Disability

Lucy Daniel is the Advocacy and Policy Officer at CBM Australia, a development organisation working with people with disabilities in the world’s poorest places.

It could be the plot of a great Hollywood movie. A political drama. With George Clooney or Matt Damon as male lead. And a young, feisty, female journalist who gets caught up in it all.

The opening scene pans to a meeting room, high up in skyscraper land, with a marble round table, iced water jugs and leaders of a big global development Bank.

“Gentlemen, you should be proud,” says the silver fox, “This policy forges the path to education for the poorest of the poor.” Clapping and shaking hands all around.

Continue reading "In poverty, disability means stigma & exclusion" »

If elected PM, Tony Abbott told the National Press Club the other day, “I will spend at least a week every year in a remote indigenous community, because if these places are good enough for Australians to live in, they should be good enough for a PM and senior officials to stay in”.

What intrigues me about this pledge is the contrast it poses with Tony Abbott’s reaction when I invited him last year to spend just one day out of his entire life with an Australian with severe disabilities.

Last May, with both major political parties then beginning to consider their responses to the Productivity Commission’s call for a National Disability Insurance Scheme, it seemed to me – both as a journalist and the mother of a son with severe disabilities – that it would be helpful for various key federal decision-makers to actually spend some face time with a severely disabled Australian.

Continue reading "Come on, Mr Abbott - walk a mile in our shoes" »

Sue O’Reilly, who has guest written today’s column on The Angry Cripple is a freelance journalist. She co-founded Australians Mad as Hell last year with Fiona Porter to campaign for an NDIS and established a charity called Fighting Chance to help people with disabilities pay for essential therapy services.

Bill Moss was one of the highest paid business executives in Australian corporate history when he worked for Macquarie Bank, prior to his retirement in 2007 on health grounds.

As head of the bank’s real estate and banking division, Moss built - literally from scratch - an international real estate and funds management business that spanned five continents, created thousands of jobs and made billions for the bank’s investors, shareholders and, through tax payments, federal Treasury coffers.

So really, all Australians are pretty fortunate that the slowly degenerative physical disability with which this razor-sharp businessman was born - a form of muscular dystrophy known as FSHD - happened not to become overly evident (to others at least) until Moss was in his early 40s and had already established his credentials.

Continue reading "The heroic banker crusading to employ the disabled" »

Thanks to an ageing population, Australia is facing a budget black hole. We must cut social spending to plug the gap and more Australians need to move from welfare into work, tax expert Greg Smith told this week’s Tax Forum.

But as the media and welfare lobby were quick to point out, unemployment is relatively low by world standards. The dole is already lean and mean, leaving little room for cuts.

Instead, reforms should focus on a much more intractable issue: Disability Support Pension.

Continue reading "We must crack down on the Disability Support Pension" »

Imagine this: A report finds without a shadow of doubt that the standard of schools in Australia are drastically below par. In fact, the first sentence of such a report suggests the nation’s schools are under-funded, under-resourced and under-valued.

The Government releases the report and says: “We know there is a problem, but we can’t do anything about it right now, because we can’t afford it. But don’t worry, we’ll do something in the next seven years, promise!” Every parent with school age children would be up in arms. Teachers would march on Parliament House in a riot. Principals would call it an outrage. It would make frontpage news. Certainly no one would welcome the Government’s “contribution” to the debate by finally recognising there was a problem.

Yet when the Productivity Commission released its report into Disability Support Services last month this was exactly what happened. Granted, not all were happy with the seven year timeline, but the great majority were satisfied that at least “something” was happening in the way of disability policy.

Continue reading "Doing “something” about disability isn’t doing enough" »

There has been a fair bit of media coverage in the last few weeks around the education of children with disabilities. The latest round concerned the reporting of another discrimination case against the Victorian Department of Education (DoE) by a young woman with a learning disability and a language disorder.

Fifty years ago, there was little expectation that people with disabilities would gain functional literacy and numeracy skills.

However, these days, with what we know, all that is required is best practice programs, the attention of the relevant professionals, and intensive structured teaching. All apparently beyond the abilities of the DoE.

