Article
Last year, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten announced his retirement from Parliament, effective February 2025. The announcement followed a barrage of criticism from disability advocates and organisations for rushed and misguided changes to the NDIS on Shorten’s watch. I was worried. Shorten wasn’t perfect, but his successor could be much worse.
Though reactions to Shorten’s retirement were mixed, the disability community was united as we waited with bated breath for the answer to one question: will we finally have a disabled NDIS Minister?
We undoubtedly need one. Lived experience has long been missing from disability spaces, despite the clear evidence of its efficacy. It’s even missing from the organisations that purport to represent us: of the 12 government funded national disability representative organisations, a mere handful have a disabled CEO.
I’ve worked in the disability sector for almost a decade, and have felt the frustration and exhaustion of trying to advocate for change – indeed, for basic accessibility – to nondisabled leaders who don’t understand the challenges facing disabled people.
Far from the mantra of the disability rights movement (“nothing about us without us”), lately it seems as if everything is being done without us, by people who know nothing about us. I’m so, so sick of it.
Since Parliament rules dictate that a Minister has to either be a Senator or a Member of the House of Representatives, or become one within 3 months of appointment, that left us with one – very capable – candidate: Western Australian Greens Senator, Jordon Steele-John.
Jordon Steele-John has been a Senator since 2017. Steele-John has cerebral palsy – like me! – and uses a manual wheelchair.
He regularly speaks up about issues pertaining to the disability community, such as the ADHD Senate Enquiry and the controversial ‘Getting the NDIS Back on Track’ Bill. He engages with the disability community, and he understands the challenges we face, because he faces many of them too.
I’ve long been an admirer of Jordon’s. I turn to his words and speeches when I feel hopeless and defeated, and they rouse me from my stupor and remind me to keep going. He’d be my choice for NDIS Minister.
There’s been an opportunity to have Jordon in a position of leadership before, and the two major parties blocked it: in 2022 he contested the position of Deputy Chair of the NDIS Senate Committee. As Steele-John wrote on X (formerly Twitter) at the time:
“Disappointingly, the major parties joined together to uphold the status quo and elect Sen. Hollie Hughes, instead of centering the lived experience of a disabled person. I know this news will be frustrating for so many members of our community…”
As Steele-John is with the Greens, rather than one of the two major parties, I knew it was always highly unlikely – nigh on impossible – that he would get the role of Deputy Chair, or NDIS Minister. Still, I held onto the tiniest modicum of hope.
With the recent announcement of Amanda Rishworth as the new NDIS Minister, we’ve lost the opportunity to have a disabled person at the helm – for now. I’m disappointed, but I’m not surprised.
Yet the fact remains: we need disabled leaders in disabled spaces. We’re capable, we’re knowledgeable and there’s more than enough of us. We just need to dismantle the systemic barriers in our way.