Disability Voices Tasmania

Mr President, today I would like to recognise a fairly new, but growing organisation in our state, Disability Voices Tasmania. 

This organisation was created to give Tasmanians with disability a powerful collective voice.  

Disability Voices is an organisation that aims to set the agenda on the key issues for people with disability and build capacity to help create change in the community.

About a quarter of all Tasmanians are living with a disability, one of the highest rates in Australia.

In spite of the numbers, many people with disability commonly experience barriers to making a contribution and participating in the ordinary everyday life that many of us take for granted.

Too many Tasmanians with disability have been denied access to opportunities, felt their views and hopes have not been respected, have been excluded from education or employment, and found it hard to exercise their rights.

Disability Voices seeks to address these issues and open up new opportunities for our state to benefit more fully from the potential of all community members.

Importantly, this organisation has been established and managed by people with disability.  

The project team currently working for Disability Voices comprises Fiona Strahan, Matty Wright and Ann Reimer who are supported by a Planning Group of six people. 

Membership is open to all Tasmanians with disability, and the organisation welcomes the contribution of its members to help shape and build it.

It will continue to develop as a diverse and powerful collective voice of and for Tasmanians with disability.

Mr President, in my role prior to being elected, I was pleased to be involved in early discussions and workshops that explored the potential establishment of a statewide representative organisation for Tasmanians with disability.

I admire and congratulate those community advocates who were persistent and effective in achieving that early vision.

Disability Voices Tasmania was first funded as a pilot project through the Department of Communities Tasmania in 2018.

In 2019 it was successful in gaining three-year funding under the National Disability Insurance Agency’s Information Linkages and Community Building grant.

That grant is being used to fund three projects each year.

Those projects will build the skills, knowledge, confidence and collective voice of people with disability in this state.

The first project being undertaken by Disability Voices is called Pitch Perfect.  It is a series of workshops about using personal stories to influence decision makers.

The second project is exploring the value of inclusive tourism in Tasmania and investigating how lived experience stories can be used to assist local tourism businesses to become more inclusive.

I look forward to the insights from this project being shared and the roll-out of future projects.

Mr President, it is important to recognize why an organisation such as Disability Voices Tasmania is necessary.

For decades, people with a disability have advocated on the basis of “nothing about us, without us.”

Too often, the voices of people with disability were not appropriately respected, their knowledge and experience were not well valued, and their contribution was not readily welcomed.

Too often people with disabilities were spoken for, instead of being listened to.  

Indeed, when participants in the pilot stage of Disability Voices Tasmania were asked if they felt their voice was heard the vast majority responded with a resounding no.

A mother of a son with disability summed it up beautifully when she said, “My son says his voice is a squeak in the noise”

Our community is richer with the voices and contributions of all its citizens.

Diversity is vital to a responsive, engaging and successful democracy.

Although people with disability are as individually diverse as any group of people, they have some commonality of issues and shared experiences.

They are the experts on their lives, their strengths, their challenges and on the way forward to meet those challenges.

Mr President, Disability Voices Tasmania explains that having a voice means being able to ask a question and have an answer, being heard when you answer a question and for your experiences and knowledge to be respected and used.

Tasmanians with disability are a vibrant part of our community.

They are energetic, thoughtful and determined advocates.

They are problem solvers and contributors.

Like all of us, they want to participate in agenda setting and effect change in their community on issues that affect them.

Disabilty Voices Tasmania recognises that the power to effect change lies in a united, collective voice.

This is a voice which will add value to the whole community. 

I welcome it wholeheartedly and suggest that all of us take the opportunity to listen up.