Continue reading "Disability education mess a throwback to Victorian times" »

Oscar Pistorius is a 400m runner who won a silver medal last week at the World Athletics Championships, with his approved set of carbon fibre prosthetic legs.

Terence Parkin won a silver medal in 200m breaststroke at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Sekou Kanneh is an Australian eleven-year-old aspiring Olympic sprinter, running competitively in both the 100m and 200m events.

Continue reading "Starting gun shooting blanks for disabled sports champs" »

Having a punt on the gallopers is a great Australian pastime. But even on a losing streak, all most of us have at stake is money.

The men, and increasingly women, who keep the industry going by saddling up at racetracks across the country day-in and day-out are gambling with much more.

Today is National Jockeys Celebration Day, the one day on the national racing calendar that is all about those people who risk their lives on the track.

Continue reading "You punt with a fiver, jockeys gamble with their lives" »

You might have heard all the hoo-haa last week about the NDIS, or national Disability Insurance Scheme.

In simple terms, it’s like a Medicare for disability. Not many of us use an ICU, but we all pay quite happily, through Medicare, and should the need arise, ICU care is just an ambulance ride away. Disability care and support isn’t that “neat”.

Currently, if you have a broken neck, are incontinent, need a wheelchair and an adapted vehicle, live in NSW and you acquired your disability in a car smash, your personal care support needs will be, for the most part, covered. As will your physio, speech and occupational therapy, your continence supplies (and the personal help you need for bowel and bladder care), someone to give you a shower each day, and even your wheelchair will be supplied, generally in a reasonable timeframe.

Continue reading "Disability insurance scheme: I’ll believe it when I see it" »

Today’s Angry Cripple column was inspired by Christine Bigby’s ABC Ramp Up column that argued the success of the National Insurance Disability Scheme depends on the type and quality of support and disability services available for purchase. The author is Max Jackson (full bio below).

Mahatma Gandhi, one of the twentieth century’s greatest freedom fighters, once said of freedom, and I quote: “Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

As emphasised by Gandhi, freedom is a right. However, despite Gandhi’s pronouncement all those decades ago, freedom as a right represents a shadowy illusion on the outer circle of disability rights.

Continue reading "Don’t pigeonhole the disabled on housing options" »

Imagine if there was a minority group in society that was less likely to finish school, less likely to get a job, was paid less on average, and faced a level of unthinking prejudice that meant they were not even able to enter some shops and public buildings.

That minority exists. They are the 800,000 Australians under 65 with a physical or intellectual disability. The lives they lead are shaped by both the misunderstandings of the general community, and the chronic lack of services and support they face.

Things are better than they were, we’ve moved away from the days of institutionalisation and there are now more options for people with disability.

Continue reading "Don’t let Australians fall through the cracks" »

Well, we’ve been spared a flashy arrival in a huge fibreglass egg and a dress made entirely of animal flesh, but Lady Gaga hasn’t failed to make some waves while she’s been in town.

On Wednesday night she performed for an adoring crowd of her ‘little monsters’ at Sydney Town Hall. It was all quite sedate, for a Gaga-gig. A flesh-coloured bedazzled onesie and an aqua wig was a flashy costume, sure, but it was no meat dress.

And then, there it was. The lady herself, resplendent in a black vinyl mermaid tail, emerged from backstage as only one with their legs bound together in a somewhat restrictive costume could; in a wheelchair.

Continue reading "I reckon Lady Gaga was wheelie, wheelie awesome" »

Carl Thompson is a 21-year-old with cerebral palsy and scoliosis who is undertaking honours in marketing. He writes for ABC’s Ramp Up, DiVine Victoria and blogs here.

My right hand was yanked from my wheelchair control stick by a serious looking plastic surgeon.

“He has severely deformed hands,” she remarked, as an older gentleman professor reeking of poorly concealed cigarettes grabbed my left hand and agreed, “yes, he indeed has a pronounced deformity.” Boy, I’m glad they got the pleasantries out of the way.

