330 non-government organisations, at the signing ceremony in New York. This was the culmination of over four years’ hard work by representatives of disability sector organisations and UN member countries.

The new Convention is the first international human rights treaty for 15 years, and the first this century, and it is great to see it come quickly into force so that it can help to make a real difference for disabled people across the world.

The government is keen for New Zealand to ratify the Convention as soon as possible.  But we need our legislation and policies to be consistent with  the Convention before we ratify, so we are in that process now.  I’m keen for this to be done in time for us to ratify this year.

So let's join together in celebrating New Zealand's progress towards achieving a society, and a world, in which all disabled people are and feel highly valued.

My great pleasure to introduce Gary Williams the Chief Executive of DPA to speak.

Thank you.