PDA’s inaugural President, John Moxon, recognised in Australia Day Honours

John Bruce Moxon has been posthumously recognised in the Australia Day Honours List, receiving the award of Member (AM) in the General Division of The Order Of Australia.

He was Physical Disability Australia’s inaugural President and not only helped to shape our organisation, but also Australia’s progressive disability landscape.

John was recognised for his significant service to community health and to people with physical disability. This included (but was not limited to) his involvement with PDA as inaugural President 1996-1998 and Founding Member 1996, Parramatta City Council Access Advisory Committee Chair 1992-2012 and Member current, Physical Disability Council of New South Wales President 1997-2002 and Vice President 1994-1997 and Founding Member 1994, Spinal Cord Injuries Australia President 1984-1990 and Board Member 1984-1992 and Life Member since 2016, People with Disability Australia President (Dundas Telopea International Year of Disabled People Committee) 1981 and Information Officer 1983 and Member since 1980, Macquarie Association of Disabled Students President 1982-1983 and Founding Member 1980 and Member, Program of Appliances for Disabled People Advisory Committee Health NSW 1999-2002, Past Coordinator Wheeling Free program 2SER-FM Radio and Senior Policy Officer Disability and Recruitment NSW Public Service 1984-1990.

Never forgotten.

“My Home: where I can just be.”

PDA WA Associate Director, Melanie Hawkes, shares her story.

PDA WA Associate Director Melanie Hawkes was recently involved in “The Lives We Lead Project” – led by WA’s Individualised Services Inc. and funded by WA’s Department of Communities and Department of Social Services.

Capturing and sharing video and photo stories of people with disability living in their own homes, this social media project works to provide the wider community with a better understanding of the contributions made by PWD and their day to day lives.

You can check out Melanie’s story by going to:

https://fb.watch/h-0gUyEG8x/

There is more to a physical disability than the disability we see.

Written by Robert Wise – PDA VIC Associate Director

I would like to touch on this subject as many of us have a disability that can be seen – whether we are in a wheelchair, wear a prosthetic, walk with crutches or some other walking aid, have noticeable hearing loss, an obvious vision impairment or another form of physical disability.

Some of us have may have more than one physical disability. Some of us may have a condition yet to be diagnosed. Some of us may be impacted by loneliness, frustration or even depression brought on by disability. Some of us may have transitioned from able bodied to living with a physical disability later in life or we could have a disability from birth that slowly progresses as we get older.

Many of us have to learn many skills all over again or learn new skills and this can lead to other problems as I listed above. I do not want to single out any disability here, just to touch on other issues.

Not so long ago there was not much assistance available that enabled us to cope with our changing lives as we began our disability journeys.

I was recently on the panel of two Physical Disability Australia webinars (“Acquiring Disability Later In Life” and “The impact of physical disability on Family, Friends, and Relationships”). Involvement in these reminded me how important it is to be informed, to be able to share experiences, to be accepted and to harness the power that comes from these crucial tools.

If you haven’t yet watched these webinars, I encourage you to click on the above links and visit PDAs YouTube channel.

Despite disability related problems varying from person to person, our complete needs are often not considered when we require services such as helping us with our shopping, personal care or even help around the home.

Getting out is important and we can have support workers for this as a one-on-one, but some of us only get limited hours for this. What about meeting people and doing activities in a group environment? There are many sporting groups for people with physical disabilities and these are great if you like playing sport or want to try out a new one. But what about those of us who do not like playing sport or those of us who are getting older? Some of us like touring, sightseeing, visiting tourist attractions, going on holidays – all of which can be done one-on-one with a support worker if funding permits. This is fine for some of us. Many of us do not need one-on-one support 24/7. We just need support when things get tough and that’s where a group-based activity can help. These groups have support workers who are there if needed and you can meet people and do what you like to do at the same time – which can help if you are lonely and isolated. Many group-based outings are not made available to people with a physical disability, only those with a mental or intellectual disability. This is a great pity. Whilst people with a physical disability can be independent, some are not.

Group-based outings would be great for them to get out. To be with people, to access the community, to widen their worlds by visiting attractions and to enjoy the company of others. Physical disabilities can vary greatly, but we all have the same needs, wants and rights to enjoy life – in spite of difficulties.