Yeah, I get it. Surgeons want to talk about surgery, not chat about the weather over tea and biscuits. They have limited time available to spend with their prospective patients, and normally I wouldn’t mind. I suck at small talk - I’m scared of appointments at the hairdresser. But even I expect some warmth to be shown by the surgeon.

Continue reading "Hey Doc, I’ve got a name and I’m not bloody stupid" »

Recent news reports have highlighted the apparent difficulties in securing convictions where a person living with intellectual disability has been the victim of an alleged sexual assault.

Some alleged assaults take place where people are receiving care.  This warrants closer examination, given the reasonable expectation that human services are meant to reduce risk of harm, not add to it. 

Also, the greater the degree of disability a person lives with, the more likely it is the person will be living in a formal service arrangement, sharing with other people living with similar degrees of disability and served by staff.

Continue reading "We are herding people into dangerous situations" »

This week The Punch features two Angry Cripples, both anonymous. It’s fair to say they have somewhat opposing points of view to say the least. We recommend reading this one first.

I am an angry cripple. No, I do not have a disability, but as the mother of a young woman with severe and multiple disabilities, I am as crippled by the cruel Australian disability support system as much as – and sometimes more than - many people with a disability themselves.

I have been the sole primary carer of my daughter since my divorce more than 20 years ago, with the result that - like hundreds of thousands of other sole primary carers - I subsist on the poverty line.

During the global financial crisis, when the government was throwing cash at families earning up to $110,000 a year and the widescreen TVs and handbags were rolling out shop doors, I looked at my life, my old and decrepit furniture, my second hand clothes and all the things about my health and life that desperately need work but which I have not been able to attend to because of lack of support services and/or my inability to pay.

Continue reading "Punch: If you think disability is bad, try full-time caring" »

And now, here’s this week’s second anonymous Angry Cripple, who as you’ll see, is none too impressed with the first one

I am an angry cripple. A real one. Not someone who claims they are “crippled by the system” or gets all euphemistic about it.

I’m an actual cripple. I use a wheelchair for 98 per cent of my waking life. I have physical ‘deformities’, or so the medical profession has told me since I was old enough to understand. I’m one of those people you see on the street that makes you shift uncomfortably in your coat. I’m stared at, I’m patronised, I’m told I don’t belong among you normal people.

But none of these things are the reason that I’m angry. I’m an Angry Cripple today because, usually, I’m a Proud Cripple. I’m well practiced at ignoring the stares, at challenging the patronising tone, at standing my ground in a world that doesn’t welcome me. I’m not alone. We’re a pretty common breed us Proud Cripples. Sometimes people like to call us activists.

Continue reading "Counterpunch: You belittle us, and mock our pride" »

Sue O’Reilly, who has guest written today’s column on The Angry Cripple is a freelance journalist and the mother of a 21-year-old son with cerebral palsy. She co-founded Australians Mad as Hell last year with Fiona Porter to campaign for an NDIS and established a charity called Fighting Chance to help people with disabilities pay for essential therapy services.

Q: What do disability reform campaigners have to do to persuade Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott to spend some time talking to actual people with severe disabilities and family carers, prior to making a landmark decision on disability reform later this year that will directly affect the lives of several million Australians every day for decades to come?

A:  Raise at least $31,200, obtain tickets for the federal parliamentary press gallery’s exclusive annual mid-winter ball, and then bid at an auction for a few hours of our political leaders’ precious time.

Yes indeed. Seems if you’ve got enough money, then getting Julia Gillard’s or Tony Abbott’s attention is not that seemingly impossible a task.

Continue reading "Julia and Tony should spend a few years in a wheelchair" »

A couple of South Australian politicians were featured in the paper this weekend, parking their government cars in very clearly marked disabled parking spaces. The photos were published and, judging by the comments on The Advertiser’s website, people were really, really angry that a pollie would do such a heinous thing.

The MPs were suitably reprimanded by public opinion, and the Dignity for Disability MLC, the Hon Kelly Vincent, who uses a wheelchair herself, demanded that they each cough up the equivalent of the fine to a disability related charity, which they did, heads hanging low. They admitted their shameful and embarrassing “crime” and no doubt, no other MP in South Australia at least, will park in a disabled space without a permit for a very long time. But how can people who truly need those spaces get that message through to the “ablebods”?

