Queensland Branch and state elections - Adrian Watson

Speaker 1 (THEME) 00:07

It's up to you and me to shine a guiding light and lead the way United by our cause we have power to pursue what we believe We'll achieve the realisation of our dreams...

Speaker 2 00:30

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of New Horizons. I'm Vaughan Bennison. Thanks for your company. This week, we speak with Adrian Watson, president of the Queensland branch of Blind Citizens Australia.

Speaker 2 00:40

They held their AGM fairly recently. Adrian joins us to tell us about that and more. Adrian, thanks for joining us. This isn't the first time we featured the Queensland branch, but I think it's the first time you've been on the program.

Speaker 3 00:51

That's correct.

Speaker 2 00:53

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your position within the Queensland branch at the moment.

Speaker 3 00:58

I'm currently the branch president of the Queensland Mine Citizens Australia branch. I'm in the process of moving back into Queensland. A little bit about me, I've got an IT background and I am a person with what you call character conus and a couple of other conditions that affect my side vision and I cannot see very well.

Speaker 3 01:25

And my central vision gets all blurry from time to time. So therefore I'm classed as legal blind but I do have that central vision every now and then that comes good. Yeah.

Speaker 2 01:37

And I understand that recently the annual general meeting of the Queensland branch was held. Tell us a little bit about what happened at that meeting and also what's happening with current committee members.

Speaker 3 01:48

At the moment, when we went to the, we had our election, sorry, we had our eight annual general meeting on Saturday afternoon, three of our committee members, three of them, sorry, three committee members have resigned from the Queensland committee.

Speaker 3 02:09

They are Stephen Selerke, who has been our beloved secretary, which everyone would have heard before on this program. And then Neil Heath has moved on to come on to the national board. And so therefore he has resigned as well.

Speaker 3 02:27

And Michael Hart, who's been a fantastic job as our email moderator, has had to step down due to personal reasons. So therefore, at the annual general meeting, I was reelected, unopposed to be president.

Speaker 3 02:44

Joyce Jones, who was our vice president, is now currently our secretary. And Brandon O 'Donoghue is now our vice president of the Queensland branch. And so that was voted in with great acceptance.

Speaker 2 03:02

So, aside from the office bearers, how many committee members do you have and who are they?

Speaker 3 03:07

Okay, we have at the moment on our committee is myself, Adrian Watson, and I'm the President of the branch. Our Vice President is Brendan Hodoni here, he's based in Brisbane. And then we have our Secretary, which is Joyce Jones.

Speaker 3 03:22

And then we have Craig Cernone. Craig is also our committee member. And we have Julie, also as our committee member, who's going to be our new email moderator. But it's been a pretty active time in our branch.

Speaker 3 03:43

I moved down to Victoria only for a couple of years because my father wasn't well. Unfortunately, early this year, he passed away, just an old age. And so therefore, I'm planning to move back into the Innisfail area at this stage.

Speaker 3 03:59

I've got some friends up there and now they're not going to help me. So probably in January, I'll be moving back into Queensland. My passion is for the Queensland low end and low vision community and to be in the role of advocacy where I can.

Speaker 2 04:15

I note also from the member update of Blind Citizens Australia, you are currently seeking a new treasurer. Have you been successful at that yet? And tell us what is required for that role.

Speaker 3 04:27

At this stage, our treasurer, we desperately need our treasurer. It's not a complicated job. We just need someone to put in the in -going and out -going. On the accounts that we have established, a new count system now with Thuncourt Bank, that we now have a business account, a simple account.

Speaker 3 04:47

And all we need is the in -going and out -going. It's not a complicated role, but we desperately need a treasurer, as we currently haven't got one. And it's not a complicated position. Just got to record all our receipts that we do and expenditures are not a very complicated account.

Speaker 2 05:09

Mm. And we'll give the email address where people can find out more if they want to at the end of this program. You had your election last weekend, but there's a bigger election coming up in Queensland, I understand.

Speaker 2 05:19

Tell us a little bit about what your expectations are around that.

Speaker 3 05:23

Okay, we've got a big state election coming up this on the 26th of October, and we went and had a talk with the shadow or Minister of Disabilities, the member for Surface Paradise, the Honorable John Landrook, and we put forward to him four key issues that we thought needed to be addressed in Queensland.

Speaker 3 05:50

And I also got in contact with the office of Miss Mullins, who is the Disability Minister, and to be honest, I didn't get very far with that. But both issues were discussed with both the Minister of Disability and Shadow Minister of Disability Disabilities.

Speaker 3 06:11

And so we discussed the four key issues. The four key issues are we discussed e -scooters, e -bikes, and we found that there are a nightmare for us blind people, and there needs to be a proper set standard for them.

Speaker 3 06:33

And I know in Melbourne, they've banned e -scooters altogether. But we felt that where they place the e -scooters on the footpath, they can be anywhere and everywhere. And they're a nightmare for a member.

Speaker 3 06:47

So we brought that issue up to the Shadow Minister of Disability and the Minister. The Shadow Minister of Disability told me that he was shocked he didn't even think of blind people that might affect e -scooters on blind people, and he will really look into it.

Speaker 3 07:05

So we feel there needs to be a discussion on the safety and the regulation of these devices, because they're a nightmare for us blind people and anybody in the disability sector and anybody in general.

Speaker 3 07:18

And so we brought that one main issue up. Then we brought another issue that was the surface ground tactile indicators, or as I like to call them, the dots on the footpath. We feel there needs to be a set standard across Queensland.

