2023 Brisbane Gala Build – Raising funds for Paralympics Australia

A leading Australian disability advocate has called out successive political leaders for their selective blindness when it comes to the disability sector. More than 6,000 people flocked to Brisbane over the weekend for the largest disability and NDIS-related event in the nation’s history and not one of the three levels of government could manage to send along one person for one hour of one day to say ‘g’day’, Director of Developing Australian Communities Mr River Night said.
“The Disability Connection Expo is designed to give people living with a disability greater choice and control over how they live their lives and brought together more than 250 service providers under the one roof over March 3 & 4, the logistic considerations alone in catering to the needs of this community in this setting, are mind boggling.” Mr Night commented “We stage this event in 4 major Australian cities. It is purpose built for people with disabilities, their carers and families, and yet it attracts not one cent of public funding towards operations to help give the most vulnerable in our community greater choice and control,”
Mr Night explained that this is purely the sector showing up for the sector, and frankly governments need to take their blinkers off. Community awareness is what drives funding decisions and public policy. Without our elected leaders’ support, these milestone events occur inside a silo and serious and ongoing issues remain swept under the latest touring star’s red carpet. Mr Night said Friday evening also saw the Disability Staff Recognition Awards, sponsored by Holistic Horizons, delivered by the National Disability Leadership Organisation (NDLO), a charity established to support and raise awareness of key issues affecting the sector with 500 people attending. Supported by special guest Australian screenwriter, director and comedian, Tim Ferguson, the event raised funds for Paralympics Australia, and coincided with the launch of the Paralympics’ branding and strategy for Paris 2024 Games.
“Of the 4.4 million Australians who live with a disability, three in four want to play sport, yet only one in four has access to sport. Only 9 percent of Pathways Investment in the past two years went to Paralympic programs, while Olympic programs received 91 percent. Only 15 percent of high-performance investment in the past year went to Paralympic sports while 85% went to Olympic sports. It simply does not add up,” Mr Night commented “Our elected leaders have a collective blind spot when it comes to the disability sector.”




“Almost 1 in 5 Australians live with a disability, if you also include the family members and friends of those with lived experience, disability touches a big percentage of the population, however, it’s marginalised in terms of awareness, funding and media attention, it’s time this changed”, said Mike Clark, NDLO’s President.Clark highlighted that billions is invested in upgrading venues for the 2032 games while para-athletes struggle to raise their own funds to train and represent our country.
Mr Night said as an advocate with a disability, he had a unique view. Where was the mainstream media coverage. It seems the largest event in Australia’s history for the Disability and NDIS space could not compete with breaking stories about sandwiches when he looked through social media and each one of our TV news channels over the weekend. We have a lot of footage we can share if any of them realise this week they forgot about us.
“Perhaps having Autism means I notice and think of things a little too logically, but from what I saw in the media this week, these stories were more important than the amazing things that happened in Brisbane,” Mr Night commented.

• ·   a singer threw a mobile phone during a concert
• ·   an interesting piece was done by ABC Brisbane (across the road from the Expo) on Fairy Bread mixed with vegemite
• ·   Reminders that it would be 35 degrees again in Queensland (yep, we noticed that during the expo set up)
• ·   ABC let us know someone finally helped the Bowls club get a new dishwasher after the floods (definitely too long a wait)
• ·   Another cost of living piece on network 10 (We wonder if they have ever thought about how easy it is to find wheelchair accessible housing that is affordable or even exists)
• ·   A run on feather boa sales in Australia (woot!)
• ·   A rugby player maybe coming back to Queensland
• ·   a great story about a habitat for Wombats in Queensland

“While I don’t dispute that mixing fairy bread with vegemite is something that needs to be addressed, it beggars belief that an event like ours is deemed not news-worthy enough. Every time another person living with a disability passes away in terrible conditions and due to a lack of care, that’s news-worthy, but even then Australia only sees a tiny amount of the terrible things that occur in our sector. We need to stop that attitude in its tracks and promote Australia’s biggest events ever seen, promote solutions and promote change.” Mr Night commented “Raise the issues, talk about them, find solutions – and that happens only with an informed populace.How do we raise the issues when we are unseen, unheard, unsupported by Government and unrepresented in the balance of reporting?”  “It’s time Australia upped its game. It is time Australian media starts shining the light on Para-athletes, those living with disabilities and the great things about the disability sector, giving the 1 in 5 people living with disabilities greater representation” Mr Clark commented “While people may not openly discriminate and risk being cancelled if they are not politically correct, we now need to bang the drum about what we don’t see and what isn’t done.This level of disparity in funding for Paralympians is a national embarrassment.”.




Mr Night said that as a person with a disability and an advocate in the sector for almost 30 years he is outraged. “When are our politicians, community leaders and the international community going to start valuing their brothers, sisters, family members living with disability, as well as those training as para-athletes to represent their country?” Mr Night commented.“It isn’t just about how we value or devalue our Paralympians, it represents our culture and how we devalue the 4.4 Million Australians in our community – not by direct assault but by inaction. For example, not one post on social media or anything else by our state or federal leaders to let people know the event is on, during or after the event.
“As Cofounders Mike and I spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year of our own money to advertise the events to ensure the community know the biggest, free event in our country exists for the Disability Sector and then every month we have to work out how we can pay our own mortgage. We get zero grant or funded support and I dont have time to even write the grant applications due to the mammoth amount of work involved in delivering these events.” Mr Night commented.
Mr Night explained that if mainstream media, public media and our leaders could share the event and report on it we could put those funds we have to raise for advertising toward the community instead of paying premium prices for a little advertising space. The venues alone costs us close to $200 000 per event. “The lack of care and coverage and the blind eye we are afforded as a community reinforces and maintains that culture we see. It shows why employment, access and our society still marginalises and devalues people living with a disability.
“Governments are sending a very clear message to every child living with a disability right now, who is experiencing how little their country values them. It sends a clear message to the para-athletes trying to fit in training to represent Australia with next to no support to do it, so they work full time to save up for airfares and equipment. They will still achieve amazing things but wouldn’t it be great to have more than 10% of the funding available for the games in 2032 when they represent such a huge part of Australian culture.” Mr Night commented.
The next Disability Connection Expo is in Melbourne April 21 and 22, 2023 at MCEC and looks to be even bigger.