The 87-year-old woman was born deaf and has spent the past two years living in a nursing home in Brisbane without Auslan support after she was diagnosed with dementia. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

Listen to George Megalogenis, @frankbongiorno.bsky.social @bspiesbutcher.bsky.social @emilyrosefoley.bsky.social and I discuss if Australia is entering a new political era. With record electoral shifts reshaping class, gender, race, and power dynamics, what does the future hold for our democracy?

Two podcasts that were released this week (involving me!) for those keen for some content for your ears 🎧 First up, a podcast from our "A New Australian Politics – Rupture or Realignment" event in September, funded by @auspsa.bsky.social and @uts-sps.bsky.social. pod.link/1760672339/e...

REALLY chuffed to be invited to @parismarx.com's incredible @techwontsave.us pod to talk about not just the climate harms we face from an uncontrolled data centre expansion but the way companies enacting it seem to think they're cape-wearing climate superheroes -->>> techwontsave.us/episode/304_...

I know I am exhausted and sick atm, but reading the 'progress' report on the disability royal commission is utterly shattering. a new plan and the ndis fraud work. that's it. 10,000 stories and 4.5 years. www.health.gov.au/resources/pu...

5 days til launch Any questions? Drop them below 👇 #PoveratiXmas

there was a visit from one of the neighbourhood cats this morning, and Rowan wants you all to know that she was very brave and protected the house with her very puffy tail and hisses from behind the flywire backdoor

Emmanuel, a 15-year-old with intellectual disabilities, wandered away from his mom’s fruit stand in October. She reported him missing to Houston police. But instead of reuniting them, the city turned him over to ICE. “They’re failing all of us,” his mom said. thebarbedwire.com/2025/11/24/d...

more info on the new NDIS legislation - includes most of the already flagged a year ago measures for the Commission, including consultation. focus on giving the Commission the powers to act that other regulators have (WILD 'oversight') www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...

"Fixing the main road and infrastructure isn't on their priority list, but taking down a free shop is." www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

"A Tribute to an Oracle, Alice Wong" "Alice had the ability to look to the future and a world where laws and attitudes did not keep disabled people poor, pitied, and isolated." essential reading on Alice from Rebecca Cokley www.thenation.com/article/soci...

new NDIS legislation due today, focused on increased powers for the regulator www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

I am talking (remotely) at the big provider conference this afternoon, and you can imagine that I may be a tad grumpy

this interview, and the subsequent reporting around it, was absolutely infuriating. any other sector's big business lobby wouldn't get this kind of uncritical, uninformed, wildly inaccurate coverage, yet disabled peoples' essential services do [little 🧵] www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

wtaf www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

'people with disability over the age of 15 were also more likely to experience all types of assault included in the report' www.sbs.com.au/news/article...

IMF ghouls say care and support must go, while more money to big business thenightly.com.au/politics/imf...

short term funding for cohealth, but no certainty "In the eight months before I found cohealth I presented to emergency on 17 occasions," Rachel Crouch said. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

I will not fight with people on Threads about Makaton. I will not fight with people on Threads about Makaton. I will not thebaffler.com/outbursts/si...

‪I am amongst the most privileged in my communities, and acknowledge the massive privilege I have had in being able to manage to self-fund / cobble things together for all but one of the COPs I’ve attended. But a key reason I haven’t been in this space the last 2yrs is that issue.‬

(And that’s not even considering that for many of us disabled people the only way such a voyage is even slightly accessible is to travel business class - or pay several days of inflated COP accommodation extra so we can recover before the conference starts).

‪But what about civil society, disabled people, and Indigenous Peoples? ‬ ‪The funding environment is so challenging as it is, and it is hard to justify to funders the importance of our attendance when it costs double and often more than other delegates.‬

‪I sincerely hope that there is going to be a massive dose of financing to ensure that Pacific Island states can show up in force. It is ridiculous that the states who are very literally on the front lines of climate change are routinely spread so thin across negotiations. But…‬

I just travelled 40 hours to get here, and paid an extortionate amount for flights. I love my colleagues from all around the world but they just don’t have the same barriers to physically get to COPs as we do in the Pacific. This has a real effect on COP outcomes.

