Powerd NewsWrap 22nd April 2026

Vision Australia ID  0:00  
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Speaker 1  0:21  
on the Vision Australia and reading radio networks. This is the Powerd news, rap, G'day. I'm Sam Ricard.

Sam Rickard  0:27  
It's the 22nd of April, 2026 unless you're hearing us on repeat, which some of you may be, we're reading articles from the Powerd dot media website. And of course, joining me as paranormal is the writer of these articles, Emma Myers, G'day, Emma, hello. So we're going to start with something that maybe has been a long time coming, and that is more input from the disability community into the NDIA and the NDIS. So a committee has been appointed,

Emma Myers  0:59  
I believe, yeah, they had, so, um, so a lot of these advocates are well known, but we also have some that are on the ground, you know, really advocating for the rights of the community.

Sam Rickard  1:13  
I understand, you know, some of the people that have been appointed, I know

Emma Myers  1:16  
one or two of them personally, such as Carly Finlay, who has done a lot for the community over the past well more than a decade, and she's so passionate about elevating issues faced by the disability community, and she's really outspoken and just an all around great voice to have on the Advisory Council. The same with Kelly Cox, who is known internationally, as well as internationally for her

Sam Rickard  1:55  
reform work, indeed. And would you describe any of these peoples as shrinking violence? People who would like hood will normally sit in the background and do nothing,

Emma Myers  2:03  
not at all. Sam, they all put their head in the ring to do what they can to really drive home the message that much more needs to be done to fix the holes within the NDIS. And there are quite a few anyway.

Sam Rickard  2:21  
To hear more about that, let's cross to one of my favorite news readers, Cameron Stark.

Speaker 1  2:27  
11 nationally and internationally recognized disability advocates have been selected to serve on the NDIS quality and safeguards Commission's Advisory Council. The Advisory Council is an independent advisory body that provides advice to the NDIS commissioner and Associate Commissioner on issues affecting people with disability. NDIS participants and the scheme making sure its decisions reflect lived experience. The Advisory Council, comprised of disability advocates and reformers, will assist in ensuring that people with disability have a direct line of input into the regulation of the NDIS. Incoming members include internationally recognized disability and human rights leader Kelly Cox, award winning writer, speaker and appearance activist Carly Findlay OAM and human rights consultant Caroline fromator ao, the recently awarded Officer of the Order of Australia, appointed for distinguished service to people with disability, particularly women and girls, says the role of the council is essential in ensuring those voices are heard. I feel honored to be appointed to the Advisory Council. Too many people with disability continue to live and work in segregated settings where their voices are excluded and their rights overlooked. In the context of the disability Royal Commission findings and Australia's obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the NDIS Commission has a vital role, not only in improving service quality, but also in safeguarding people with disability from all forms of violence, abuse and neglect. Other newly selected advisory council members include policy leaders Samantha Jenkinson, Tamika Marshall Kiara Gallagher and Chris Coombs, along with reform advocates, Aaron cotton, Sharon Grocott, Belinda Brown and Alan Blackwood. Mr. Blackwood, who brings over 30 years experience across disability advocacy, policy and service provision, says being chosen for a role on the council is a privilege. I look forward to discussing practical solutions in the complex environment we live and work in to ensure we deliver real improvements in the lives of people with disability and their families. NDIS quality and safeguards Commissioner Louise Glanville claims the council strengthens how the regulator engages with the disability community. Community and embeds lived experience into its decisions. Members bring deep expertise across disability rights advocacy, service delivery, policy and governance, and will play a vital role in shaping our regulatory priorities and safeguarding outcomes for people with disability across Australia, the NDIS quality and safeguards commission highly values the voices, leadership and perspectives of people with disability, according to a statement on their website, the council comprises of members who are people with disability or have lived experience of disability, selected through a national expressions of interest process that ensures national perspectives inform the NDIS Commission's regulatory approach. For many Australians within the disability community, the use of condescending and patronizing language towards individuals with disability is a daily occurrence, but a new awareness campaign could change things called No sweetie. The campaign grew out of tenant voice, a project funded by the NDIA to prioritize the experiences of residents living in specialist disability accommodation. SDA, the challenge how support providers patronize and infantilise people with disability by using endearments that may sound benign but can actually cause a great deal of harm. Powerd media spoke with tenant Voice Project Manager Lee Archer, who says the No sweetie campaign diminishes the autonomy and adulthood of disability support recipients. We hear from the tenants that they cop a whole lot of dodgy language, like a sweetie, love, darling, honey, bro, pal, babe, and that happens constantly. She says, Every person knows when you receive a term of endearment, whether it's right. We also know immediately when it doesn't represent a mutual, respectful relationship. And yet, in disability, it happens all the time. The project manager explains that support providers who refer to their client using these terminologies are establishing and reinforcing power dynamics, which can often further isolate the individual

Speaker 1  7:19  
that person who's providing the services wouldn't call their CEO sweetie, and yet, service workers feel completely confident to use that towards somebody who's actually their employer. It diminishes your independence. It tells you that people are expecting you not to be an independent adult, to be more childlike. That's where abuse and neglect thrive, because you're othering people with a disability. You're not seeing the person as human. Ms Archer argues the campaign is using educational tools such as the sweetie bingo card to help people with disabilities record and quantify their daily encounters with patronizing language. Ms Archer claims that by approaching the topic in a light hearted way, it allows participants to act as citizen scientists by collecting data on how frequent and constant these interactions are, we are doing it with a bit of a light hearted touch about how you change the conversation. It's an invitation to actually start thinking about that language. She says, we would love it to be a real thing, that we can actually start this movement of making sure that people with the disability experience live as full autonomous citizens. If you want to learn more, go to www dot know, sweetie.org/about, the link will, of course, be available in the podcast notes of this program.