I put a call out for a contribution to this column about disabled parking spaces and received stories from Nicola Stratford and Kate Jenian, over the jump, this week’s piece of angry. Their stories are not unusual. They do remind us, however, that stupidity and arrogance are not disabilities which qualify for a disability parking permit.

Continue reading "What bastard would park in a disabled space?" »

This week’s Angry Cripple column is from a contributor who is ‘mired in the disability muck’.

Last week, I went to enrol my nearly five year old girl into school.

There’s only one state school in my town, and the private boarding school, at $30K/annum is well beyond my budget, so Tamthiliya State School it has to be. The website looked great, and the vision statement said it all “Respect, Tolerance and Learning”. All in all, I was looking forward to her starting at Tamthiliya Primary. I’ve always assumed that schoolkids were well taken care of here, but I guess I was misinformed.

Continue reading "They tied her to a chair and fed her drugs" »

This week’s Angry Cripple column is brought to you by the letter S. Simon McKeon is the 2011 Australian of the Year, part-time executive chairman of Macquarie Group, philanthropist, volunteer, father of four, internationally acclaimed competitive sailor, and has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

The time has come for a National Disability Insurance Scheme.

The time has come for major reform in the way services to Australians with disabilities are funded and delivered; not only to enhance the basic human rights of people with disabilities but to greatly enhance the level of participation in the economy by people with disabilities, their families and carers. 

Continue reading "Disability reform: For some it’s already too late" »

Carl Thompson is a 21-year-old with cerebral palsy and scoliosis who is undertaking honours in marketing. He writes for ABC’s Ramp Up, DiVine Victoria and blogs here.

We in Australia always follow the English. This makes sense, I suppose, from a historical viewpoint as many of us are descendants of convicts from the mother country.

We share many cultural similarities; most TV broadcast in Australia on the ABC is British. We both sensibly drive on the left hand side of the road, and the beautiful game of cricket is the national sport in both countries.

We have a penchant for chips (not fries), kebabs and curries, as do the English. And finally, our political systems and structures are also quite similar - we even share the same Queen.

Continue reading "I’m not a dole bludger, I just want to work" »

Given the vigorous responses to last week’s column by Sue O’Reilly, when The Angry Cripple heard that Todd Winther was writing a response to run on the ABC’s Ramp Up website, the AC asked him if we could run it too. The Punch is running his column under Todd’s own byline rather than the Angry Cripple’s byline for reasons that will become clear.

Does it matter if the Angry Cripple is actually a cripple or not? You bet it does.

Others tell people with disabilities what their best interests are too often. For all of their good intentions, the people who look after us are the ones who do it the most. This is why The Angry Cripple’s identity is important. If he/she is a carer, then the column is doing itself no favours, and merely adding to the chorus of carers who already have their say in the mainstream media. If however, The Angry Cripple is disabled it represents an opportunity for a too often neglected voice to enter the mainstream.

Continue reading "Carers: Step off and let people with disabilities speak" »

Sue O’Reilly, who has guest written today’s column on The Angry Cripple is a freelance journalist and the mother of a 21-year-old son with cerebral palsy. She co-founded Australians Mad as Hell last year with Fiona Porter to campaign for an NDIS and established a charity called Fighting Chance to help people with disabilities pay for essential therapy services.

The president of South Australia’s Council on Intellectual Disabilities recently stated that all people with disabilities have “a right to live in an ordinary home in an ordinary street”.

But what if some people with disabilities don’t want to live in “an ordinary house in an ordinary street”?

What if they want to live in something like the manicured villages that have sprung up everywhere for people over 55, or an apartment complex with 24/7 care facilities?

Continue reading "Disability advocates ignoring what’s best for disabled" »

Most Australian media like to run the “Crippled Orphan Boy overcomes Headlessness to Swim the Murray for Charity” or “Wheelchair Bound (yuck) Woman Speaks to Schoolkids about Dangers of Drunk Driving” kinds of stories.

