On the 14th of December 2025 a horrifying shooting occurred at Bondi Beach. At a celebration of the Jewish Hanukkah holiday, sixteen people were shot dead in cold blood and another 40 injured by two deranged individuals. The shooting, supposedly, was in response to the conflict between Israel and Palestine. One brave man tackled one of the shooters and disarmed him. I believe he was shot in the arm for his bravery. There was a Go Fund Me campaign that raised $2.5 million for this brave man.

The Albanese and NSW Governments immediately responded. The shooters were immediately labelled terrorists. New laws were drafted. New gun control laws were passed. The Opposition kicked into gear and demanded a Royal Commission and the recall of Parliament immediately. Subsequently, a Royal Commission was established. Of course there was lots of disagreement leading to heated debates. People may not have agreed with what was being proposed, but you have to acknowledge that the response from various entities was quick and decisive. As it should be.

Little more than a month later on Australia Day, 2500 First Nations People and their supporters were having an Invasion Day Rally in Perth. A dangerous man threw a pipe bomb into the crowd. Luckily it did not detonate. ABC news reports that, ” …the object was a homemade “fragment bomb” with ball in, nails and chemicals that had the potential to seriously injure or kill people, prompting the evacuation of the rally.“

I do not know if the bomb was real or fake. However, potentially it could have killed and maimed many who were part of the rally. Thankfully, no one was injured. What was the response to this from the Government and Opposition?

The Indigenous Affairs Minister, Senator McCarthy said, ” … it was really serious and the Government is treating it accordingly. There is a legal process underway and it is important that that legal process takes place.” The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said, “… the charges were serious and that the book should be thrown at this.” What was the Oppositions response? I could not find one.

Note the difference in response in the two incidences. No calling the offender a Terrorist. No screams to recall Parliament. No calls for immediate changes to the law. Just, we have to let the legal process take its path. What an enormous difference in response. It leads one to question whether some groups are valued more than others. This leads me to disability.

Recently there was a tragic murder/suicide. This involved two young Autistic boys and their parents. News.com.au reports that “… the constant battle for services to help with their very high support needs boys was exhausting, never-ending and filled with rejection.” The article paints a picture of a family at breaking point and unable to get the support that they need. In the end it seems that this struggle broke the parents and this led to this terrible tragedy.

The tendency, indeed even in the News.com article, is to blame the NDIS. A support worker who worked with the boys alleged that the family had their funding cut by the NDIS. While this may be part of the story, the other part of the story is how programs, not just the NDIS, were supporting the family.

The family were obviously very stressed. What crisis support was available to them? What mental health support was available to them? How much did they actually really know about what was available to them? Who was watching out for them? Lots of questions and very few answers.

It is worth noting the NDIS are cooperating fully with the enquiry. What has been the response from the Government and the Opposition to this tragedy? Minister Butler called it an “..Unspeakable tragedy”. Asked for further comment he said, “There are very clear legal restrictions on our ability, my ability, the ability of the NDIA, to say anything about the packages the children were on.” I can’t find any response from the Opposition.

The Disability Commissioner has spoken out about using “complex needs” as an excuse for the tragedy. Said the Commissioner, “We’ve seen this play out in similar situations where the narrative has been about the burden of disability on parents and families as in some way to downplay the murder of two children.” Again I ask, what else was available to the family??

So what will happen in light of this terrible tragedy? Are there calls for law changes? Are there calls for an investigation to see what can be improved and done better? Has the Opposition provided any alternatives? Disability advocates are vocal in this space but they seem to be the only ones. Will the only response from the Government be to claim that they cant comment and to move kids with Autism from the NDIS and make the States responsible for them. Supposedly, because they are seen as a cost burden! Has it been outlined what will happen to try and prevent terrible tragedies like this happening again?

I am not seeing anything along these lines. Again I have to ask; are some people valued more than others? All I am seeing in the response is the “burden” of disability and how to reduce it. It is not good enough.

Last year there was the tragic death of a Deaf man in Sydney. I have written about this in the Rebuttal previously. The hospital refused to book an interpreter, assuming none would be available. Meanwhile, the mans Deaf wife had no idea what was going on. I dare say, not being able to communicate properly with either the man or his wife led to much information being missed. Tragically, the hospital rang the mans daughter to come into the hospital to break the news that her dad, her mums lifelong partner, had died. You can read that Rebuttal article HERE.

The hospital described the death as, “An avoidable error.” There was hope that the tragedy would spark change in how hospitals responded to Deaf patients. Again, advocates have been vocal but I have heard nothing about what changes will be made to prevent this happening again. If there is something, I would be really pleased to hear of it. I can find no response from the Government about this and no commitments. It’s a question of value and how much Deaf peoples lives are considered. Apart from admitting the avoidable error, there seems to be no commitment nor progress to ensure that this never happens again.

Recently a colleague made a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) about the lack of captioning on free to air TV channels. He described their response as pathetic and underwhelming. Indeed, all the AHRC could do was try to resolve the issue through conciliation. If that fails, its off to court at great cost.

Laughably the TV channels response and solution was, “We provide captioning above and beyond what is required.” They even had the gall to suggest that my colleague look into automatic captioning apps like “Otter” and “Live Transcribe” to fill in the gaps where captioning isn’t provided. Can you imagine how quickly the TV channel would respond if suddenly audio failed? Again, it shows how value for people with a disability is so much less than ‘Ablebods’

It is telling that the Disability Royal Commission recommended 222 changes. Of those 222, I think only 17 were adopted. One was a review of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). Last year they had consultations about what was needed to strengthen the DDA. I wonder how seriously they will take the recommendations?

I’m not holding my breath! Because as you can see, some people seem to be valued more than others!

WITH DEEPEST RESPECT TO ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WERE KILLED AND INJURED IN THE EXAMPLES GIVEN IN THIS ARTICLE.