Matt's role models

Rick Hansen

When I was a boy in Coffs Harbour I did not know of many people in wheelchairs. Outside of Coffs and my own small world there were countless Australians with disabilities doing wonderfully extraordinary things but I was unaware of them at that stage.

Then when I was nearing 16 years I heard about a fellow called Rick Hansen who was coming through Coffs Harbour. Although I did not know much about him Mum and Dad thought it might be good to meet this fellow who was wheeling his chair across the world.

I can recall the day very clearly that I went down to the hotel at the foot of the Windmill Restaurant on the Pacific Highway just outside Coffs Harbour when I met Rick. He was athletic and sported a huge warm smile that made feel easy in his company immediately. Rick was kind enough to tell me a bit about his travels, explain that he was endeavouring to raise awareness throughout the world about the abilities of people with disabilities and raise money in the process.

He was ambitious, brave and a strong willed man who struck a chord in me at once.

Rick was good enough to give me a map which showed the global journey he intended on completing and I folded it up and kept in a special place at home so that I could refer to it every now and then again.

The challenge he undertook was some what beyond my teenage comprehension but I felt the presence of the man keenly.

Between 1985 and 1987, Rick Hansen achieved what many thought was an impossible goal. He wheeled around the world: over 40,000 kilometers, through thirty-four countries on four continents. This incredible odyssey lasted two years, two months and two days, taking Rick and his team over rugged mountain ranges, through scorching deserts, freezing snow, torrential rains and powerful headwinds.

In August 1986, Rick and his team arrived in Cape Spear, Newfoundland, and began their journey home to Vancouver. Thousands of Canadians came out in support of Rick's dream and donated millions of dollars to the Man In Motion Legacy Fund for spinal cord injury (SCI) research, rehabilitation and wheelchair sport. In total, $26.1 million was raised on the Tour, and the Man In Motion Foundation was established.

He was and remains an inspiration to me. One of those people who remain tucked away in the back of my mind so that once in a while when the going gets tough I can refer to him and his journey and feel satisfied that I have what it takes to complete my own.

In 2001 I went to Vancouver but unfortunately missed Rick because of him being away on business. However he sent me his autobiography and it is a treasured item. In it he simply wrote: Keep on dreaming. And with that the dreams and the realities continue.

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Maree Bashir

The New South Wales Governor, Maree Bashir, is indeed an inspiration to me.

I first met her Excellency in early 2003 when she opened the Pathways Conference. I was fortunate enough to be asked to give the keynote address and I had the pleasure of meeting her then. It was a meeting of double importance for me because her husband, Sir Nicholas Shehadie, a former Wallaby, had shown me a great deal of kindness many, many years before. At a Rugby dinner celebrating a famous win for Australia against the Argentinean Pumas Sir Nicholas spied me in the crowd and draped about my neck a British Barbarians Rugby tie. It had been awarded to him when he was given the rare honour of playing for the British Barbarians against his own Wallaby team at the end of the UK Tour in mh1958. It was a gesture that I have never forgotten and the tie remains among my post treasured possessions.

When I met her Excellency I was well aware of her achievements.

On 1 March 2001, she made history by being the first person of Lebanese background to be appointed New South Wales Governor - the highest executive position in the state. At her installation ceremony, Premier Bob Carr described the former Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney as "the most qualified Governor NSW has seen."

Her appointment was a cause for celebration for all Australian women: Prof. Bashir is the first ever female New South Wales Governor.

Born, in Narrandera in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Marie Bashir was educated at Narrandera Public School and Sydney Girls High School. She gained her bachelor degrees in medicine and surgery in 1956 from the University of Sydney. She chose The Women's College where she was once Senior Student for the press conference to respond to the announcement of her appointment as Governor. "When the suggestion was made to me... to begin with I was absolutely spellbound and speechless. Thinking about it, it seemed to me to be symbolic about the way our country is advancing in a sophisticated manner, that it would consider asking not only a woman, but a woman whose work is in a field that is not always popular. It is unpopular to work in mental health, with the disadvantaged and with indigenous people. It is also unpopular to be counted among women who have children and work, women from non-English speaking backgrounds, women who have an opinion. It seemed to me that to reject such a high challenge would be an insult to the history of our State."

Those opening remarks in themselves sum up why she is a role model for me. Her Excellency is a woman of immense sophistication who appreciates the raw need for social justice while delivering outcomes in a disarming way.

