Powerd NewsWrap 17th September 2025

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Welcome to a Vision Australia radio podcast. Love our podcasts. Why not listen to us live? Tune in anywhere, anytime, ask your smart device to play Vision Australia radio or visit va radio.org,

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Vision Australia radio and reading radio networks. This is the powered news wrap.

Sam Rickard 0:28

G'day. I'm Sam Rickard, it's the 17th of September, 2025 we're presenting articles from the Powerd dot media website, and joining me once more is Emma Myers. G'day, Emma, it's only, seems like recently, we only were talking to each other. I know it's uncalled

Emma Myers 0:45

it's like we never left the studio.

Sam Rickard 0:48

All right, okay, so we have a much more positive spin to things. This week. We're dealing with Inclusive sport and the new member for Dixit. I think we will talk about inclusive sport first, however, so there is a program in Queensland that seeks to encourage people with a disability to do more sport and well being involved as it were,

Emma Myers 1:13

yeah, so we all know that sport can be a great thing for everyone to become involved in for your social skills, your health, your mental well being, and so a program in Queensland is trying to get school aged children with disability involved in an inclusive sports program.

Sam Rickard 1:40

Now we've talked off air in the past about our various relationships with physical activity and sport. My background is, well, it's quite extensive, because, yes, I competed at four Paralympics, but I don't know about you, but not to brag, Sam, well, he just happens to have been been the case. It's an awful long time ago now. Anyway, I don't know about you, but I had a real mixed relationship with the education system, and say the subject of PE, as in, I hardly ever did it in primary school, and I gotta, I gotta fail for PE in year nine, phys ed. Yeah. Okay, so we've gone through the education systems at very different points in history and end up with the same result there. I mean, I got the feeling that the phys ed teachers really just didn't want me there. What? How did you feel?

Emma Myers 2:34

I mean, I was actually made to go and shoot paper in the administration office, June sporting hours,

Sam Rickard 2:45

wow, yep. Okay, that's that that kind of Trumps mind somewhat, because

Emma Myers 2:50

and then and then I fought to get on the table tennis teams. Yeah.

Sam Rickard 2:58

So I was hoping things had changed rain, because we're looking at something like 20 years difference between me going through high school and you going through high school and no, it's all has this familiar sort of sound to it. But I mean, okay, so this is done in conjunction with an organization I'm quite familiar with, and that is Queensland sporting

Emma Myers 3:18

wheelies. So this specific program it's run by adults with disabilities, and what they're doing is they're going into everyday mainstream schools and teaching not only students with disability how to engage in sport, they're also Teaching students without disability how to engage with the broader disability community and gain a better understanding of disability. So they really fostering that inclusive idea.

Sam Rickard 3:54

Well, I hope that that does mean some sort of change, but I mean ultimately, what they do need to be doing is, I don't know, educating phys ed teachers. That's why I see it. And also educating teachers, maybe there should be a stream within their teaching course which deals with disability, so it's not just a problem for the disability specific teachers. Anyway, once more, I'm not going to call it news this week, this is our special presentation episode. So over to Mike scanner Smith with well our special presentation articles.

Speaker 2 4:34

Thank you. Sam, an adaptive sports program in Queensland is encouraging students with disabilities to explore new opportunities. Sporting wheelies is recognized as a leader in the field of sport and a healthy activity for people with disability by national bodies such as sport Australia and Paralympics Australia. Raising the Bar is a school based sports program run by sporting wheelies, designed for all. Students to gain awareness and understanding through hands on experience. Sessions feature inclusive sports like wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, goalball and Boccia. The sessions are taught by adults with disability or game changers. According to the Department of Health and Welfare, one in five students with disability feel excluded in physical education. Caroline Baird is a game changer with Sporting wheelies. Using her own experience of disability, Caroline is passionate about raising awareness of inclusive sports within schools to help students of all abilities engage in physical activity. A purpose designed inclusive program would have gone a long way in mitigating the isolation that comes along with being unable to participate in traditional school sports. She hopes that with para sports, students will gain a greater understanding of disability, and living with a disability, exposing students to new and varied experiences expands their perception of the world, fostering empathy and inclusive thinking, says Caroline. Another game changer is David Bretherton, a former soldier who lost his leg in a training accident as he went through rehab. He found sport to be a way of dealing with isolation and finding a sense of community. Having represented Australia in seven different sports over the years. Davin says conversation with kids is incredibly rewarding. He explains, the program works closely with the school system, meeting the syllabuses and guidelines to provide teachers with valuable resources, training and support we share the Department of Education commitment to ensuring every student with disability succeeds and reaches their full potential. Ultimately, our goal is to provide students with a meaningful and enjoyable experience that raises awareness and understanding of the lives of people with a disability. Davin says, You

Speaker 2 7:05

many with disability would have felt a sense of hope as labor MP Ali France gave her maiden speech to the Parliament last month, her lived experience of disability giving the disability community a dedicated voice in federal politics. Powerd media sat down with MS Francis for a discussion about how her worldviews drastically changed. Thus she became an amputee, sparking her passion for improving the lives of people with disability.

