Nothing was done to address the needs of Persons with Disabilities before the FijiFirst Government came into power.

Minister for Transport Faiyaz Koya made the statement in Parliament yesterday, while contributing to the debate on the review of the performance audit on the access for persons with disabilities to public offices and public transport.

Mr Koya said people with hearing impairments could not access information readily available to the public before.

This was made possible by the FijiFirst government, he said adding that government announcements and Parliament broadcasts are now televised live with sign language interpretations.

“There’s no use jumping on the bandwagon because when you (Opposition) were on this side of the house you never did anything,” Mr Koya said.

“Disabilities have been around since time immemorial. Nobody did anything about it then, its being done now by this government.”

Fiji’s constitution

Acting Prime Minister and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said for the first time Fiji’s Constitution specifically recognises the rights of persons with disabilities and it is translated into the Braille language.

He said that government paid out about $9 million in disability allowance last year.

Standing Committee

In his recommendation, Chairperson for the Standing Committee on Public Accounts Alvick Maharaj said the National Council for Persons with Disabilities should work more closely with LTA and the Department of Transport to have a better working knowledge and understanding of the 2015 legislative amendments to the LTA Regulations on PSV issues on access for persons with disabilities.

In the Fiji Bureau of Statistics 2017 Population and Housing Census, out of 884,887 people enumerated, 829,907 were above the age of 3 years old with 113,595 people reported to have had at least one functioning challenge.

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