'Cultural insensitivity': Disability advocates to protest over nondisabled person leading set-up of new Ministry for Disabled People
Friday, 11 February 2022
Disability advocates are set to protest over a nondisabled person being appointed the director of the establishment unit for the new Ministry for Disabled People, calling the appointment “cultural insensitivity”.
In December 2021, senior government official Justine Cornwall was named executive director of the establishment unit. Appointed by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), Cornwall has a combination of lived experience as whānau whaikaha (belonging to a family with disabled members), and a background in disability policy and the establishment of new government entities.
Disability advocates say the role should have been filled by a person with disabilities. They’re concerned it could set a precedent, so they’re prepared to act now to ensure it doesn’t.
Pam MacNeill is totally blind; she’s a senior disability advocate and founder of Disabled Leadership Now (DLN). She says the protest is a chance for disabled people to “vent their feelings, and then be able to come up with some really good ideas, ways forward and next steps”.
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“If we don’t say something now, the chances of having nondisabled people running the Ministry once it is established are very, very high indeed. I think it’s critical that we lead and manage our own sector.”
There are plenty of disabled people with both lived-experience and the capability to run the new Ministry, MacNeill says.
“We are really well-educated and have good employment records. And for those of us who do have good employment records and good education, they’re not easily obtained. They were hard won, they were won through barrier after barrier being put up in our way,” she says.
“It’s not like anyone has given us a hospital pass. So I think it makes us very well qualified to be managing and leading our own sector.”
But MacNeill says it’s nothing personal towards Cornwall herself.
“She’s probably a lovely person,” says MacNeill. “I feel bloody sorry for her, because no matter how many times I and others say we are not picking on her as a person, she’s no doubt going to feel that way, and I’m really sorry for that because that is not the intention.”
“Unfortunately she’s got caught up in all of this, so MSD need to come to the party and talk to us about how this can be remedied.”
Ministry of Social Development’s (MSD) deputy chief executive of people and capability Stephen Crombie said in a statement on Friday: “We have been listening to the concerns that have been raised about the establishment unit.
“The establishment unit and its director will be guided and supported by the Community Steering Group made up of disabled people and whānau,” he said.
“Justine Cornwall was considered the most appropriate person to be appointed to the Director role by a recruitment panel comprised of agency, disabled community and tāngata whaikaha Māori representatives.”
MacNeill hasn’t been contacted and says she doesn’t know of any advocates who have spoken to the steering group, Cornwall or MSD.
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Jonathan Mosen is a leader at DLN and is totally blind. He says the appointment of a nondisabled person as the director of the establishment unit for the new Ministry for Disabled People “reeks of cultural insensitivity”.
“There’s something really wrong with the culture in New Zealand when it comes to disability,” said Mosen.
“Because this is not just about this particular situation. In so many organisations we do not see disabled people in senior leadership roles.”
The protest rally, which will take place on February 13, will be hosted on Zoom so disabled people around Aotearoa can attend. The event will be New Zealand Sign Language-interpreted and there will be automatic captions on the stream.
The rally will include video presentations from members of Disabled Leadership Now (DLN), which is a group of disabled volunteers who want to ensure the community will lead its own Ministry.
MacNeill says by the end of the rally, the collective disabled community will have a very clear about what they want from the MSD.
“What we would like is to be able to sit down with senior ministry officials and actually talk to them about how we can at least resolve this as far as we can.
“We keep hearing things like ‘nothing about us, without us’ but [MSD] go off and do everything about us, without us … and we are sick of hearing that we are at the centre of all other people do for us, well actually we want to lead and manage our own sector.”
In January, Cornwall told Stuff in a written statement the establishment unit is only operating for a “time-limited period”. It’s laying early groundwork for the setting up of the new Ministry, and for the incoming new chief executive of the Ministry once they are appointed.
Cornwall says the establishment unit will be implementing “a range of measures to support all staff to participate fully”. This includes access to suitable parking, flexible working arrangements including working from home and remotely, enabling people to work part-time and providing the equipment required to support everyone to work effectively.
The protest is being held on Sunday at 3pm over Zoom. Members of the disability community can register on the DLN website.