Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People chief executive Paula Tesoriero Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The 2023 Household Disability Survey found 62 percent of disabled people - or 506,000 - had at least one unmet need.
So what will Whaikaha - the Ministry of Disabled People - do about it?
Whaikaha chief executive Paula Tesoriero told Nine to Noon it was concerning to know disabled people continued to fare worse than non-disabled people across many life outcomes. "At the end of the day, disabled people want the same as non-disabled people in life," she said.
"What's really important is how we now use the information to help change those outcomes.
"So having the information is one thing, and it's really important, but it's now what we do."
However, Tesoriero said an unmet need was not necessarily due to a lack of funding, as that had "in part been addressed" by the $1.1 billion investment in the last Budget.
"Much of the unmet need relates to other areas.
"So our role at Whaikaha is to work right across government to help drive some of that change... It takes all of us to change these stats. It takes central government, local government, business, employers, community, families, because actually some of the things that were identified where disabled people were having difficulty were things like making friends at school, taking part in sports at school, being included in activities - and there were high levels of bullying at school. There were people feeling discriminated across aspects of life. Those are things that we've all got a role to help change. So I think a broader conversation is important."
Tesoriero added that the New Zealand Disability Strategy, which guides the work of government agencies on disability issues, was required to be refreshed this year. It has not been updated in 10 years.
"This strategy allows us an opportunity to look at what are the concrete actions that can be taken across government to respond to the sorts of challenges that have come through in this survey.
"10 years ago... we didn't know much of the information we now really understand about the disabled population. We now have a number of surveys, like the Household Labour Force Survey, the New Zealand Health Survey, Crime and Victim Survey, that actually never called out the experiences of disabled people, and now they do.
"The other thing is, we do now have a ministry, and disabled people advocated for decades to have an organisation that could work across government and outside of government to drive change, and that's what I'm committed to doing."
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