They are not often actually inspiring to me. Mostly, they make me feel as though people with disabilities are to be routinely pitied, and awarded if they do anything more than get out of bed in the morning.

There was, however, one guy doing the rounds last week who was a little different. Nick Vujicic, a 28-year-old Brisbane bloke who is a Minister and motivational speaker, and he’s got no arms or legs, just a kind of a foot that sticks out from one hip. This guy’s ‘can do’ attitude is almost sickening.

Continue reading "The Angry Cripple goes out on a limb" »

hy·poc·ri·sy (h-pkr-s) n. pl. hy·poc·ri·sies

1. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

2. An act or instance of such falseness.

Continue reading "How do you spell hypocrisy?" »

Sue O’Reilly, who has guest written today’s column on The Angry Cripple is a freelance journalist and the mother of a 21-year-old son with cerebral palsy. She co-founded Australians Mad as Hell last year with Fiona Porter to campaign for an NDIS and established a charity called Fighting Chance to help people with disabilities pay for essential therapy services.

The other day, amid all the reactions to the Productivity Commission report recommending a radical new national disability care and support scheme, a reader of this column made what struck me as a
most intriguing comment.

Somebody calling him/herself NEFFA wrote: “Why don’t you all move to Cambodia and see how much government support you get there? Sometimes you need perspective to understand just how good you have it.”

Personally, I can see the appeal of this notion for all those many Aussies who fail to understand why their hard-earned dollars should help fund decent care and support services for fellow citizens with profound disabilities and their families.  Put all us whingers and ingrates on rickety boats and push us off to sea, heading north! Problem solved.

Continue reading "The worst of both worlds" »

There’s the Business Council, a deaf guy, a guy with autism, and a quadriplegic at a café filled with people with disabilities. The Government walks into the room with a fresh homemade apple pie cut into twelve pieces, the scent making everyone salivate with desire.

So the Business Council takes eleven slices, leans down to the guy in the wheelchair and says “Watch out, that bloke with autism wants a piece of your pie”.

The deaf guy, of course, doesn’t hear, so he licks the crumbs off the floor, because that’s all that’s left, while the Productivity Commission walks in, full of enthusiasm and ready to get baking the best pie ever.

Continue reading "Slicing up that ol’ disability pie" »

The Productivity Commission has released its draft report on a National Disability Insurance Scheme. The Commission has found that the current system is “underfunded, unfair, fragmented and inefficient, and gives people with a disability little choice and no certainty of access to appropriate supports.”

The draft report recommends a new Scheme, funded directly out of consolidated revenue, or the use of a tax levy as a “second-best option.”

The Commission will continue to examine the proposal in coming months and issue a final report in July. The draft is an important contribution to the national discussion about disability, especially for around 360,000 people with severe lifetime disability. It deserves close attention, predicated on a belief that comprehensive assistance for those people who require lifetime care and support for catastrophic injuries is an important national objective. Having seen my parents-in-law cope with a son disabled from birth, I know first-hand the emotional, financial and family challenges involved.

Continue reading "Disability services need more than another empty promise" »

Last week, The Punch introduced you to The Angry Cripple, a new anonymous contributor. This week, AC explains that despite the complaints of some, s/he will remain anonymous, and reveals the source of the name.

I’m angry for good reason. I’ve used the word cripple for good reason. And I’m anonymous because I have to be…

Whatever I write, some will agree and others will disagree. Some will be downright nasty. I read on another forum that if I turn out not to be a person who uses a wheelchair, there will be blood.

So, my anonymity will remain. It doesn’t matter who I am. I could be a parent or carer of a person with a disability, a deaf-blind actor, a teacher at a special school, a student with MS, or a person with a severed spinal column.

So get over it. There are plenty of more important things to worry about.

Continue reading "Cripples have many (many) reasons to be angry" »

Welcome to The Angry Cripple. Not very PC, is it?