I live on my own and am quite independent, only needing support workers for some daily tasks and assistance when in the community. I too need a break from the mundanity of life that so often accompanies disability. To get out and enjoy myself touring, not having to worry about getting my meals, arranging transport or finding accessible places of interest and accommodations. A group-based activity organisation does this for you. Many people with physical disability do not have funding in their plans for STA or group-based holidays or activities. I think greater emphasis should be placed on the importance of these and the benefits that come with such opportunities. They should be included in our NDIS plan reviews as part of our mental health wellbeing which I feel is part of the what the NDIS is about.

Advocacy 101: What is Advocacy, what are Advocacy Types & why is this important?

Written by PDA’s VIC Director, Tim Harte

Speaking up for others or oneself is the elementary definition of advocacy. Crucially ‘speaking up’ is a variable course of action in the pursuit of achieving a specific outcome. Different forms of advocacy are characterised through the process of ‘speaking up’ and the scope of the advocacy’s aims. 

Individual/case-based advocacy aims to achieve a specific outcome for an individual. An NDIS appeal that advocated for provision of physiotherapy as an early intervention support in my NDIS plan is an example of individual/case-based advocacy. 

Systemic advocacy aims to achieve outcomes for the benefit of a population of people through modification of policy, procedure, legislation, or practice. A civil class action against a government body for non-compliance of bus stops with relevant disability discrimination is an example of systemic advocacy.

Within the scope of individual/case-based advocacy is: 

• citizen advocacy, involving individuals receiving support from volunteers;

• self-advocacy, where individuals advocate for themselves;

• professional advocacy, where professionals advocate on behalf of an individual;

• and carer/peer advocacy, where carers or peers advocate on behalf of an individual.

The literature base on advocacy in Australia states that professional advocacy is the primary advocacy type operating within the scope of systemic advocacy, however, systemic advocacy, in recent decades, is increasingly utilising knowledge from individual cases to contribute to the collective systemic advocacy case for policy, legislation, or practice change. Collective systemic self-advocacy coordinated by Disabled People’s Organisations, like Physical Disability Australia, conducts perpetual systemic advocacy work, utilising the individual experiences of People with Disabilities to understand flaws in system in order to work with Government in advising and advocating for solutions to reduce barriers and improve the experiences of People with Disabilities as they navigate society.1-4  

Why is advocacy important? 

Human rights are attained and realised through advocacy.5 Considerable historical background validates that advocacy, in various forms, has been successfully used to rectify discrimination and inequity experienced by vulnerable and marginalised groups. Examples of direct action, collective action and movement building by people with disabilities date back over a century, in 1920 the National League of the Blind in the United Kingdom successfully conducted mass protests about working conditions and poverty experienced by the disability community. In recent years, in Australia, the #LetHerSpeak advocacy campaign, founded by Grace Tame and Nina Funnell, successfully employed various key areas of campaigning to achieve legislative reform, amending the Criminal Code Amendment (Sexual Abuse Terminology) Act 2020 (Tas) s 5 to uphold freedom of expression rights for child sexual abuse survivors.6-9

Physical Disability Australia works to ensure the rights of all People with Disabilities are realised. As a Disabled People’s Organisations, Physical Disability Australia, mission is centred by the lived-experience of our members. Systemic advocacy is the process of us (PDA) speaking up and elevating the voices of People with Disabilities to ensure decision makers know what barriers our community encounters and what solutions are available to resolve and overcome these barriers.


1. Dalrymple, J., & Boylan, J. (2013). Effective advocacy in social work. Sage. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781473957718

2. Dunning, A. (1995). Citizen advocacy with older people: a code of good practice. Centre for Policy on Ageing.

3. Forbat, L., & Atkinson, D. (2005). Advocacy in practice: The troubled position of advocates in adult services. British Journal of Social Work, 35(3), 321-335. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bch184

4. Rossetti, Z., Burke, M. M., Rios, K., Tovar, J. A., Schraml-Block, K., Rivera, J. I., Cruz, J. & Lee, J. D. (2021). From individual to systemic advocacy: Parents as change agents. Exceptionality, 29(3), 232-247. https://doi.org/10.1080/09362835.2020.1850456

