Local Government minister and leader of the ACT party Rodney Hide has been criticised by CCS Disability Action for comments he made on TVNZ’s current affairs show Close Up. Hide recommended that a Christchurch businessman should break the law and not follow accessibility guidelines in building regulations because it was too costly his exact words were “as a minister I can’t recommend breaking the law, but I believe he should.”

This is discriminatory leadership at its worst. Disabled people make up a large proportion of the population in New Zealand, roughly one in five people have a disability, and ignoring the issues and the law around access in this way is unacceptable

Said Viv Maidaborn, CEO of CCS Disability Action in a press release. adding

For a long time building designs have excluded disabled people. Up and down the country there are homes, workplaces, shopping malls and community resources like libraries that are off limits to disabled people because they aren’t accessible

Hide was earlier criticised for the advocating law breaking when his party campaigned on a tough “law and order” platform. The NoRightTurn blog called Hides comments “simply extraordinary.” given that Hide is the minister in charge of the sector responsible for policing the Building Act. Adding that in offering his personal protection for breaking the law Hide was “behaving like a feudal gangster.”

When asked by Stuff.co.nz what changes Hide expected in building regulations under the National government he said “Trust me this thing is going to get a shake up.”