Party policies, simplified: Accessibility

The General Election day is approaching on Saturday November 7. We reached out to political parties National, Labour, Te Pāti Māori, ACT, New Zealand First, the Green Party, and The Opportunity Party with the same questions across housing, transport, disability policy, funding, healthcare, education, employment and accessibility.

We asked them what their parties would do to make Aotearoa more accessible, and what their stance was on New Zealand First’s members' bill, the Accessibility Standards Bill.

One of the key insights from Access Aotearoa’s Kōrero for Change series across 2024-2026 is that accessibility is too often addressed late or inconsistently, or addressed only in response to individual advocacy. For accessibility to change from a matter of chance to deliberate design, Access Aotearoa says there needs to be mandatory standards, clear accountability, and enforcement mechanisms. While all parties expressed support towards making Aotearoa more accessible, Te Pāti Māori, Green Party and New Zealand First were the only parties that had offered solutions through accessibility policy.

Te Pāti Māori will implement the recommendations of the report, Making New Zealand Accessible: A design for effective accessibility legislation. The report proposes a legislative framework that will accelerate Aotearoa towards an accessible future, including an accessibility act and legislated accessibility standards. In a separate announcement, Te Pāti Māori added they intend to make te Reo Rotarota (Māori sign language) an official language in Aotearoa. Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said: “[We] will provide pathways for te [sic] reo Māori speakers to learn Te Reo Rotarota and New Zealand Sign Language.”*

The Green Party will introduce a disability rights law based on Te Tiriti with enforceable accessibility standards covering transport, education, banking, digital access and public infrastructure. In their manifesto, they add that they will “ensure national and local emergency response plans address the needs of disabled people.”*

NZ First did not comment on accessibility policies. However, this year the party introduced a member’s bill: the Accessibility Standards Bill, which aims to establish accessibility standards that remove barriers and improve participation for disabled New Zealanders.*

Te Pāti Māori supports the intent of this bill, and ACT would consider the bill on its merits if introduced before Parliament. ACT says they “support practical changes that remove genuine barriers to participation and independence” and “would focus accessibility policy on measurable outcomes for disabled people rather than assuming that creating additional bureaucracy will necessarily make people’s lives more accessible.”

The Green Party did not offer a stance on this bill, but supports advancing practical legislative reform to “make accessibility simpler” and is “fully committed to developing and implementing enforceable accessibility and/or disability rights legislation that makes accessibility the norm.”

The Labour Party has not determined their position on this bill, but are “open to any constructive engagement over how to best make Aotearoa more accessible.” Their spokesperson says, they have “heard concerns that the bill does not adequately consider the breadth of views within disability communities, including in relation to the definitions used within the bill.” IHC has warned that the bill must be revised to use the UNCRPD definition of disability, because it currently excludes people with intellectual disability as it stands.

The National Party fully supports “designing things disabled people can perceive, use, and understand.” They will continue to “build on” the Access Activator initiative, led by Whaikaha and Creative HQ. The party is “committed to exploring practical ways to improve accessibility for disabled New Zealanders, particularly those solutions which come directly from the disability community.” If reelected, the Disability Minister would continue to take advice from Whaikaha about the best ways to achieve improved accessibility outcomes.

TOP did not respond to our questions.

Responses about past policies, or generic statements without indication of the party's own intention, actions or policies have been excluded.

Summary by party

*indicates policy found outside of questionnaire responses or policy announced after the party’s response was submitted.