5. Brolan, C. E., Boyle, F. M., Dean, J. H., Taylor Gomez, M., Ware, R. S., & Lennox, N. G. (2012). Health advocacy: a vital step in attaining human rights for adults with intellectual disability. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 56(11), 1087-1097. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2012.01637.x

6. Assembly, U. G. (1966). International covenant on civil and political rights. United Nations, Treaty Series, 999, 171. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/ccpr.pdf

7. Dallaston, E., & Mathews, B. (2022). Reforming Australian criminal laws against persistent child sexual abuse. Sydney L. Rev., 44, 77. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.500121913977664

8. French, S. (2017). Visual impairment and work: Experiences of visually impaired people. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315569536

9. Nash, A. (2001). People. dot. community: A resource for effective community activism. Villamanta Legal Service.

A successful 2022 Annual General Meeting

On Saturday PDA held its AGM – bringing together our Board, Members and Ambassador, Dinesh Palipana OAM.

It was wonderful to have so many join us to hear about the work, successes and momentum of 2022 and the plans for 2023 and beyond.

Thank you to all those who attended and all our Members who continue to play a role in PDA maintaining its place as an active, understanding and relevant supporter of Australians living with physical disability.

If you’re not yet a PDA MEMBER and have an interest in making a positive contribution to Australia’s disability landscape, think about signing up for FREE MEMBERSHIP by going to

www.pda.org.au/membership/

We look forward to welcoming you to the PDA community.

PDA’s President speaks with Channel 9 Perth about his home modifications and the need for the WA Government to commit to accessibility standards reform.

Earlier this week PDA’s President, Andrew Fairbairn, spoke to Channel 9 Perth about the State Government’s delayed decision to commit to implementing the accessibility standards in the National Construction Code.

The WA State government is being called upon to implement accessibility standards in all social and private housing construction.

Check out Andrew’s interview by going to:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2345062925652841&ref=sharing

PDA Members are invited to our AGM this Saturday (19th November 2022) via Zoom.

Join us to hear what we’ve been up to in 2022, what our plans are moving forwards and be part of the Physical Disability Australia conversation.

With updates from PDA Ambassador, Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM, and the PDA Team, our Annual General Meeting will be a great chance for Members to be an active part of the PDA community.

2:00pm Sydney/Melbourne/Hobart/Canberra

1:30pm Adelaide

1:00pm Brisbane

12:30pm Darwin

11:00am Perth

We hope that you join us and look forward to welcoming you.

Wherever you are in Australia, you can attend via Zoom.

All you need is a phone, laptop, tablet or computer.

But you will need to register by going to:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcvdO6orDkqG9DcjONXLQKDcEUDwdf3P6_N

If you don’t have a Zoom account, signing up is free, quick and easy. Follow the prompts to create an account.

If you experience problems, please email us at promotion@pda.org.au or call 1800 PDA ORG (1800 732 674).

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Meeting documents will be provided ahead of the meeting.

We really look forward to you joining us and saying “hi”.

Have you visited PDA’s YouTube channel lately?

There are some really interesting, informative and entertaining videos to watch – including our two most recent webinars around “Disability and Relationships”.

In “Relationships Part 1: Family, Friends and Support Workers” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijm7gzLKHww) our 3 panelists will share their stories around relationships and the challenges that they have faced and (in some cases) continue to deal with.

From family dynamics with parents, brothers, sisters, maintaining boundaries with support workers, knowing who your true friends are, and an interesting look at relationships from the perspectives of both a mother and son, this is a very insightful presentation.

In “Relationships Part 2: Intimate Relationships” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUOhg7irPZ0) the presenters will honestly and frankly share their personal stories, discussing the ways disability has shaped and influenced their relationships. They will also give insight into challenges encountered in their love lives and the importance of both partners’ needs being central to the conversation.

From waning libido, to loss in confidence, to finding practicable ways to be intimate and finding (and keeping) your perfect soul mate, this webinar will cover topics that are all too often swept under the carpet.

What happens if disability gets in the way of a sexual or emotional relationship? What if sex is a challenge or just not of interest to one partner? What if fear or lack of confidence sabotages a relationship or the search for someone to love and to be loved by?

A great exploration of intimacy around disability that shouldn’t be missed.

Do yourself a favour and check these (and all of PDA’s other videos)out.