Speaker 3 07:33

The councils are just putting them here, there and everywhere, and not following the National Disability Act guidance. And we feel that they need to be put in place. We specifically asked about the Braille Trails in Brisbane that come forth, and Brendan had a talk with John with it, and we feel that it needs to be upgraded and fixed.

Speaker 3 07:59

And he said he will look into it, and he would like to have more discussions with that issue. We talked about the voting platform and the challenges for people who have vision in there, and we felt that that needs to be addressed.

Speaker 3 08:17

Both of them said they were looking to it. And didn't give us a confirmation on that. And the final area that I would like to cover is the taxi industry. We really feel there needs to be made by overhaul in that, that a ride share should be included on the TSS card.

Speaker 3 08:35

The TSS card is a taxi subsidized scheme card. And we feel that needs to be included onto it, like it is in Victoria. And that disadvantages blind people and low vision people. Another issue blind people were telling us was the fact that we have people who, again, denied access into a taxi because they've got a dieted dog.

Speaker 3 09:02

And we feel that that needs to be addressed and sorted out. And both the member for disabilities and the shadowing of the disabilities have both said that they were looking to it for us.

Speaker 2 09:16

In Victoria, rideshare services are covered by the taxi subsidy scheme or as often known as M40. Can you explain why this is not the case in Queensland?

Speaker 3 09:28

Well, we've gone in and asked that very question. Why? Why? They say that they're not doing anything in the issue with it. Very clearly going to know from the Minister. And I can't see why not. I feel it's much needed.

Speaker 3 09:45

The road sharing industry is a growing industry. And the taxi industry is not good the way it's going. But we were not told why not. We're just told not. And they're not going to do it.

Speaker 2 10:01

And what do you think the story is with the tactile ground surface indicators in Queensland? You indicated that they're just being put all over the place and not particularly relevant places. Those national standards and guidelines exist.

Speaker 2 10:12

Do you think it's just a lack of ability to interpret those standards or do you think that they're just ignoring the standards?

Speaker 3 10:20

A very good question and one I wanted to bring an example. I used to live in Mackay before moving down here and I went to the Mackay regional council, the planning section of the council and they had no clue on what the standards were and an example is there is one place in North Mackay that has the ground surface tactiles going into a rose garden instead of going into the local library.

Speaker 3 10:49

When I asked the council about that they said oh with that for aesthetics they did not realise the fact that blind people need to use it.

Speaker 2 10:59

And in terms of the Queen Street Mall, that's been an ongoing issue for many, many years. I was in the Queensland branch of Blind Citizens Australia from the end of 1998 to about the end of 2003, and we were talking about then, talking about the Queen Street Mall in those days.

Speaker 2 11:14

And that was particularly in regard to the fact that people would use that as a conversation space. They'd stand in the middle of the braille trial. It goes right up the Queen Street Mall, and they would stand there and have their conversations.

Speaker 2 11:29

Obviously, that's been down for some considerable time. Is it in a great state of disrepair and, in your opinion, what is required to get it up to standard?

Speaker 3 11:37

someone who does use the Queen Street Mall. Yes, I think it needs to be standard. They had, and I know Brendan's got more key inside of this particular part of the area, they had used to have signs there on the side of the ground service tactiles that will warn people to stay off them and to keep them free.

Speaker 3 12:00

I was in there in August into Queen Street Mall and I think I hit about eight people that were refused to move out of the way.

Speaker 2 12:13

And in those interviews with both of those ministers are available, I understand, for people to listen to in the lead up to the election with a hope that it will give people the idea of for whom they should vote at the coming election.

Speaker 2 12:24

Tell us a little bit about how people can find out more.

Speaker 3 12:28

We're in the process of working with the National Office on getting the Shadow Minister interview online on the website. In the meantime, we do have a transcript of the meeting that me and Brendan had with John, with Honorable John Hanbrook.

Speaker 3 12:49

And I would recommend people to contact us at Queensland at bca .au. We'd be happy to forward a copy of the transcript of that, but I know we have a recording as well. And we're hoping to work on putting on onto our branch website, which is on the bca .org .au site under the Queensland branch.

Speaker 3 13:12

The easy way to get that is to get into BCA's main website and go and get involved. And under that you'll see branches and you'll see Queensland under that. Click on that and you'll get a link to our Queensland branch.

Speaker 2 13:26

And to be clear, that email address is Queensland's spelt out, isn't it? Not QLD.

Speaker 3 13:31

Not too old, it's Queensland spelled out correct.

Speaker 2 13:34

Adrienne Watson, President of the Queensland branch of Blind Citizens Australia. If you'd like to get in touch, it's Queensland at bca .org .au and as we said earlier, that's all spelled out Queensland at bca .org .au.

Speaker 2 13:50

If you'd like to get in touch with Blind Citizens Australia more generally, you can call 1 -800 -033 -660 or you can email bca at bca .org .au, bca at bca .org .au. Don't forget the call for nominations for the BCA Board and President are open until Friday the 25th of October.

Speaker 2 14:14

You'll need to get your nomination back to company secretary at bca .org .au, company secretary at bca .org .au. If you've got any stories or ideas for New Horizons, do let me know. You can email new .horizons at bca .org .au.

Speaker 2 14:33

Once again, new .horizons at bca .org .au. I'll talk to you again next week.

Speaker 1 14:48

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