Episode 28: Brisbane 2032

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0:00 Carers Queensland Announcement: You’ve heard of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, but how much do you know about it?  Find out what it means, how it works, and how to apply for access at Carers Queensland’s free workshop, Understanding the NDIS.  Find out more, check for events coming up near you, and book your spot online at carersqld.com.au.  You can also call us on 1300 999 636. 

0:29 Jodie van de Wetering: Choice and Control, a podcast celebrating people with disability.  Brought to you by Carers Queensland, NDIS Local Area Coordination Partner in the Community. 

This year we not only had the excitement of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, we found out that Brisbane will be the host city in 2032.  That’s big news for tourism, business and for the sporting world, it’s also a great opportunity to boost the profile of para sport of all kinds and to get new sporting facilities with the very best accessibility built in. 

Paralympian Bridie Keen represented Australia in wheelchair basketball at the Beijing and London Games, and she was instrumental in securing the host city honour for Brisbane. 

1:16 Bridie Keen: It was an opportunity I never thought, it had never even crossed my mind, that I could do something like that when I was an athlete.  Having long retired in 2015, it was a real honour when Paralympics Australia contacted me in the bid process and asked me to be the Paralympic athlete to represent the Paralympic movement.  It came with a lot of honour and a fair bit of responsibility in terms of wanting to make sure I could convey what was important to the Paralympic movement.  But the process was really cool to be a part of, there was the ability for us to talk about and to consider what 2032 can have in terms of impact for the greater community, the greater disabled community.  Something that just made it such a surreal thing to be a part of, to sort of think ‘okay what could we really achieve having this 10 year plus runway into the Games?’ and not just for our Paralympic athletes, although that will be an important component, but just to be the most accessible place in the universe would be a nice outcome of the 2032 Games. 

2:28 Fiona Stutz:  And how do you think we can get there, what do we need to do for Paralympic athletes before the Games to make sure this can happen? 

2:39 Bridie: For me, and I’m learning and I love hearing other people’s opinions about how we can create it, but for me I think again it goes back to a mindset.  We don’t even know what technology can achieve in 10 years’ time in terms of providing better inclusion and access for Paralympic athletes, but also disabled people in Queensland.  So, if we don’t know what technology can do, I think what we need to know is what we’re trying to achieve and that is true inclusion, truly accessible environment.  It goes back to I think you know even social models of disability where we think about how it is our environment that can create barriers, not necessarily our physical or intellectual impairments.  So, what do we need to change in our society that will mean that we can have equitable experiences of places and employment and education?  

I think that on a small-scale reverse inclusion is doing that in wheelchair basketball, we’re saying we need to have a wheelchair sport included just like you have netball included or just like you have basketball included in sports that Australian students will play.  That’s one space where you’re going in with an inclusive mindset not an ‘add on something for a person with a disability to do at the same time as everyone else’.  And so if we roll that out to society in terms of what you know prosthetics and wheelchairs and the spaces that we access will look like, I can’t even imagine what we could achieve by 2032.  But the key to doing it is to just be having those conversations and for people who are planning and making those decisions to be thinking inclusively from the outset.  

4:25 Jodie: Queensland now has an organising committee to oversee our preparation for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.  It looks after everything from the sports program itself to the torch relay, cultural events, and the athletes’ accommodation. One of the 14 people on the committee is three-time Gold Medallist Kurt Fernley as Paralympic representative.  He reckons, from an athlete’s perspective, there’s no reason Brisbane ’32 can’t be the best Games ever.   

Ella Sabiljak is another Paralympian who is working to make sure people with disability are a part of every conversation that affects them.  She’s part of Paralympic Australia’s Athlete Commission and she’s really pleased to hear that Kurt’s on the organising committee for 2032. 

5:07 Ella Sabiljak: We just voted in Kurt Fernley to sit on the Brisbane ’32 committee that will help give a Paralympian’s perspective of how we can create such an inclusive Games.  I think for us, we want to have a Paralympian at every seat of every Board and Commission because if we’re not represented, if people with disabilities aren’t represented, it’s not going to be an inclusive Games.  So, we’re trying to get potentially someone in every Board meeting or whatever it may be, we are trying our hardest to be inclusive so that the Games can be the most inclusive Games ever. 

5:48 Fiona: Absolutely because you have to start doing that now don’t you?   

5:51 Ella: Yeah absolutely, because if we have the conversations now, then when it comes to crunch time it’s not going to be a shock.  People aren’t going to, you know, they haven’t planned for it or whatever else.  So, we’re trying our best to hopefully get it all in place and I know Kurt Fernley will be a great leader in that space. 

