Poto Williams
MP for Christchurch East
Disability Issues Spokesperson

MEDIA STATEMENT

18 August 2016

Government slippery about caption funding

The Government has refused to apologise for taking the credit for funding Olympic Games captioning when the National Foundation for the Deaf was responsible, says Labour’s spokesperson on Disability Issues Poto Williams.

“This shameful act of grandstanding by Ministers Nicky Wagner and Amy Adams was in an official press statement which implied that the Government had funded the captions.

“The fact is that the National Foundation for the Deaf stumped up with $200,000 to provide the captioning for the Rio games. When the Foundation asked for a statement correcting the Government’s claim they refused point blank.

“In the House today the Minister, Nicky Wagner refused to apologise saying she had reviewed the press release and was satisfied it was factually correct.

“What makes this worse is that the Government and other funding agencies have so far refused to step in and fund it.

“The National Foundation for the Deaf had to dip into their own reserves to make these captions happen. They went it alone because they recognise that many deaf Kiwis love the Games and want to celebrate our Olympic successes with the rest of the country,” says Poto Williams.

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