Her Excellency attended the University of Sydney, as I did, and after graduation she taught at the Universities of Sydney and New South Wales, increasingly working with children's services, psychiatry and mental health services, and indigenous health programs. At the time of her appointment as Governor of New South Wales, she was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney (a post she took up in 1993); Area Director of Mental Health Services Central Sydney (from 1994); and Senior Consultant to the Aboriginal Medical Service, Redfern (from 1996) and to the Aboriginal Medical Service, Kempsey.

Her Excellency's widespread involvements and interests have included juvenile justice, research on adolescent depression, health issues in developing countries, education for health professionals and telemedicine and new technologies for health service delivery. Along with many professional medical association roles, she was, at the time of her appointment as Governor, a member of societies as diverse as Amnesty International, the National Trust, the NSW Camellia Research Society and the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Centre.

I understand she has a great interest in music and studied violin at the NSW Conservatorium of Music where she played in the student orchestra and in chamber music classes. She is a patron of the Sydney Symphony and Opera Australia.

For her services to child and adolescent health she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988 and a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2001.

I know that one day she had an extremely crowded diary and a request came through from a boy's school in Western Sydney for her to attend and speak with them. However, no room was left in her busy schedule. She made a point of canceling what could have been deemed as being the more glamorous events to go to the school, aware that her presence as a woman and as a leader might very well making a difference in the right way. Her Excellency is self-less, charming and compassionate and I admire her greatly.

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Nick Farr-Jones and Peter FitzSimons

Nick Farr-Jones and Peter FitzSimons have been incredibly loyal and generous friends to me. I first met Nick in 1984 and Peter in 1987.

Nick from the outset was a fellow who extended the hand of friendship. Before we actually met I first learned who he was when getting up in the early hours to watch the Wallabies of 1984 play their tour tests of the United Kingdom and Ireland. The team, known at the completion of that tour as The Grand Slam Wallabies, was coached by Alan Jones and Alec Evans and together they forged a combination and outfit that became the precursor for the Australian Rugby successes that we have come to expect these days.

Nick, sporting a crude haircut handed out to him by some team mates, pulled on the green and gold as the Wallaby halfback in Test Rugby for the first time on that tour. I remember as a fourteen year old sitting up in my tracksuit pants and t-shirt, wiping the sleep out of my eyes, with Dad and a few friends of his when the Wallabies played Scotland in the final test. In that game Nick scored a try by stepping around a prop, Gregor McKenzie, who happened to be a family friend of ours in Scotland!

So when I met Nick shortly after that tour I was of course in a little awe of him.

It was shortly around this time that adolescence was testing me with questions as to who it was I wanted to be and where it was I wanted to go as the awkward truths about my disabilities became obvious. My mates were growing taller and stronger and enjoying the freedom that I was yet to experience. Rugby allowed me to find a place of my own. It is no small coincidence this was at a time when Australian Rugby was on the rise and rise. And the names of Steve Cutler, David Campese, Simon Poidevin and Nick Farr-Jones were recognised on the worldwide Rugby stage as being among the best to strap on a Rugby boot.

Because of Dad's involvement in the game the likes of Cutler, Poidevin and Farr-Jones strolled into my life with all the presence that greatness brings. At first the initial meetings were those you would expect from a fellow meeting his heroes. After all the similarities between them and I was hard to see at first. As I watched them play the game at an elite level, and uncompromisingly so, I began to see something that triggered a sense of respect deep within me. And over a short space of time whenever I came to Sydney to watch Test Rugby these boyhood heroes held out their hand in genuine ways that marked for me a special time of place. And when things got tough and I got crook, or found myself overwhelmed by the greatness of difficulties, they contacted me as if by magic. A postcard would be sent to me as they toured the world, or a telephone call would be made to my hospital bed, and the results were extra special. It was as if the success they managed to create on the football paddocks were mine also. And the losses they suffered were as equally mine.

And then as it happened these boyhood heroes became friends. A maturity of relations took place as the consequences of my growing into a man and our getting to know each other allowed for the things that we had in common to become strong ties. They had shown me, without knowing it, that if I applied my talents and skills in a way that emulated them that I too would find success away from the football field. The shared victories we had became extra special. They delighted as much in my achievements as I did theirs.

Nick and I became very close once I started University. He had been a strong supporter and always gave me encouragement to get there. It was great for me that when his first child was born, Jessica, it occurred at King George Hospital, Missenden Road Camperdown. The same place I was born. And just next door to my campus residence of St John's College. I was therefore able to visit them easily and was delighted to be asked to be Godfather to Jessica around that time.

