Humanity Platform

 Every third of December I make it my mission to highlight people with disabilities who are winning the game of life as well as highlighting some areas that need further improvement if we are to all be included in today’s society.  2021 was easier than most years to find people with disabilities that are winning at life. Our Australian Paralympic team smashed it at the Tokyo Olympics bringing home more gold for Australia than their able bodied counterparts yet it was only after a protest that the Paralympic athletes that won medals were offered the same compensation.  I was particularly proud of and inspired by, not in the patronising sense: Riley Batt, the captain of the wheelchair rugby team; the amazing Shae Graham, the first Australian woman to make the rugby team; Paige Greco, who dominated the cycling track; and like every Australian team ever, the Paralympics swim team ruled the pool. Let us not forget my favourite para athletes Madison de Rozario and of course Dylan Alcott who

 The COP26 Conference is yet another opportunity for world governments to take meaningful action on global warming.  The Covid 19 pandemic has proven what we can accomplish as a world when we work together.  It is time to put that same energy and effort towards tackling the climate crisis. There are no more excuses.  People can no longer say the problem is too big; if we can come up with a vaccine in record time we can certainly get to Net Zero.  The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) report shows that human activity is the main cause for global warming and has reached such a level that the IPCC has declared it Code Red.  It is time that old fashioned governments predominantly conservative around the world stop playing politics and take a bipartisan approach to the problem. Conservative governments are relying to much on private individuals to fix the problem. It takes all of us.  We need more than just the right headlines. We need policies and actions.  Some leaders say

 With each day that passes, I come to terms with the fact the life is a game of Tetris and my disability does not fit.  Fourteen years ago I began a concerted campaign to build my inner self so no matter how disabled my outside body may be I will never be broken. Using lessons learnt from the Catholic Bible, Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Jack Kornfield, and the 14th Dalai Lama I laid the foundation for a calm yet strong approach to life.  I have now added to this bedrock the wisdom and lessons I have gained from the writings of Ryan Holiday. In particular from his books:  The Obstacle is the Way , Ego is the Enemy , Lives of the Stoics , Stillness is the Key , and the brand new masterpiece Courage is Calling .  Most importantly from all my research I now know how to live my life in an optimal way.  It is important to breathe, to detach from outcomes, take a universal perspective, and do not judge yourself or others.  I also believe it is more important than ever to deal with what is in

 Every September I go through a period of reflection. For some reason it is the month where all my triggers come together and I am confronted with the demons of my mental health.  With the COVID-19 pandemic I have joined the millions of Australians in undergoing the shadow pandemic of anxiety and depression.  The Victorian Government Royal Commission into mental health has highlighted all too glaringly how the people in power have neglected the mental health sector.  The Victorian Government promise to implement all recommendations from the Royal Commission will cost billions upon billions of dollars just to try and create a level playing field.  At least the Andrew's Labor Government is willing to take ownership of the problem; unlike the Commonwealth Government who is only willing to allocate a token 2 billion dollars for mental health due to pressure applied by the community in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In my lifetime I have benefited from several programs designed to

 I am now fully vaccinated; while the Government wants us to get to an 80% vaccination rate, I would love to see us get to 100%. One thing that makes me proud to be an Australian is our sense of mateship and camaraderie in times of natural disaster. I urge all Australians to come together to do the same for COVID.  I know that some of you may be hesitant because of the speed at which the vaccinations were approved. It is important to remember however that the cooperation between nations was unprecedented and the best scientists from around the world worked together to create the vaccines.  Like any medication there is a small risk but the risk of catching and dying from COVID is much higher.  As someone who is in the high risk category, I appreciate everyone who has got their vaccination. There are millions of vulnerable Australians and I'm sure everyone of us knows someone in that category.  In boxing the jab is the first line of attack and in the fight against the coronavirus get

 The Victorian Disability Worker Registration is now open and is the culmination of many recommendations of the 2016 Victorian Government Inquiry into disability care and standards.  The Disability Worker Registration will work in tandem with the Victorian Workers Commission to uphold standards and ensure quality of care for all Victorians with a disability.  The Disability Worker Registration Board of Victoria will enforce a code of conduct for all registered disability support workers to help create trusted and safe workers for people with disabilities.  "The new registration will allow support workers to enhance and prove their professionalism." Said Paul Healy, Branch Secretary for the Health and Community Services Union of Victoria.  As a person with a disability, listening to the speakers at the launch was very comforting because I have to admit the recent high profile cases of abuse and neglect has created a significant amount of anxiety for me around disability suppo

