When I was twelve, I starred in an ad for internet safety. Tousle-haired and small for my age, with huge blue eyes that threatened to swallow the camera, I sat in the centre of a set dressed to look like a child’s bedroom, peering intently into the screen of an old Mac.
Disability activism provides a roadmap for human flourishing, not just for people with disabilities, but for the world at large. If the NDIS is to be anything more than a decoration to hide further attacks on the welfare state, independent advocacy by DPOs must be bolstered. Without it, the NDIS will become a deadened institution that perpetuates neglect and segregation like the ‘big bins’ of old.
The parliament has passed legislation that permits the Attorney General to authorise certain activities of ASIO and affiliates as ‘special intelligence operations’. We can only assume that ASIO will seek such authorisation when its operatives plan to break the criminal or civil law – the whole point of authorising an operation as a special intelligence operation is that participants will be immune from the consequences of their unlawfulness. It will also be a criminal act to disclose information about these operations.
My journalism career ended in spectacular fashion with a job interview at a notorious tabloid television program, during which I abruptly realised that the newsroom was not a place I wanted to be. Seated across the desk from the Chief of Staff, my assumptions about the journalistic world crumbled.
I knew from a young age that I would work in the film industry. My mother was an extra, and before I could form sentences I was being pushed around in a pram on film sets.