6:14 Jodie:  Brendan Burkett is the head coach of Australia’s Paralympic swimming team.  He says the Games in 2032 is an opportunity to raise the profile of para sports to an equal footing with their Olympic counterparts. 

6:27 Brendan Burkett: As we saw in Australia like the 2018 Commonwealth Games down on the Gold Coast, you know, having the para events they gained another level of profile around the country.  I think that’s you know really important just to show that inclusivity and recognise that some people are different, and it’s not by choice, but how do we make it all work for everybody?  So, you know I think the success of the Commonwealth Games, and again the profile increased in Tokyo this year, by the time 2032 comes around hopefully we’ve reduced that down so there is very little differentiation across those impairment profiles and between an abled and a para athlete. 

7:11 Carers Queensland Announcement:  Getting started with your first National Disability Insurance Scheme plan?  Get off to a strong start with Carers Queensland’s free workshop Using your NDIS Plan.  Learn how to use your funding, work with service providers, and use the myplace portal.  Find out more, check for events coming up near you, and book your spot online at carersqld.com.au.  You can also call us on 1300 999 636.   

7:39 Jodie: Dr Iain Dutia is a para sports classifier and a researcher with University of Queensland with a particular focus on athletes with disability.  We’ll need a lot of sporting facilities built or upgraded as we get ready for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Ian says that’s an opportunity to improve the infrastructure to benefit all Queenslanders. 

7:59 Iain Dutia: We’ve got such an opportunity.  It’s an exciting time to build infrastructure which is truly ground-breaking.  Combining elite sport facilities with facilities that cater for people with complex disability, that’s new, that’s ground-breaking.  I’m talking about you know 50 metre pools indoor heated but with ceiling track hoists so that [athletes classified as] your S1’s and 2’s can get in and train like everybody else. 

Accessibility in pools is such a good example because it’s so hard, even up here in Queensland where it’s warm for most of the year there’s still times where we just can’t train outside and suddenly it’s quite hard to find a pool because all the pools are outside.  You know we’ve got such an opportunity in the next 10 years to get the infrastructure right, and really highlight the need to invest in athletes with high support needs so we can have the most inclusive Games ever in 2032. 

8:57 Jodie: Seeing our Olympic and Paralympic athletes at the top of their game can be a great inspiration for the rest of us to be a bit more active or maybe suss out a sport we’ve never tried before.  Bridie Kean says this is a great opportunity to get more people of all abilities engaged with sport. 

9:14 Bridie: When I look at it I get overwhelmed with how much opportunity there is, and I think it’s something that if we know what areas we want to make a change in we can sort of work toward those areas.  I sort of see this spectrum of opportunity with the Games, I see it as something that can be a goal for aspiring Paralympic athletes to reach the pinnacle of sport and play a home Games.  That’s something I didn’t experience but I can imagine it would be a highlight and a remarkable opportunity for an athlete.   

But then what is so great about working with Paralympics Australia, and I was talking to the Paralympics Australia CEO today, that them committing to getting more people with a disability involved in para sport, not with the goal of everyone going to that high performance level, but just to ensure that sport is more accessible for more people.  I think that in terms of 2032, we’re going to go see so much in the high-performance space and it is really exciting, but I’m probably most excited about what it’s going to mean for grassroots and social sport. 

I just think everybody who wants to play sport should have the opportunity to, and I love that para sport opens that up for so many more people.  I played sport on the weekend, I just played in a wheelchair tennis tournament and I didn’t do very well at all, but it was so fun to be able to play a competitive game of wheelchair tennis.  I just hope that 2032 translates to people playing sport who may have thought that there weren’t sporting opportunities available to them, and opens up the door to more accessible venues, more para sports in our community, and just more opportunities to be involved in sport. 

11:12 Fiona: Absolutely, and where will you be in 2032? 

11:16 Bridie: I’ll be hopefully at every single sport watching them all, but I’m not going to miss the the women’s wheelchair basketball. I’m already so excited for what our Australian women’s wheelchair basketball team is going to produce in 2032.  I know a lot of those players are not playing the sport yet, so if you are a young female with a disability interested in the best sport in the world, please get involved in wheelchair basketball, it’s the best. 

11:42 Fiona: A little plug there? 

11:44 Bridie: Yes!   

11:47 Jodie: Thanks for joining us at Choice and Control, a Carers Queensland podcast.  For more information about the National Disability Insurance Scheme or Carers Queensland contact us online at carersqld.com.au.  You can call us on 1300 999 636 or head to Facebook and look for Carers Queensland NDIS. 

Mentioned in this episode 

• Paralympics Australia 
• Carers Queensland website 
• Carers Queensland upcoming events and workshops 
• Carers Queensland NDIS on Facebook 

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