Quarterly Essay 91: Lifeboat
Disability, Humanity and the NDIS
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Narrated by:
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Micheline Lee
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By:
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Micheline Lee
About this listen
Caring or careless? In this powerful and moving essay, Micheline Lee tells the story of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, a transformative social change that ran into problems. For some users it has been “the only lifeboat in the ocean,” but for others it has meant still more exclusion.
Lee explains what happened, showing that the NDIS, for all its good intentions, has not understood people with disabilities well enough. While government thought the market could do its job, a caring society cannot be outsourced. Lee draws deeply on her own experience, on diverse case studies, as well as insights from moral philosophy and the law. She begins by considering what it is to be disabled. And since to be disabled is part of the human condition, she also considers what it is to be human.
This is an essay about common humanity and effective, lasting social change. “Unless you change how people think about things, you're not really going to change their actions or responses.”
“How people understand disability transforms how they respond to it. When they saw us as cursed or contaminated, they banished us, euthanised us or left us on the streets to perish. When they saw us as requiring protection, they institutionalised us. When they saw us as defective and in need of a cure, we were hospitalised and medicalised. When they saw us as tragic, they treated us as objects of charity. Now the NDIS has given us a new identity: consumer”— Micheline Lee, Lifeboat
©2023 Micheline Lee (P)2023 Audible Australia Pty Ltd.What listeners say about Quarterly Essay 91: Lifeboat
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- Anonymous User
- 05-10-2023
Challenging in the best ways
Recommended listening for all Australians but particularly those working in the care, education and health systems.
This essay has challenged me to consider my own views on the NDIS and to consider how people with disabilities interact with the system that I work in.
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- SJ
- 25-11-2023
Essential reading for all
This is the best Quarterly Essay ever presented, & I'm so grateful to have listened to it instead of reading the physical document. Micheline provides a thoroughly researched dissemination of the origins of the NDIS & the subsequent bastardisation by the LNP, states/territories, providers, & the current sluggish, opaque action to repair it. Anyone, no matter what their experiences of the NDIS, whether they're people with disabilities or not, whether they've had a good NDIS experience, a bad NDIS experience, or no experience with the scheme at all: Everyone should read/listen to this brilliant essay, so eloquently read by the author.
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- Anonymous User
- 24-09-2023
Really informative
Being a support worker I enjoyed this hearing it from the horses mouth! Thank you
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- Julie raunik
- 20-12-2023
This should be mandatory reading for everyone but especially all our politicians!
I liked everything about this honest and comprehensive reality check of our NDIS and of our need for full collective responsibility
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- Kimberley Gillan
- 24-12-2023
Engaging informative and provocative
From the beginning I was drawn in by her story and the sometimes tragic stories of others. I saw through the author’s eyes that my behaviour sometimes is not helpful when I had always seen myself as enlightened. I am a retired support worker and I recommend this to anyone working in the industry. As an audiobook it is well narrated and I will recommend it to friends who are also in wheelchairs. I suspect that it is rare for them to hear from people who have similar life experiences. I hope to hear more in the future from this author.
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- Amazon Customer
- 26-02-2024
Humanity as vulnerability is a fascinating idea
I feel Ike I have a better sense as of the NDIS and its problems is the remarkably even headed review. Thank you.
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- Mary
- 07-03-2024
Really Eye Opening
I have realized I have understood so little about the NDIS and the life experiences of people living with disabilities. We have been very misinformed by our media on this subject and we can all do better in our communities.
I really enjoyed this essay and commend the author for helping me understand and maybe how I can help in the future. Thank you
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- Jo O'Mara
- 16-09-2023
Fabulous essay!
This is a thoughtful and well written essay. Lee describes the transformation of the person with a disability into a commodity in the disability industry. With a mix of personal story, academic research and the deft touch of a human rights lawyer, she calls into question the drift of the NDIS from its original purposes due to it being an insurance scheme rather than a scheme built from giving true agency to people with disabilities. A stunning essay with excellent narration.
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