As a person with a deep and personal interest in disability issues, I’m remaining anonymous so I can post not only my opinions, leaked documents and stuff that might otherwise get me in trouble, but also the opinions of other people with an interest. There will be guest columns by famous Australians, as well as ones written by my neighbours.

But mostly, the columns will feature me writing about things that make me angry, and why I reckon they should make you angry, too.

Continue reading "Yeah, maybe we SHOULD rethink disability spending" »

We must rebuild for everyone

I visited a woman recently who - for the last three years - has only left her house once a week. Not because she doesn’t want to, but because she can’t.

Ruth - not her real name - uses an electric wheelchair, and has almost no vision. She lives in public housing and - through a decision driven by crass and uncaring bureaucracy - has been placed in a house which has three steps at the front, and six at the back. She has been provided with a portable ramp, which she cannot put in place without assistance.

Continue reading "Don’t forget the disabled in flood reconstruction" »

As you read this, you’re probably not giving much thought to the activity itself. 

Everyday pastimes like reading the newspaper or catching up with the latest news and views on The Punch we tend to take for granted. 

But just take a second to think what impact it would have on your life if, for some reason, you were no longer able to indulge in these simple pleasures.  What would you miss out on?

Continue reading "Opening your eyes to the value of sight" »

A cash giveaway to millions of pensioners last year has triggered an outbreak of crook backs. The nation has for years watched on as a growing army of pensioned-off disabled workers, many of them dispirited middle-aged blokes, has emerged. 

But it can now be revealed the Rudd Government’s generosity on September 20, 2009 in giving Australians on the Age Pension and Disability Support Pensions a one-off pay rise of to $65 a fortnight had the unintended result of adding tens of thousands of new recruits to the army disabled workers.

Centrelink documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal how in the six months after the pay rise a further 43,117 new Disabled Support Pensioners joined the ranks. In October alone, in the weeks after the pension pay boost, 8,615 applicants were approved.

Continue reading "Another 43,117 Aussies are suddenly disabled" »

The American architect, Philip Johnson, once said “all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space.”

A trip to the State Library in Melbourne bears testament to that. The glorious reading room, which at the time of its construction boasted one of the largest domes in Christendom, manages to exalt the entranced tourist while cuddle the engrossed researcher all at once.

Yet it is hard to feel cuddled by a building if you cannot get into it. And for millions of Australians with a disability the state of our public built environment prevents them entering or using the bathroom let alone feel stimulated or exalted by the wonder of the architecture.

Continue reading "Why great buildings need ways in and out for everyone" »

God is capricious, arbitrary and callous when it comes to inflicting tragic disabilities on his/her creatures.

The question is whether our community is willing to come alongside the victims and their carers and make things better, or whether we, like God, could care less.

In a wealthy community such as ours, there is no excuse for leaving those with life-long serious debilitation to do-it-yourself, hand-to-mouth, care plans.

Continue reading "Dignified disability scheme is paramount" »

Yesterday was personally one of the toughest days I have had since I was elected to the Senate. It ended with me confronting a demon which I have lived with for 48 years.

That demon is that I have a specific learning disability, which means I’m not always the best public speaker or speller.

This is something which I don’t like talking about as it cuts pretty deep. I don’t want people to feel sorry for me; rather I more want people to understand who I am and how you can still be successful even if you have problems articulating yourself.

Continue reading "Lost for words: my secret battle with language" »

Christian Senator Steven Fielding is copping a day of derision after he tried to clarify his position on fiscal policy with a read-my-lips clanger. Asked this morning whether he’d in fact said “physical” when he meant “fiscal” the Family First Senator spelt it out: “I will make it quite clear…F..I..S..K..A..L.”

His disastrous impromptu spelling bee drew giggles from the press pack and a wave of ridicule across the digital space with punters declaring him more idiot than idiot savant.

But Fielding’s explanation as to how the gaffe happened - where he revealed a lifelong learning difficulty - is worth thinking about. He told Fairfax Radio that he only got 29 out of 100 for English, but 99 out of 100 for maths, and studied both engineering and an MBA at uni.

Continue reading "Fiscal impediment may mask a beautiful mind" »