History of Disability in South Australia

Maurice was born at Tantanoola, in the south-East of South Australia, in 1958. At age 18 he was working as an apprentice fitter and turner in Mt Gambier, but this came to an abrupt conclusion with a vehicle accident. Maurice was driving and had a small suitcase on the back seat of the car. A collision with another vehicle resulted in the case flying over the back of the driver’s seat, and striking Maurice on the back of the neck. This was sufficient to cause a C5/6 lesion which left him a quadriplegic. He sustained no other injuries.

He was air-lifted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital where he spent six weeks, followed by six months rehabilitation at the Hampstead Centre. His family and the local community were totally supportive. A telegram arrived from his employer saying that if Maurice could do anything at all, the firm wanted him back. This offer provided an immense psychological lift, and much of the rehabilitation program was then geared towards improving skills in clerical work. The local community raised the money to build on an accessible bathroom, and provide other access requirements.

Obtaining a driver’s license was a major problem for Maurice near the end of his rehabilitation as he did not have sufficient strength in his triceps muscle to enable him to drive with hand controls. This was to be very important if Maurice was to be able to gain a reasonable level of independence in the country and be able to return to work in Mount Gambier.

With assiduous exercise and great support from George Dunstan his driving instructor, Maurice was able to eventually obtain his driver’s license and leave the rehab hospital. Within two weeks of exiting rehab he was driving himself back to work at Panel-board in Mt Gambier again where he was able to undertake the receptionist position and operated the switchboard.

Maurice continued to come over to Adelaide to visit the Hampstead Centre from time to time for rehab, and would often talk to the new quads and paras there, encouraging them to get on with their lives. The Director of the Spinal Injuries Unit at the time recognised the benefits of this peer counselling and tried to get Maurice a position at the Unit but the Health Commission refused this as he had no formal qualifications.

This led to discussions with the Social Worker at the Spinal Injuries Unit who encouraged Maurice to consider formal tertiary studies which also meant a move back to Adelaide. In 1982 Maurice came to live at an independent living – training house (Focus Housing) at Mile End.

Andrew Stolle, the Social Worker at Focus Housing, encouraged Maurice to apply for mature-age entry to the Institute of Technology (later part of Uni SA) to study for the Associate Diploma in Social Work. This application was initially knocked back, but the Residential Care Worker at Focus Housing suggested a personal visit to clarify the grounds for this rejection. He accompanied Maurice and had to lift his chair up the fifteen steps to gain entry to the Institute to meet Rod Oxenberry, head of school, who looked again at Maurice’s application and said he could see no reason why he should not be enrolled.

After 3 months in the training house, Maurice moved to a unit in Old Treasury Lane, in the City and commenced his studies. In the housing units a group of people with disabilities who had also gone through the training house, discussed the need for a client-managed personal assistant program. A concept totally innovative and untried at that stage in South Australia but one that was supported by Crippled Children’s Association (CCA) and specifically, adult services Social Worker, Gary Wilson.

Maurice and Trevor Harrison wrote up the constitution and obtained funding from the CCA and Trevor was appointed as the first coordinator of what became known as the Community Independence Association (CIA) or now known as Enhanced Lifestyles.

Maurice became a member of the Board of the Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Association in 1983, and he was later the Chair for some years. He graduated with his Associate Diploma in social work in 1985, and briefly took up a position as peer counsellor with Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Association working mainly in the spinal injuries units. It was there that he met Sheila, his future wife, a physiotherapist on a working holiday from the UK.

The Regency Park Centre, part of CCA was then in the process of devolving residents back into the community and supported accommodation, and Maurice took up the Social work position there.

Maurice also took on the child protection coordinator role and helped to establish a protocol for investigative interviewing of children with speech and communication difficulties. While working full-time at CCA, Maurice undertook the bridging course at the University of SA to obtain his degree in Social Work and graduated in 1992.

One of his placements was with the Commonwealth Department of Families and Communities with Bob Bolton. This involved reviewing the Common Ground Bulletin Board project located at the Disability Information and Resource Centre (DIRC).

At the time of this review, it was shortly after the demise of Disabled People International (DPI) SA Branch and Maurice recognised a lack of advocacy for and by people with a lived experience of disability. One of the recommendations that came from the review was the need to establish a network of consumer advocates connected by the electronic bulletin Board.

Steve Key, Executive Officer of Disability Action Inc. was on the steering committee for the review, and invited Maurice to work with them to develop a submission to the Commonwealth to fund such a network. Thus was born the Disability Rights and Advocacy program (DARE).

Maurice was appointed the first co-ordinator in 1994. Initially there was no training for consumers to be able to act as advocates and Maurice initiated and coordinated meetings of representatives of the various advocacy agencies in consultation with the Industry Training Advisory Boards. A Course Advisory Group was established and Chaired by Maurice with representation from each of the local advocacy agencies, together with Margaret Thornton, a TAFE curriculum writer to develop a draft curriculum for advocacy training.
This led to the establishment of a nationally recognised advocacy training program in 1977 which was launched by Sir Ronald Wilson, the President of the Human Rights and Equal opportunity Commission (HREOC). Six modules were eventually developed and the program has been delivered all over the country. People are being encouraged to be involved, to learn how to advocate for themselves and others.