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I was very naive to the obstacles that people with a disability are faced with every day out in the community, until I myself had those obstacles.

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Recalling the moment, the mother of two shares how she was crossing the road with her youngest son, Zach, while she was able to push Zach out of harm's way, a car ran into Miss France, which resulted her sustaining a cross injury that was really devastating. She says,

Speaker 3 7:59

I spent the first two and a half years in my chair, and I still spend a lot of time in my chair, but also, as an above knee amputee, I also walk around a little bit.

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MS, France explains the frustration she felt as she became aware of the barriers faced by the disability community

Speaker 3 8:16

just getting around to the community, like getting a disabled parking space at the shops, or so that I can go to the post office or I can go to the chemist. I found that a lot of places that I used to go had stairs. It was just incredibly difficult navigating the world outside me. It still

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is. These feelings only intensified when she lost both her former husband, Clive and the eldest son, Henry, to cancer within months of each other. It was these challenges that inspired Miss France are sent into the world of politics.

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I thought the only way to make change is to be involved in policy and policy development.

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The disability advocate says she is passionate about elevating policies around the cost of childcare, National Disability Insurance Scheme, the NDIS and disability employment,

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I think that many children of single mothers with a disability should be able to have the same opportunities to go to childcare as families that don't have a disability. I think scrapping the activity test was a huge difference for that, because all kids should have the opportunity to learn and get the best start in life.

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Similarly, Mrs. France claims the NDIS is key to women with significant disability being able to enjoy their motherhood and be able to care for their kids.

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Everything that you're doing as a parent just becomes a bit harder if you're a woman with a disability, and that's why the NDIS is so important to provide support so you can be the mum that you want to be

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as for employment. Ms France says she's going to empathize with those being denied work on the basis of their disability.

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I really struggled to get back to work after my. Accident, and I really felt the perception from others that I was less capable, when actually I was nothing of the sort. Everyone should have the opportunity to advance themselves in their communities and have the opportunity to build their own wealth and whatever that means for them,

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for now, Ms France is focused on improving the lives of those in the disability community in any way she can.

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I'm really excited about having the opportunity to have a voice in any changes that come up into the future

Sam Rickard 10:34

once more, thank you, Mike. All right, so you've been trying to get this interview for quite some time. In fact, it was the very first time we talked, which we didn't, funnily enough, put to air that you were chasing after this particular person.

Emma Myers 10:48

I was Sam. I was chasing after Dixon labor, MP, early France, who famously kicked Peter Dutton out of his seat and out of the loop of party. So, yeah, creates to,

Sam Rickard 11:06

well, it's an achievement in itself, because no opposition leader, well, no Federal Opposition Leader has lost their seat. So the fact that it's not just a woman that's done this, but a woman with a disability that has achieved what has never been done before is, I don't know it's a nice little brownie point on a number of different occasions, really.

Emma Myers 11:26

Yeah, it is. It takes all the intersection of boxes. Sam, so I was fortunate enough to finally be able to pin her down and have a chat with her about all things disability, why she got into politics and what she hopes to do while in the house,

Sam Rickard 11:48

the one limitation she's got is, unlike someone like Jordan Steele John, the Labor Party, is a lot more disciplined as far as what you can and can't say. So there has to be a lot of solidarity regarding the direction you vote and indeed, a lot of what you have to say. So there are some limitations there. But what I'm hoping is because essentially, we've got one of us in inverted commas on the inside, maybe there will be some more topics that relate to us coming out in caucus meetings.

Emma Myers 12:20

Well, that's what I'm hoping to Sam and you write while she is limited on what she can and can't say and do, being a member of one of the major parties, it's also a good thing, because she is a member of one of the magic parties, unlike Jordan Steele John, who is a member of the greens, and they had their time in sun, but not to the extent that liberal and labor parties do. And so I think this is a gigantic step forward for our community,

Sam Rickard 12:57

indeed. And whenever I interview somebody, I always find that there's some little tidbit that I'd never thought of that they will come out with just randomly. Was there any surprises when you spoke to Ali,

Emma Myers 13:08

you know what film there was, she acknowledged that she had no real understanding of what people with disability face, just on the daily. And so now that she has gained an understanding, that's what drove her to put her hand up to become involved in politics, to make a change.

Sam Rickard 13:31

And well, I'm finding that now, doing what I'm doing is that I'm learning a lot more about disability issues just from, say, doing what we're doing now, because it sits there. And as a disabled person, I have not necessarily been exposed to a lot of this, so yes, I can understand where she's coming from. There anyway, that, once more, is a wrap for this wrap, you can find these articles and more by going to the Powerd, LT, O, W, E, R, D, dot media website, along with the podcast of this show, the powered news wrap was brought to you by disability media Australia. The show was produced by me Sam Ricard in the Adelaide studios of Vision Australia radio, Bye, for now, bye, you.