‪Of course, having some form of stronger Pacific voice at #COP31 is better than the alternative of a fully Türkiye focused conference, but this host country arrangement does nothing to address the very real practical & financial barriers for Pacific participation in these spaces.‬

It’s too early yet to know what to make of tonight’s news that Türkiye will physically host #COP31, with Australia as President & some partnership with the Pacific. But at least for my community, this is a really tough blow at a critical time & it will reduce our participation.

People with disability were more likely to be physically assaulted by someone they knew and to experience assault in their own home. 18% of people with disability experienced fraud in a 12-month period, compared with 13% of people without disability www.abs.gov.au/media-centre...

Mutual obligation requirements will be paused for all participants from Monday 15 December 2025 until Monday 5 January 2026 (inclusive). www.workforceaustralia.gov.au/individuals/...

this image got shared in a local facebook group and hoo boy, folks are not getting the point at all

www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2... this sweet obit from one of Alice’s close friends, Yomi, is beautiful. <3

'The family said they were heartbroken by the incident but determined for change. "We are here because we want answers, we want accountability, and we want real, immediate change to ensure no other First Nations child is ever treated like this again," they said.' www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

Despite police being called to their home several times by neighbours who heard him yelling at her, the two – victim and perpetrator – were seen by police as “just as bad as each other”. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

"Kardell Lomas and her baby should still be here. And her family have every right to fight for justice, both in the coroner’s court and beyond." essential reading from Dr Amy McQuire www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

'older Australians, people with disability and those without formal qualifications are being forced to compete for jobs that simply no longer exist.' www.news.com.au/finance/work...

fixing the NDIS hinges on this deal. how the hell do we do this with care of disabled people, when there is this kind of blue going on? hearing leaders talk about disabled people like this is so awful www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11... archive.md/pFwTe

“I'm honoured to be your ancestor”: remembering Alice Wong in her own words. Alice's writing changed the way I see myself and our future. Here are the ones that touched me most: www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/hono...

For every entry-level vacancy, there are 39 people on the JobSeeker payment. Of those, 25 have barriers to work. This is the highest ratio ever recorded by the Snapshot. Entry-level jobs now make up just 11% of all vacancies. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

summary of the NDIS reform advisory committee meeting is up (which I co-chair with @dougieherd.bsky.social) www.health.gov.au/resources/pu...

Only 18 per cent of Melbourne's tram services are accessible for commuters with mobility restrictions, according to Vic's Auditor-General The follow-up report found those commuters often have to wait up to half an hour longer for trams with lower floors. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

The podcast is back for a short run, and today's podcast is about the history of previous parliamentary expansions, in 1948 and 1983, with historians Frank Bongiorno and @cmonnox.bsky.social www.tallyroom.com.au/63628 #auspol

My newsletter, The Troubled Region, is out - in your inbox or subscribe at the link 👇 Great interview in this edition with Prof Tanalís Padilla on Mexico's 'rural normal' schools - worth reading up on with Mexico's (ostensible) Gen Z in the news this week! www.thetroubledregion.com/mexicos-radi...

'New national arts network launches with opportunities for artists with disability' after the previous one collapsed artsreview.com.au/new-national...

"If the 'Thriving Kids' initiative is built with us, in shared decision-making with community, it can be transformational" Catherine Liddle, SNAICC CEO on importance of disability support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children nit.com.au/18-11-2025/2...

llps.substack.com/p/alice-wong.... what is remembered lives. @pipagaopoetry.bsky.social and me wrote our assess off on our Crips for eSims memory song for our beloved @sfdirewolf.bsky.social . #AliceForever

"Remembering Alice Wong: Writer, Advocate, Friend" Steven W. Thrasher on Meeting and Collaborating with the Outspoken Founder of the Disability Visibility Project published by @literaryhub.bsky.social | art by @mollycrabapple.bsky.social lithub.com/remembering-...

www.gofundme.com/f/alice-wong... here’s where to send funds to continue Alice’s legacy <3

wonderful thread from s.e. with links to so much of Alice's writing. settle in and read it all

"The states and territories are on a collision course with the Commonwealth over public hospital funding, with health ministers expressing white-hot anger over a letter from the prime minister demanding they rein in spending if they want a funding deal honoured." www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

Sharing this here for anyone able to help support Alice’s family and her projects. Please repost and share! bsky.app/profile/elea...

Just in VIC: "329 community visitors reported more than 6000 issues last year while undertaking more than 3200 inspections at more than 1100 facilities. Those figures included almost 3500 issues in disability services alone."