Whilst you’re there, don’t forget to subscribe to the PDA YouTube channel so that you’re kept up to date with all future webinar additions.

Autonomous Cars and the 7 surprising ways they will change your world.

Tyson Grubb (CEO, Instrument Choice) has written an interesting piece on autonomous cars.

PDA’s NSW Associate Director, Peter Simpson, believes that this technological advancement will leave wheelchair users out in the cold in the same way that wheelchair accessible taxis has done.

Thank you to Tyson Grubb for allowing us to share this article.

I’m a bit of a thinker, often I get side tracked considering how the future is shaped by the decisions and technologies that are coming about today.  

In 2016 I was fortunate to get access to see Googles autonomous vehicle test track in California, watching these cars go about their business with no drivers on board made it clear to me that the future of human drivers was limited.  When we consider the exponential growth in computing power (check out Moore’s law), the reliability and likelihood of this technology becoming mainstream grows exponentially.

Autonomous cars will likely be commonplace at the start of next decade.  This will change the way we travel, the way we own cars and is predicted to bring traffic accidents close to zero.  You might have heard about some of the effects of self-driving cars, like the loss of jobs of truck drivers or the reduction in accidents once most cars are autonomous.  There are other knock on effects of technology you may not have thought of, there may be other factors that could affect these outcomes, but these are my predictions based on what could happen (without considering other unknowns such as world economic changes or government regulations etc).

1. Regional house prices will grow faster than in the city
Many people dream of a tree change, but their work commute stops them from making the leap.  Now with work from home increasing (because of the pandemic), regional prices have pushed up, this trend will continue when you can do other things instead of driving (while your car whisks you to work), you can sleep, work, have breakfast, have a meeting or catch up on more Netflix, you won’t think twice about a longer commute.  And with regional property supply being restricted while demand increases, the price of country living will go up.

2. Will you own a car?
Probably not.  You see, once the cost of the driver is eliminated then the cost of a ‘taxi’ or ‘Uber’ type service will shrink significantly, and for most people it will be much cheaper to use a short-term car hire service than to own a car (forget dealing with the maintenance costs and issues that comes with car ownership).  You may miss your own car at first, but when you can press a button on an app and a car arrives to your location within minutes and can take you anywhere for a small fee, why would you bother having your own car.  The question then will be, what will you use your garage for, a games room, home office or the ultimate man-cave or she-shed?

3. Car parks will die
So, cars will pick you up from wherever you are and drop you off where you want to go.  But what does the car do in-between?  It picks someone else up, it keeps working, it keeps transporting people and so does not need to park anywhere.  Of course, it will need to refuel or recharge its batteries (as they will be electric or possibly hydrogen powered), but this will be a much shorter period than if you were to park your car for meetings, shopping, entertainment etc.  And the carparks for charging will probably exist in cheaper real-estate on the outskirts of cities (pushing up the prices of the land on the edges of cities a little too).

4. The car insurance industry will collapse
With only companies owning the cars (this is Uber’s plan by the way), and no accidents, what will the car insurance industry be able to charge for?  Not much, car insurance will be a thing of the past for the general consumer and the companies that own the cars will pay a much smaller amount as accidents reduce to next to nothing.

5. Bus routes will become more nuanced
Buses will be smaller and the number of routes will increase, buses can take you closer to where you want to go.  Think of them more as a larger car pooling service where you are sharing with a group of people based on where you all want to go at that point in time.

6. Package delivery costs will shrink
With the drivers not needed for long haul cross road transport, safety rules not requiring breaks then the cost of trucking goods will decrease.  For cross town transport, the autonomous truck will rock up at your house or work, and a drone will do the last 20m of delivery, dropping the parcel safely at your door.

7. Police will need to raise revenue from somewhere other than traffic violations
Autonomous cars will be programmed not to break the law and so won’t.  In 2017 Australian speeding fines totalled $1.1 billion, without considering all other traffic violations and that this number would likely to have increased in the last 5 years.  This is a lot of cash the government will not be receiving, but then perhaps less police will be needed as they won’t be spending their days monitoring traffic. Will there be less police, or will police be moved to where they are needed?

I am sure there are more knock-on effects, and over the next 8-10 years a lot will change too.  

How do you think autonomous cars will change the world?  Is it good, bad, or just is what it is?  Would love to hear your thoughts.