Writing

A selection of writing.

Disability (Personal and Policy)

• Suggesting NDIS cuts to pay for expensive submarines is the latest attack on disabled people
• Sure, review the NDIS, but what’s really needed are better housing options
• Disability employment rates haven’t shifted in decades — blame discrimination
• Leaving disabled people without control over where they live exposes them to abuse
• The constant abuse and harassment from non-disabled people isn’t changing – in fact it’s getting even worse
• I was lucky to have a great GP. Then she went on maternity leave and my healthcare fell apart
• The disability pandemic – essay in Meanjin
• Left behind – disabled people and the COVID vaccine
• The fight for the future of the NDIS
• Invisible, overlooked, forgotten: disability experiences of COVID-19
• Assembly for the Future – Dispatches from the Future
• What will it take for the NDIS to put disabled people first?
• Disability RC reveals important medical history
• History repeating in lacklustre NDIS regime
• Calling for climate justice for disabled people
• Disability royal commission begins today, a long overdue reckoning into the violence against us
• Picture is still bleak for people with disability – Disabled people take concerns to the United Nations
• What’s next for the NDIS? A look at the key challenges for the new Federal Government.
• Australia tries to block disabled people from coming here – it’s part of our ugly history.
• Time for justice – disabled people have waited long enough – what will our Royal Commission mean, and why is it important?
• Time to stop punishing the unemployed – a look at the Senate inquiry into the punitive Job Active service.
• Being sick in Australia is harder than ever – how the system of income support is hard work for sick and/or disabled people.
• Local councils helping lift the unemployed – Anti-Poverty South Australia’s campaign to lift Newstart via local government.
• The NDIS is not everything – defunding disability advocacy will hurt disabled people
• #CripCroakey crowdfunded series on disability policy for Croakey: Why the National Disability Strategy is important, the ‘problem’ with disability housing, Mediscare worked because being sick is scary and everything you wanted to know about the NDIS.
• It’s time to fix the power dynamics that allowed the abuse of people with disability (with Leanne Dowse and Carolyn Frohmader.)
• Disabled women missing out on a share of the economic pie.
• Debunking myths that keep women with disabilities out of work.
• Why the Steptember fundraising campaign is out of date.
• Are we putting all our disabled eggs in the NDIS basket?
• Should the social model of disability apply online?
• Why the current approach on disability support pension won’t work.
• Why is work the only thing that’s valued?
• Impact of the 2014 budget on people with disability.
• A year since the NDIS started – what’s the verdict?
• Who pays for social services? (with Simon Copland)
• Who deserves the disability support pension?
• Who gets heard when talking about disabled people in institutions?
• Disabled people falling between the cracks in the justices system.
• Big long essay on what’s wrong with the NDIS as a model for disability support.
• I got a bit cranky about delays to NDIS funding.
• Reflecting on the passing of the NDIS (or DisabilityCare as it was briefly known.)
• The devil’s in the detail for the NDIS.
• The NDIS won’t work with out decent working conditions for disability workers.
• My first piece on the NDIS as a voucher system.

Housing

• I won the second Gavin Mooney memorial essay competition with ‘A place to call home‘.
• A bit of history about public housing in Australia

Feminism

• Senate inquiry asks questions about women’s retirement income.
• Where did the idea of a baby bonus come from?

Community Sector

• The privatisation of human services – Serco and Centrelink.
• Selling off Home Care is a very bad idea.
• Why the community sector has more political capital than it thinks it has.
• About the proposed charity commission and whether it would cut red tape.
• A look at changes to the anti-discrimination legislation.

Other

• Whose health matters? – a look at the budget spending on health in 2018.
• Pride and Passion: The Growth of Women’s Footy in Greater Western Sydney
• Struggle Street blames individuals for being poor
• The only way to change mandatory detention of refugees is the change the party that started it.
• The election flyer you won’t receive and it’s all First Dog’s fault.
• Do politicians need income management?