Listen Now: 
An advocate for the disabled says while a change to the rules around funding carers is great news for the 640 New Zealanders affected, it's just another band aid and the while system of support for the disabled needs to be reviewed.
The change means parents or spouses of disabled people can get up to $25 an hour for their care.
Huhana Hickey says that still leaves a lot of people without cover.
She says successive governments have failed to tackle the issue of guaranteeing a decent quality of life for the disabled and those with medical disabilities caused by things such as strokes and diabetes.
"Our whanau have been unpaid for so long many of them are in a cycle of poverty and are not achieveing good health outcomes. Why is that? Because we have never been looked at as a group significant enough to have consideration. That is despite the Treaty of Waitangi, Article 2 guaranteeing us that right," Dr Hickey says.
The $32 million over four years the scheme will cost should be contrasted with the $16 million successive governments spent fighting the issue in court.
!["p_facebook"]("/site/uma/images/story_img/facebook.jpg")
& !["p_twitter"]("/site/uma/images/story_img/twitter.jpg")
Copyright © 2019, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
RELATED NEWS
