Ian
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
Ian used to work in warehouses, with constant lifting and squatting, and developed a femoroacetabular impingement – a condition in which extra bone grows along the hip joint. Ian wrote to the Royal Commission about the challenges he has faced trying to work with physical disability, and in navigating Centrelink.
For a while Ian found employment with an organisation through a disability agency. However he feels that he was only employed as ‘free labour’, and his employment was terminated as soon as the government stopped its payments to the organisation.
‘Don’t let employers take advantage of the [money] you hand out to get people like me employed,’ he wants to tell the government. ‘It’s heart breaking and I’m already pretty broken.’
Ian struggled in his interactions with Centrelink. He felt like he was treated like a liar. ‘Even with scans and doctors certificates and physio certificates I was given grief.’ He felt like they were ‘interrogating’ him every time he went in and that interacting with Centrelink triggered his social anxiety. ‘I am defeated,’ he said.
Adding to the stress of his interactions with Centrelink, Ian was ‘pushed’ into jobs that he couldn’t physically do and which were likely to make his condition worse, and ‘then made to feel like shit by the employer’.
‘Like I really need that kick when I’m trying to restart life’.
Ian would like to see Centrelink employ people with more empathy and medical understanding, and ‘for no person young or old or any colour be made to feel inferior when asking for help’.
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.