 Heartbreaking testimony from the South Australian hearings of the Disability Royal Commission keep circling in my mind and requires an urgent response. The Royal Commission heard from a mother of a teenage girl who choked to death on a rubber glove after being left unsupervised by support workers and to make matters worse the mother arrived at the same time as the ambulance and saw her daughter's body on the kitchen floor.  When are we going to learn that complacency kills? It should not take a Royal Commission into abuse, neglect, and exploitation for these events to come to light and get fixed.  It could take years for the Royal Commission recommendations to be handed down and acted upon. That's even if the government chooses to act on all of them.  The disability community cannot afford to wait that long. Each year more and more staff to client assaults and unexplained injuries are being investigated. How long do people with disabilities and their families have to fear for

 I have been advocating for better accessibility in the community professionally since 2004. So I was very happy to help spread the petition that the Building Better Homes Campaign developed. The campaign called for mandatory accessibility standards to be legislated in the National Building and Construction Code.  The current accessibility guidelines are voluntary and recommended in the code.  This has led to inconsistency in building practices across Australia despite the construction industry claiming that the voluntary guidelines work and to change them would place unnecessary burden on the industry.  From a business point of view I understand the economics of their statement but as a person with a lived experience I know how much the real world is inaccessible to me.  When I have delivered lectures on Universal Design and accessibility to architecture students, the disconnect between the Disability Discrimination Act and the building code causes confusion. Confusion that will be cl

 Thousands of Australians with disabilities fought for decades to get NDIS put in place. The difference the scheme has made in people's lives over the past few years is almost immeasurable. People who couldn't get funding now can and participants like myself have the opportunity to go to different providers or even different states much easier.  Growing up with funding models that made me rank my disability I missed out on the appropriate funding level because I scored highly on the physical disability components yet did not have the accompanying cognitive and intellectual disabilities.  When the Morrison Government announced the new independent assessments, a chill went down my spine. I immediately heard echoes of my past. The way the new independent assessment tools were explained to me it sounded like a tick and flick way of getting participants less funding.  Architects of the NDIS Scheme have said that the new approach is a way for the government to save up to 700 million

 After writing several blog posts on International Women's Day, I decided to stop writing on this topic because I didn't want to be mansplaining women's issues. A conversation I had recently with a female work colleague changed my opinion on this however.  We were talking about a male colleague who had disrespected her and I naively responded, "Really? He was always so nice to me!".  My colleague then looked at me and said, "I know you have experienced prejudice because of your disability but think about it for a second. You are a white middle class man with a disability. He was hardly going to treat you the same way he was going to treat me." This short conversation I had with her made me stop and think. In 2021, gender stereotypes should not exist yet the conversations that the March 4 Justice and the Me Too movement have sparked show society that we need to work harder for true gender equality.  Men, including myself, need to work with women to make g

 From the age of three I have used an electric wheelchair. When I got my first wheelchair all I could do was go round and round in circles but now my wheelchair is my independence.  Over the years I have had a total of five electric wheelchairs and each time the process for getting a new chair is slightly different. Before the NDIS, the amount I was allocated for a new chair depended heavily on the report writing skills of the occupational therapist.  Each time I tried out a new range of chairs I always felt a bit uncomfortable because in my opinion I do not think that enough time for trialling new chairs is allowed. Once the selection process has been made, you then have to fit the chair to my individual needs. In years gone past this meant literally carving and sculpting the chair to my body type but in 2021 wheelchair providers prefer to use off the shelf mix and match components to supposedly cut down on costs. In my experience this means the final product is not as comfortable as

 In 2020 the newsXpress website organised a national writing competition.  The competition had two categories, poetry and short stories.  At the urging of my brother I decided to enter the competition and to my big surprise my poem Breaking News Agency won the open age category. The newsXpress judges said "Chris' poem,  Breaking News Agency, was inspiring and heartwarming, connecting with hopes and dreams, which can become a reality." Those words about something I wrote mean a lot to me because one of the reasons I love creative writing is to make people feel.  In life I am an extremely competitive person. When I play a game, I don't just play for fun. I have to win.  When I am creating though the only person I am competing with is myself. The only reason I ever enter writing or film competitions is in the hope that my work will be highlighted. The fact that Breaking News Agency won a prize, to me, means it was worth highlighting not that I am better than any of my

 In 2020 our lives were a bit all over the place but I, and the world, have great expectations for 2021. The darling that is democracy will hopefully become stable once more with the dumping of Trump and the powerhouse team of Biden and Harris taking the reigns.  It is important however to remember that not everything will be fixed overnight. We have to be prepared to go with the rhythm of the world. COVID-19 is not over yet. We have to be willing to alter our timing based on the scientific advice. We have to go with the flow and realise that it is time to put runs on the board and worry about the victory years down the track. We are all part of one human family.  With a new democratic president being sworn in I am reminded of the question JFK posed to the world, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country’.  This is going to be my approach to 2021. I have set myself the goal of using my acting skills to demonstrate what is possible. I aim to be to Au