In 1997, on Steve Key’s retirement, Maurice was appointed Executive Officer of Disability Action, and successfully applied for funding from the Commonwealth to establish the South Australian Employer/Employee of the Year Award.. WorkCover and other organisations later became major sponsors for these awards which were presented by the Governor at Government House.

Over a 15 year period, Maurice has been a strong force behind the drive for accessible public transport in Australia. People with disabilities had long been aware of issues with transport and how this impinged on every aspect of their lives: education, employment health, shopping, entertainment and social activities.

Prior to the 1993 election, advocates including Maurice lobbied for the introduction of accessible transport in SA. An opportune moment arrived with the changeover from the State Transport Authority to the launch of TransAdelaide in 1994.

On the day of the launch of TransAdelaide, Maurice organised a blockade of the Mile End bus depot to highlight the need for accessible transport trials to begin and if they didn’t advocates would lodge complaints under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA). When the Government refused to give this commitment, three people; Melissa Madsen, the late Judy Thompson and Maurice lodged complaints with HREOC against the Minister for transport, TransAdelaide and the Passenger Transport Board.

Through a Freedom of Information Inquiry Helen Finch, an advocate from the DDA Support Project in South Australia discovered that the government proposed to order 50 new buses, none of which would be accessible to people in wheelchairs because they were not going to have ramps fitted. On behalf of the advocates Helen applied for an Interim Injunction to HREOC to prevent the Government going ahead with this order. Helen Finch appeared for the complainants and the case was heard by Sir Ronald Wilson who granted the injunction against the State Government. The Hearing took place on 13 September and injunction prevented the State proceeding with the order of $23 million worth of buses. This was the first real demonstration of the power of the Australian DDA and a full hearing was set for 12 October.

Just prior to the full Hearing, Queensland, Victoria and NSW Departments of Transport along with the Australian Bus and Coach Association applied to join the case against the three advocates. The Hearing lasted for 3 days, and the outcome was that a ‘Conciliated Agreement’ was reached.

The Agreement included conditions that the State would only purchase accessible buses in the future and they would conduct a trial and develop a Disability Action Plan that would outline how they would make all transport accessible to all people with a disability. This was another significant indication of the power of the DDA. The first “Accessible Transport Action Plan” for TransAdelaide was released in July 1995.

The Australian Transport Council (ATC - All State and Commonwealth Ministers for Transport) recognized the importance of this legal precedent and met in Adelaide directly after the Hearing. They established a national Taskforce to consider how best to address access to public transport across Australia and Maurice was invited to be a member.

The Taskforce recommended to the ATC the need for a national committee to develop an Accessible Public Transport Standard under the DDA. Maurice was one of three national representatives on the committee to develop and consult on a national Standard.

Maurice’s work in assisting to develop the Standard was later recognized when he was seconded to the position of national Coordinator of the DDA Standards Project in 1999. In this role he coordinated a range of consultations and the disability sector’s input into a range of DDA Standards such as the Education Standard and the Access to Buildings/Premises Standard.

The Transport Standard was promulgated through Parliament in October 2002 and the Education Standard in 2005.

The next career move in 2001 took Maurice into the South Australian Public Service as Senior Policy Officer: Disability within the Strategic Planning and Policy Division, Department of Human services. In this role he is responsible for coordinating the SA Government’s disability strategy, “Promoting independence: Disability Action Plans for South Australia”. This position involved acting as the Executive Officer to the across- government Reference Group and coordinating the ongoing monitoring and reporting against the key outcomes of the strategy to the Minister for Disability.

Maurice is currently the Manager for Disability Inclusion in the Office for Disability and Client Services, Department for Family and Community Services where he is responsible to the Director, Office for Disability and Client Services for leading the development, co-ordination and management of a number of specialised strategies and programs. These strategies focus on the promotion of improved quality of life, access and inclusion outcomes for people with disabilities in South Australia.

As a background to his paid employment Maurice has played a significant voluntary role in community affairs, representing people with disabilities. From 1998-2000 he was the National Disability Representative on the national taskforce on Accessible Public Transport Standards and the Federal Attorney-general’s Steering Committee on Accessible Public Transport.

In 1998-99 he was appointed by the Minister to chair the Disability Advisory Council of South Australia and also to carry out an evaluation of quality services for people with disabilities in South Australia. He chaired the Physical Disability Council from 1988-2004, and was elected Chair of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations in 2004.

In this role Maurice has represented the Australian disability sector in meetings at the United Nations headquarters in New York to develop an International Convention on the Rights of People with a Disability.
This UN Convention was formally promoted by the UN and had over 60 Countries (including Australia) sign up to it on March 30 2007.

In June 2006 Maurice was made a member of the Order of Australia, an A.M. for his sustained service to people with a disability and contribution to development of national Standards for Accessible Public Transport. In December 2002, Maurice received a National award from the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission for his work on developing Transport Standards. He received a Centenary Medal in 2001 for “powerful advocacy at a National level for people with a disability”.

Maurice is married to Sheila and they have three children, Sophie, Martha and Tom