Connection for the Deaf - Associate Minister of Communications Speech

Good afternoon and thank you Mike for your introduction.

It's exciting to be at this opening ceremony for the New Zealand Relay service. I know that this event is the culmination of the efforts of many people associated with the Deaf community, some of whom have worked for many years to see this through. Right at the outset, I'd like to warmly thank the members of the Relay Service Reference Group and the Textphone Advisory Panel for their excellent work in assisting with planning the relay service and the textphone pool.

I'd in particular like to thank Victoria Manning and Kim Robinson who have devoted a great deal of time and effort over a number of years to building support for introducing a relay service. My colleague Ruth Dyson has also been a steadfast champion of the need for a relay service.

I can't think of a better way to celebrate the diversity of our community than by making sure that the advantages of telecommunications are available to everybody. It is a great pleasure to me personally, as Associate Minister of Communications, that we now have in place technology to overcome what was a "digital divide" between those who had access to instant two-way communication and those who did not.

This relay service is going to make a real difference to many people.

It will make a real difference to hearing impaired parents who want to find out more about their child's progress from the teacher.

It will make a real difference to the "hearies" - parents, friends, teachers, bosses, employees – who want or need to contact Deaf people instantly.

And, most of all, it will make a real difference to the Deaf community itself, offering them the same opportunities and benefits that telecommunications technology affords the rest of us. Ironically the work of Alexander Graham Bell in the 1870s to discover a way to help Deaf people communicate led to the invention of the telephone, but it was not until the 1980s that a relay service for the Deaf was first introduced anywhere in the world.

Being able to make and receive telephone calls is something most of us take for granted. For the Deaf community it means independence - no longer having to rely on family and friends to make calls for them because they haven't got suitable telephone access. It also means inclusion and greater participation in the community around them – it is hard to be involved without being part of a network of personal contacts and most of us have come to rely on "telephone trees" of one sort or another.

For those who have been Deaf from birth, the process of making telephone calls will likely be a whole new and, I hope, wonderful experience.

And that raises an issue. Why this service? Why not give everyone a mobile phone? Why not wait until everyone has access to the Internet? Why not wait until we have video phones? Those are all good questions and ones that have been carefully considered.

Firstly, we weren't going to wait – the Deaf community has waited long enough.

Secondly, although many Deaf people do use text messaging and email, this does not deliver the real-time communication of a telephone service and it involves an additional cost. We felt strongly that this service should be as close to the standard telephone service as is practical. It should be instantaneous, interactive and widely available.

And that is just what we have got. The relay service means that anybody can use an ordinary telephone to call a Deaf person – there is no need for the hearing caller to have any special equipment.

We want every person to be able to participate and contribute fully. In today's "Information Society", that means everybody must have access to basic telecommunications. Ultimately an economy cannot grow to the fullest extent possible in an environment where people are deprived of basic telecommunication services. The ability to harness the productive capacity of all our people is acutely important at this time of labour shortages in so many areas of the economy.

The relay service has been established as a Telecommunications Service Obligation or TSO with funding through a levy on liable telecommunications service providers. The TSO framework enables services to be made available to meet needs that are neglected by commercial offerings in the marketplace. It's a way of "rounding off" the sharp edges of the free market. The TSO framework promotes inclusiveness through facilitating affordable access to basic telecommunications services.

Under the TSO framework the telecommunications industry bears most of the cost of the relay service. However, set against the size of the telecommunications industry, this cost is not a burdensome amount, especially when it will make such a difference to the lives of many hundreds of Deaf and hearing impaired New Zealanders.

Although the telecommunications industry had some apprehension initially towards establishing a relay service, my MED officials have worked very hard to enlist their cooperation and I am pleased that, in the end, the industry has rallied to establish this important service. The introduction of the relay service actually presents the telecommunications industry with a new business opportunity – it can now supply services to a group of consumers who have been largely shut out of the telecommunications market.

Sprint is to be commended for establishing the relay system in a relatively short period. I know my officials have appreciated the professionalism and enthusiasm of the Sprint-Counties Power team.

Gaz Maroof has been instrumental in developing the concept of how the relay service would operate in New Zealand. I also personally want to acknowledge Neil Simmonds, chief executive of Counties Power, who bought into Gaz's vision and sourced the best relay service provider – Sprint. The work of these two companies means New Zealand service users have the confidence of an internationally proven system with the comfort of a familiar kiwi interface.

We all look forward to a world class relay service drawing on Sprint's technologies and expertise in this field. I would also like to acknowledge the endeavours of Paul Buckrell in coordinating the various organisations and agencies involved with implementing the relay service.

My congratulations to everybody who has contributed to the relay system going live today. I encourage all those people who would benefit from the relay service to take the opportunity to make use of it.

Thank you.

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