Since then Nick has been a wonderful mate and his beautiful wife Angela truly is an angel of sweet and strong proportions and she has always made me feel special.

I first met Peter at Concord Oval in 1987 after having just won the Australasian Youth Toastmasters competition. It was a big thrill for me and afterwards Dad and I attended a club rugby match. Dad told me to watch Fitz. And I did. He was big, tough, powerful and uncompromising.

Afterwards Dad introduced us and Fitz was almost silent. He hardly said a word. He spoke with the old man a bit but not much else was said. Perhaps he was tired. Little was I to know that this would be the first and only time I would be in Fitz's company when he would be silent! He is a raconteur of the finest degree.

Fitz has always encouraged me in every pursuit I have had, whether it be writing, speaking or political. Like Nick he has been a stand with you shoulder to shoulder fellow at times that it counted and I have been immensely grateful.

Both men have wonderful families and a sense of family. Both men are extremely successful in their careers and both are role models and friends of whom I am extremely proud.

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Mark Bagshaw

I first heard of Mark Bagshaw when I was recuperating after my operation in 1980 at the Sydney Children's Hospital. I was told about a young man working in computers with IBM who happened to be in a wheelchair. Many years later when I was in my first few years at University I heard Mark interviewed on ABC Radio and he was pushing the theme of enabling people with disabilities to be employed. I was impressed by his vision and determination. Then in 1999, some 19 years after having first heard about him, I met him at Town Hall when Nick Farr-Jones was on the City of Sydney Council and pulled together the Access Committee. Mark arrived with humour, determination, a savvy business brain and an awareness of where the issues were at regarding inclusion for people with disabilities in the game of life.

Mark is an incredibly energetic man. He has two jobs. As Director of Accessibility for IBM Australia & New Zealand, he travels Australia, New Zealand, Asia and abroad. In addition to his full IBM schedule, Mark is an active, vocal advocate in the Australian community for people with disabilities and travels the country speaking on behalf of this cause.

Disabled himself in a diving accident at 16, Mark has quadriplegia with no use of his legs and limited use of arms and hands. He gets around in a power wheelchair and drives a car equipped with hand controls.

Disabled himself in a diving accident at 16, Mark has quadriplegia with no use of his legs and limited use of arms and hands. He gets around in a power wheelchair and drives a car equipped with hand controls.

"I'd say that for me as a person with a disability, the barriers are not primarily attitudinal but physical," explains Mark. Mark says he feels it's his responsibility to make people he meets feel comfortable with him. "People may not have direct experience with someone who has a disability. So it's up to me to put them at ease. I find that usually doesn't take long at all."

During his successful 22-year career with the company, accommodations have helped to make him more productive and his job easier. "IBM has offered me fantastic support -- the hardware I need and software like IBM's voice recognition product, ViaVoice," explains Mark. IBM supplied his power wheelchair to help him move around the office quickly and efficiently. "The accommodations have always been made readily without a problem."

A seasoned traveller with over 50 trips each year, it's the physical challenges of navigating in a world not designed for a wheelchair that pose problems. "Even with the well-developed process I have when I travel, there are barriers to public transportation, hotel rooms, etc.," says Mark.

And according to Mark, it is these barriers that are, in part, standing in the way of integrating people with disabilities into the community and the workforce. As an advocate of change, Mark 's message is simple and effective: It makes good economic sense for every country to tap the talents of people with disabilities. The compelling reason for doing this is improving the economic bottom line.

"There are about 1 billion people with disabilities worldwide. They are taking part in the workforce at only half the rate of the general population. 17 million extra Americans, 2 million extra Britons and 1.2 million extra Australians could be working and want to work," he explains. "If you assign a productivity factor of $US21,000 for each of them and factor in savings on welfare payments, you get a net benefit of $900 billion that's not flowing into the US, UK and Australian economies."

According to Mark, there's no one solution to getting people with disabilities into the workforce. "We need to treat disability as a 'whole of life' issue. We need to remove the infrastructure areas faced by people disabilities, empower them with hope and the knowledge to deal with their disability and we need to lift the community's expectations of them".

His proposal for three, closely-linked 'strategic interventions' involving engaging the business sector in producing products and services that remove infrastructure barriers, a lifelong learning approach to empowering people with disabilities and a community-wide marketing programme to lift community expectations has gained significant support at the highest levels.

