Writer, disability advocate and actor, Hannah Diviney has addressed the National Press Club to call for better disability representation and for the next National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Minister to undergo empathy training.
Diviney also used her address to note how few people with a disability have graced the stage of the National Press Club.
“A lot of the people who’ve graced this stage as our leaders, our top thinkers and our most powerful have looked the same, which says a lot about the pathways to and construction of paths to opportunities for power in this country,” Diviney said.
“Very few have looked like me, both as wheelchair users and as members of disabled and neurodivergent community.”
Diviney noted that with the retirement of Minister for the NDIS Bill Shorten, the position is open to be filled and that any future minister in the portfolio should undergo empathy training.
“It’s my fervent hope that someone with lived experience will fill that position— given that there’s only one senator in Parliament who has disclosed and has a visible disability, Jordon Steele-John— it’s my view that positions should go to him,” Diviney said.
“However, given the fact he is a Greens senator, and that is unlikely to happen based on the way governments are created in his country, here’s my suggestion: both sides, before the election next year, should decide who their NDIS minister would be if they get into power, and then from there, that minister should be immersion and empathy training that shows them what it’s actually like to live with a disability.”
Diviney said that cuts to the NDIS earlier this year would have tangible impacts on the lives of people with disabilities.
“Earlier this year, the government cut $14.4 billion from the NDIS. To them, that might have just been numbers, arbitrary figures on a piece of paper. To us, it’s our quality of life. It’s whether we get to achieve it’s whether we get to live. It’s whether we get to be human.”
Diviney also spoke about the importance of diverse disability representation in the mainstream press and in popular culture.
“Stories are the building blocks we use to teach children about the world. They’re how we learn to identify the bad guy or find the hero. Without representation in them, what are we supposed to do?” Diviney said.
“We need you to believe in disabled stories and not just pick one or two, whether it’s me, or Dylan Alcott or Chloe Hayden. There’s a whole diverse range of disabled people out there, and all of us deserve to be heard.”
Diviney also shared her personal experience of what it feels like to live in a world not built for disabled bodies.
“You have to remember—and this will ring true for anyone who belongs to a marginalised community—I’ve never gotten a break from being disabled, ever. It’s my reality 24/7,” she said,
“It’s work to live in a disabled body, to pull yourself out of holes, to exist in a world not built for you to survive.
“I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for the fact that since I was four, two things have been true. The first is that I’ve had access to therapy and wide ranging mental health support, which has seen my needs taken seriously and treated with ongoing care consistently over my whole life. The second, if you couldn’t already tell, I’m a storyteller, that’s always been my escape, my guiding light.”