The Wellington Deaf Association held its election forum last night.  It was an interesting evening.   The questions focused around some key issues for the deaf community- in particular the availability of interpreters, educational and employment opportunities and captioning on television broadcasting.  

Labour has worked closely with the deaf community over our term in government, with the major highlight being the passing of the New Zealand Sign Language Bill.  We have begun seeing some positive  results in terms of government agencies using sign language in terms of promotional material, but there is a long way to go.  A key area to look at next is how we can see more use of sign language by government agencies, in hospitals and at a local government level.   We also need to keep working on increasing the supply of interpreters.  At the moment there are 26 government scholarships available for the course at AUT, and hopefully there will be more to come.

It was clear that  captioning on TV was a major issue for those who attended.  This is an area where the TVNZ Charter could be used to see an improvement on the 20% of programmes that are currently captioned.  A harder area is the captioning of programmes on private television.  A possible option is a code of practice similar to that used for the playing of New Zealand music on commercial radio, which has proved so successful.

The only disappointing part of the evening was the no show from the National Party.   It was obvious that the community members present would have liked to have heard their perspective.  For my part I was keen to hear what Stephen Franks would have to say.  As an ACT MP he opposed the Sign Language Bill for some odd reasons.  He does not seem to appreciate the importance for members of the deaf community that their language has some official recognition.  The people he describes as a ‘privileged minority’, look and sound to me like a community standing up for itself and seeking the support and conditions so that they can make a full contribution to our society.

Alas, without Stephen or the National Party present, we did not get any further insight on his position, and the community are left with the impression that National is not concerned for them.   For my part I am committed as Wellington Central MP to stand up for the diverse communities of this city, and to provide support so that they can fulfil their potential.