Sam Rickard  8:42  
Thank you. Cameron as normal. Okay, this particular article fascinates me because it comes down to how the able bodied world treats people like you and me, not just in a shared housing setting, but generally in the world and world as it were, and I think you'd be able to identify with this more than I would. Yes, Sam, I do,

Unknown Speaker  9:04  
and I can

Sam Rickard  9:06  
just it's all right, sweetie, you can get the words out if you want to shut up, Sam, this is exactly what we're talking about, really, is. It's this kind of language that even me, who does not look disabled, I occasionally get the odd champ and all that sort of stuff. And it's like, as was pointed out, would somebody call their CEO sweetie or darling, or anything like that? What are your thoughts?

Emma Myers  9:37  
Would anyone will any would anyone call the I mean this the sweetie or darling, probably his wife. But no, I can remember the first time I was actively aware of it, because it happened when I was in primary school. And the weird part about it was that the person. And you did it was a classmate of mine, and all I could think of was, why is a 11 year old girl calling me doll and Sweetie and love when I'm the same age and where were children? And I'm just going, that's that's a bit weird, but maybe she's picked that from her parents. I don't know. It was only in hindsight that this is what she was doing and so, um, so that was really interesting, but I've lost track of the amount of time said, um, that it's happened in my life, as I can imagine you would have as well.

Sam Rickard  10:43  
The luxury I've got is I can pass as normal in inverted commas, so the ability to suddenly look disabled is essentially if I decide to carry a white cane or not.

Emma Myers  10:56  
So I love the fact that you described that as a luxury. I mean, I've had this conversation with myself. I've like, specifically when I was in high school and being curious for being disabled, then all I could think of was, you know, if I had red hair, and now it's being picked on because of my red hair, I could dye it if I felt the need to, I could put the hat on or whatever. But I can't camouflage my disability. I mean, I'm not saying that if you've got red hair, you should dye it. Hell. I wish I had red hair, but I do find it fascinating when people say that they can pass through an average person, which we all are, but like in the context of the wider community, in a wider society, dictating what's appropriate and not it's really interesting when I hear people like yourself saying that they can pass for an average person.

Sam Rickard  12:06  
It's a double edged sword in its own way as well, because, yes, I can pass as normal. But if, for example, I trip over something, or if I have to read something, then yes, I get some interesting looks there. And this is where I'm talking about which dovetails quite nicely into the topic we're talking about here is you can tell instantly, often, the way that people's reactions do change when all of a sudden they realize that you have a disability and you go from being a normal, in inverted commas, person to being something else. So I think that this campaign is going to be an interesting one, because I think a lot of what she was talking about is purely unconscious. People don't know that they're doing this. Yeah and

Emma Myers  12:55  
yeah, but it's not only disabled people who experience this. Older people experience it, but also I know that older people will refer to younger people as using the turn of the phrase. I know my own father uses deer a lot, and I don't actually think he means that in a term of endemon. He just uses it sarcastically.

Sam Rickard  13:26  
I think if you get to a certain age, I think you've earned the right to be eccentric or to do things your own particular way. That's the way I kind of see it. It's more the shopkeeper who really should know better and things like that. And as I was saying, it is. It's something that people do unconsciously, and you'll get one of two reactions to people if you call them out. One is they will get quite nasty sometimes, because they're honestly a good person, and how dare you accuse them of something. Or there's pure shock, and someone will sort of straighten themselves up and go, Oh, I didn't even know I was

Emma Myers  14:02  
doing that. But then if you're the person with the disability who says, you know, can you stop that again? That's two Avenue. So it's like, oh, yeah, I'm sorry I didn't realize. Or they'll get defensive and say, I'll put it it's determined redeem it. Why? What's it? And it's like, no, it's really not the way that you're doing it. The article

Sam Rickard  14:29  
is, yes, it's drawn a few things to my own thoughts, and maybe I might even change some of my own behavior with this as well. It will be in this. This goes, Yes, just exactly, dear, yes, exactly. Anyway, that is a rep for this rep. Anything we've got to look forward to in the near future, I

Emma Myers  14:47  
don't know why we're looking forward to the budget. That's an interesting question. So then next week, we'll be covering a lot of what's happening this week in terms of, you know, comments By The treasurer. Comments from Mark Butler, we may even hear from review disability advocacy organizations cool.

Sam Rickard  15:10  
I will bring my coffee mug in anticipation. So until then, bye. For now, sweetheart, bye, lovelies.

Speaker 1  15:19  
You can find these articles and more by going to Powerd spelled P, O, W, E, R, D, dot media, along with the podcast of this show, the Powerd news rap was brought to you by disability media Australia. This show was produced by Sam Ricard in the Adelaide studios of Vision Australia radio.