The Law Association’s Mental Health and Disability Law Committee has lodged a submission on the Disability Support Services Bill, which is currently before select committee.
The bill addresses the legal framework for paying family carers of disabled people, following the Supreme Court’s ruling last year in Fleming v Attorney-General. That case, which ran through the courts for five years, confirmed that family carers are entitled to fair pay. The bill establishes a new funding regime in response.
The committee supports providing legislative clarity on issues affecting disabled people and their carers. However, the submission identifies several concerns about how the bill will operate in its current form.
On legal rights, the bill would remove family carers’ ability to bring employment claims to the Employment Relations Authority or the Employment Court. It also bars certain complaints to the Human Rights Commission and the Health and Disability Commissioner. The bill’s own disclosure statement acknowledges it engages rights under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
On legislative clarity, key aspects of the funding scheme are left to ministerial programmes and directions rather than set out in the legislation itself. The bill also does not define which Minister or Ministry it refers to in its interpretation section. The committee’s view is that for legislation whose stated purpose is to give disabled people and their families certainty, this approach achieves the opposite.
On the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act, the submission raises concerns about provisions that validate existing employment arrangements regardless of whether the disabled person had the legal capacity to enter into them. The committee questions who will conduct capacity assessments and how the presumption of capacity will be safeguarded in practice.
The committee also notes that no external consultation took place before the bill was introduced, and that no information about the bill was made available in New Zealand Sign Language or easy-read format during the select committee process.
The Law Association is set to appear before the select committee for an oral submission. The full submission is available on the Law Association website.
The full submission is available here – 2026-06-12-The-Law-Association-Submission-on-Disability-Support-Services-Bill
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