Humanity Platform

 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...

 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 seve...

 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 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 di...

 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 t...

 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. C...

 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 7...