Former Paralympian Barney Koneferenisi says the Government is looking for low cost investment in small business. Photo / Supplied
Former Paralympian Barney Koneferenisi says the Government is looking for low cost investment in small business. Photo / Supplied
Small business owners living with disability have slammed what they call the Government’s lack of support for the community.
Last month Whaikaha, the Ministry of Disabled People, announced a procurement fund “inviting local organisations committed to working with disabled people, tāngata whaikaha Māori, Pacific people and their whānau/aiga to respond toa request for proposals (RFP)”.
Priyanca Radhakrishnan announced last month a $1 million boost for the disability community.
“This additional funding supports the expansion of a regional disability leadership model successfully piloted in Waikato, MidCentral and Christchurch,” Radhakrishnan said.
“The initial focus will be making sure affected regions are equipped with networks to provide a strong local voice for disabled people in the recovery.”
Radhakrishnan said, “Having leadership groups in communities will ensure that disabled people and their whānau can exercise leadership and have greater choice over the services and supports available to them. These networks will work directly with the likes of local government, schools, and hospitals.”
Former Paralympian Barney Koneferenisi said any funding for disabled people is hard to access. Although the fund is not set up to support startups or small businesses, members of the community said more funding should be allocated for people with disability in business.
Koneferenisi is raising funds for a fully accessible rideshare service which he says has not been eligible for funding.
Rejected by tech-innovation agency Callaghan Innovation, the Lottery Commission, Waka Kotahi, national disability workforce agency Te Pou, and even Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni, Koneferenisi said Whaikaha’s response wasn’t much better.
Whaikaha told Koneferenisi that his business may not be eligible for the fund as procurement processes are different from grants because they involve a purchasing agreement between a successful respondent to the tender and the buyer, in this case Whaikaha.”
They continued: “This tender is to purchase goods or services that will help us foster and develop localities of disabled leaders.”
Like private investors, Koneferenisi said the Government invests in low-cost, low-liability services.
So far Koneferenisi has raised $58,230 of his $150,000 goal. Almost $3000 of this will go to the crowdfunding company.
“If I didn’t have to pay the fee, I would have enough to pay my developers,” he said.
“The current economy is not fit for individuals with disability, and employers don’t want to hire people with disability,” he added.
He said he got the idea for a fully accessible rideshare service to fill gaps that Uber did not.
“Uber Assist only uses hybrid [vehicles], so it’s just people with folding wheelchairs, guide dogs, elderly or just anyone that needs any sort of extra assistance,” Koneferenisi said.
Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Minister for Disabilities. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“It leaves individuals that have larger wheelchairs that can’t fold, people that can’t transfer out of their wheelchairs due to spinal cord injury or cerebral palsy,” he said.
Koneferenisi said limited transport options confines these individuals to their homes.
While taxi operators offer flexible services, he said these are generally booked during peak hours for school runs. While public transport is a good option, he said “most train stations are bloody inaccessible”.
Koneferenisi told Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni about his business after competing in 2020′s Tokyo Paralympics. He said Sepuloni’s office referred him to Waka Kotahi’s innovation fund.
According to the transport agency, the innovation fund is designed to “support private sector innovators and create an environment that encourages greater collaboration to seek solutions for [transport] challenges”.
Waka Kōtahi told Koneferenisi his application was rejected because its total score across the assessment criteria was not high enough.
Small business owner Rachel Peterson said there are definitely gaps for disabled people in business.
“To the best of my understanding, there’s no funding or support packages for disabled people with startups,” Peterson said.
Peterson is a wheelchair user and mum of two. She founded the gift box company Moments With Love with her daughter.
“We’ve just closed the retail store in Orewa. We got hit with floods twice and couldn’t get insurance [to cover it],” Peterson said.
With Cyclone Gabrielle strking the store on Valentine’s Day, their biggest earning day of the year, and an upcoming surgery, Peterson said closing the store was the best option for her business.
Rachel Peterson started a small business with her daughter Molly to create accessible employment. Photo / Supplied
“Because we’re a family business, this surgery means my kids are going to be helping me through rehab from the surgery. We thought running a retail store would be too much on top of that,” Peterson said.
She said managing a small business is challenging for anyone with many owners struggling with issues like rental properties.
“There isn’t much legal protection for small businesses,” Peterson said.
In getting a business loan, Peterson said there was a lot of pushback because she had a disability.
“I can’t get income protection insurance because I have a pre-existing disability. All this stuff I wasn’t surprised about but another woman in my position with my skills wouldn’t have had the same questions asked of them and wouldn’t have had those barriers.”
She said companies can view disability as a liability for investment.
“If you’re going to be running a business and your wheelchair breaks, it can put you $2000 down if you have to shut up shop for a few days,” she said.
She said there should be better funding for small business owners living with disabilities because they are less likely to be in employment at any given time.
Stats NZ found employment for people living with disability over 15 years old was at 25 per cent compared with 71 per cent for non-disabled individuals in the June 2022 quarter.
It also found people living with disability have lower incomes on average.
Median weekly income from wages and salaries for people with disability was $960 compared to $1,193 for non-disabled individuals.
“A lot of people are very skilled, creative and able to work for themselves,” Peterson said.
Recently appointed Minister for Disability Issues Priyanca Radhakrishnan was approached for comment but transferred the query to the Office for Disability Issues, under the Ministry for Disabled People.
Office for Disability Issues director Brian Coffey said: “The request for the procurement process is an opportunity for some more communities to develop disability leadership groups.”
He added: “The procurement information reflects what we have heard from the disability community. That is, that respondents to the procurement should already be demonstrating within their organisation a commitment to disability leadership.”
Coffey said Whaikaha is a very new ministry and will introduce new opportunities.
“This funding is a first step. Our initial priority is to ensure the regions affected by the recent extreme weather events are equipped with disability leadership networks to provide a local voice for disabled people as we recover,” Coffey said.
Coffey acknowledged the procurement process is not fully accessible but genuine efforts were made to raise awareness of this initiative within the disability community”.