Bill Leak

I first met Bill many years ago at a party held by Peter FitzSimons to celebrate his birthday (or was it Lisa's?). Nevertheless I recall that we both recognised each from having frequented the same café on a regular basis in Surry Hills. He immediately extended his hand and warmly offered a smile and sense of fun that I found infectious. Although Bill and I did not catch up much at all for a few years after that time I was always meaning to give him a call and see whether he would mind meeting for a coffee or a meal because I just knew we would get along.

So when I decided to run for Lord Mayor I finally got in touch with him and inquired as to whether Bill would mind doing a cartoon of me for my campaign. The rest, as they say all too often, is history and as I am the author of this particular historical account I can say almost anything I like!

Bill immediately agreed to help out and over some months we caught up on a regular basis for a meal and conversation and I was delighted to discover that my immediate inkling that he and I would get on proved true.

At the time that he drew the cartoon Clover Moore had not yet entered into the Mayoral race and Michael Lee representing the Australian Labor Party loomed large as the main contender. So it was that Bill came up with the following cartoon as my campaign started to gather traction:

Bill is an incredible bloke. His ability as an artist and cartoonist and social commentator are the stuff of legend. Apart from the fact that he has won two Walkley Awards (1997 and 2002), and entered the Archibald Prize at least 13 times and has been hung 11 times (but never quartered) and been the author of a novel, Heartcancer, is a renown speaker, and been a disc-jockey on ABC Radio he is also the daily editorial cartoonist with The Australian. The fact that he caries off the latter position in the Murdoch press without fear or favour of his masters by continually challenging the duplicity of politicians and the ways of our sometimes crooked world is inspirational.

He has developed his craft in such a fashion that his work cuts through the noise of commentators and spin doctors to deliver an unmistakably clear message. You might not agree with what he has to say but you cannot help but hear it!

I admire his courage, his intellect, the way in which Bill can enjoy the ribald rough and tumble of the punters world and yet quickly shift into the academic realms of art and history.

Bill has lived a thousand lives already in his mere fifty-years. The twinkle in his eye shines brightest when he talks of the achievements of his sons. And he is a man whose friendship I treasure greatly.

John Maclean

I have only met John Maclean half a dozen times but once you have, or at least read about his achievements or watched a documentary about him, you cannot help but regard John very highly. He is, essentially, Australia's own Rick Hansen, an athlete dedicated to ensuring that he can assist children with special needs in whatever way he can.

I recently completed reading his autobiography, Sucking the Marrow Out of Life, which is a fantastic read, whether or not you are an athlete, and I highly recommend it to you. In order to give you a flavour of the fellow and his ways I enclose a background as it appears on his own website:

In 1988 John was a promising rugby league player with the Penrith Panthers in the then NSW Rugby League competition. In order to compliment his fitness on the football field John took a keen interest in triathlon and regularly trained on the M4 Motorway near his hometown of Penrith NSW. On a fateful day in 1988 John's world was changed forever. During a regular training session John was hit by a 12 tonne truck. The impact resulted in John suffering multiple breaks to his pelvis and back, a fractured sternum, punctured lungs and a broken arm. There was also the realisation that John was also left a paraplegic. Never one to sit and watch the world go by, John established a set of goals during his four month recuperation period in Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital. Following his release from hospital John went about achieving those goals.

As you read this today, John is now regarded as one the greatest and toughest athletes the world has ever seen, wheelchair or not. In 1995 John made history by becoming the first wheelchair athlete to finish the grueling Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii, arguably the toughest multi-discipline sporting event in the world. There was only one problem. Competing against able bodied athletes, John failed to make the able-bodied cut off time on the bike leg, where he pedaled the 180Km cycle leg on his custom built handcycle. John completed the 42.2Km run leg on his wheelchair to become the first wheelchair athlete to finish the entire course, but due to missing the cycle cut off time he was not awarded the title of Ironman.

The measure of the man is that he returned to compete in 1996 only to miss the cut-off time by minutes due to a flat tyre. As crushing as this would be for any athlete, John finishes what he starts. In 1997 John torched his demons by scorching the 3.8km Ocean Swim, 180Km Cycle Leg and 42.2Km run in 12 Hours, 21 Minutes and 38 Seconds, placing him in 946th position out of 1421 able bodied athletes.

With the focus of the sporting world squarely on his impressive shoulders John has continued to astound the sporting world by becoming the first wheelchair athlete to have swum the English Channel, has represented Australia at the Olympic and Paralympic Games and in 2001 was the grinder aboard Team Aspect which finished twelfth overall in the 2001 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

As recently as 2002 John became the Australian Champion and record holder in the road race and time trial at the National Handcycling Championships. As you can see, there really is no stopping John Maclean.

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