A comment seen today suggests that disabled tennis player Dylan Alcott's elevation to Australian of the Year is "great" for the sector, but it "threatens to entrench disability as another hostile arm of identity politics". Allcott has already demanded more funds for NDIS, which is already costing us 30 billion dollars a year. We know about the demands of the last recipient, which would not have been possible to make without getting the gong.

There are quite a few problems for wheelchair
athletes. The gap in prize money between wheelchair
stars and able-bodied athletes we're told remains
stark.

Apparently Tennis Australia has boosted its prize
money for wheelchair tennis but Dylan Alcott,
our recently named - "Australian of The Year" said
more had to be done.

Dylan has won 15 Grand Slam singles titles, praised the
Australian Open for leading the way on the issue, but
said more had to be done.

"We get less than half the first round loser that the
able-bodied get at all slams."

Travel is more expensive for wheelchair athletes. There
are extra baggage costs and often times they will have
to bring a support person to assist them with travel on
and off planes and through airports into cars and things...
As well as getting dressed and so on.

We need to understand that we do need to provide opportunities
of equal rights, sponsorships, all kinds of things which will
provide massive opportunities for people with disability -
athletes to be given the chance to earn the same type of money as
able-bodied athletes. Funding helps. It's not an unreasonable
request.

It is great that sport gives the disabled an extra interest in life, but to pay them for taking advantage of the opportunities offered is ridiculous.

It's good to see disabled people being able to participate. But the more money there is the more disabled there will be - particularly in Wokestralia where the definition of disadvantage gets broader all the time.

Alcott's personal disablement and difficulties are not in question. The use to which he and other AOY awardees put the honour - disabled or not - is in question.

Help for the disabled and less fortunate is a mark of civilisations. Awards are not necessary, particularly when recipients abuse the privilege as Alcott's predecessor did. Alcott seems to be a person of much higher calibre, but he has already stepped over the line, albeit with much more civility.

Hasbeen, ttbn,
Ditto !

There are a lot of people who are not disabled physically nor mentally but they're being disabled by incompetent bureaucrats in authority !

Economist and commentator  Judith Sloan  thinks it is time to "hang up the boots" on the Australian of the Year award, saying that plenty of other countries manage without such an award, and so can we. 

Hardly anyone has heard of the awardees, unless they are in sport, already lionised. Bah! Humbug!

Grace Tame, was a  "self-referencing victim/activist using her position to score as many political points as she could, as well as potentially setting herself up for well-remunerated positions in the future". Hear! Hear! She should never have been nominated. Over the years some of the selections have been very questionable.

Alan Bond  in 1978, before he went to jail. Peter Hollingworth  before  before it was alleged that he did not act on child abuse in a previous position, and then had to resign as Governor General. Two clangers there!  A couple of the later ones are now advertising "massage devices" and "solar power" on TV. Adam Goodes, not nominated for his football prowess, but for being a 'victim' of racism, supposedly. Rosie Batty and Lieutenant-General David Morrison. Gawd. The list goes on. The duds tower over the few good ones who never drew attention to themselves, but got on doing what they had been doing before the silly, wanky award.

Dylan Alcott's call for more money for the NDIS makes him no better than the last incumbent of the position.

The NDIS is already a huge rip off of hard working Australians. Gillard's revenge is costing us billions. An example.

I can no longer walk the distances involved in many chores required on my property. Dragging a couple of full wheelie bins a hundred meters to the front gate was just not possible. The obvious answer a big mobility scooter. I found what I needed was a Goliath Mobility Scooter. I found a couple companies supplying these to the NDIS, but the $5,750.00 & $5560 respectively was a bit much for my budget.

After some searching I found a Sydney company selling Bikes, electric bikes & other battery powered scooters & toys for grownups who supplied them. Not something similar, but the exact same thing. The price was a bit more appetising at only S2250 plus freight of $100.

I am very happy with my mobility scooter, but am horrified at the rip off of the NDIS. Not only have we hired a number of bureaucrats to run it on a million a year salaries, but they are the totally useless bureaucrats who don't do anything worth any salary. Paying over double for equipment is probably a scam, but at least incompetence.

Anyone who has not set up suitable sourcing in an organisation buying this stuff at the best price is not worth hiring, let alone a million dollar salary. Another stuff up ripping off the working public of Oz.

With a Commonwealth Minister administering it, and all the bureaucrats involved, the NDIS was never going to be run in a businesslike manner at best practice standard.

Good thing for you that you have the nous to do your own sorting, Hasbeen.

Anything that involves bureaucrats sticking their noses in is automatically over-priced & unnecessarily complex.