Editorial: Premier should have done better by Paralympians

The sad saga of Paralympians being unrepresented in the Premier’s title reveals a lot about Annastacia Palaszczuk’s character, writes the editor.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has done the right thing by agreeing to add the word “Paralympics” to her title of “Minister for the Olympics”. But the truth is that she should hang her head in shame that it took the athletes themselves courageously releasing an open letter requesting the change to convince her to do the right thing.

Ms Palaszczuk has been privately lobbied for months to make the change, but she has stubbornly refused every time – including when Paralympic legend Kurt Fearnley laid out the case in a recent meeting.

And so late yesterday, a totally exasperated Paralympics Australia Athletes’ Commission finally had the courage to go public – publishing on their website just after 3pm an open letter to Ms Palaszczuk “seeking your respectful consideration of a change in the title of your portfolio ... to appropriately reflect (your) Government’s commitment to promote greater inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in the planning and delivery of these Games.”

The Courier-Mail went straight to the Premier’s office for a response, and at 4.25pm was told that “the Premier looks forward to discussing the request when she meets with the president of Paralympics Australia next week” – the same man, Jock O’Callaghan, who says he has discussed this issue with Ms Palaszczuk many times in recent months.

Premier and Minister for the Olympics (and soon to be Paralympics) Annastacia Palaszczuk

The Courier-Mail’s story – “Ignored: Paralympics athletes go public in bid for Premier title change” – was then published to the top of our website at 5.20pm.

At 5.57pm Ms Palaszczuk tweeted: “Paralympians have asked me to add ‘Paralympics’ to my title. I’m happy to do that and it will be changed by the end of the year.”

And so here’s the uncomfortable truth: it took the courage of a bunch of athletes with a disability going public with a request they have made many times in private for the Premier to be embarrassed into doing the right thing. We try never to get personal, but this sad episode actually reveals a lot about Ms Palaszczuk’s character.

For months Ms Palaszczuk has known – because she has been repeatedly told – that Paralympic athletes consider her Olympics-only title as a deliberate snub. And yet she has refused to budge over and again, until late yesterday – when, again, a group of people whose stories of triumph over adversity we should all be in awe of realised the only way was to call her refusal out publicly.

We join with Mr O’Callaghan in feeling “dismayed” that it had to come to this – that the athletes themselves were forced “to speak out publicly to one of the most senior leaders in the country for recognition in such a simple but symbolic way”.

“This is very uncomfortable for them and it simply shouldn’t be,” Mr O’Callaghan said last night. “I am feeling for the Paralympic athletes, because they shouldn’t have reached the point where they felt they were being ignored, and where they felt like they had no other choice.”

Paralympians have asked me to add ‘Paralympics’ to my title. I’m happy to do that and it will be changed by the end of the year.

— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 28, 2022

Premier Palaszczuk was first asked about this issue in Parliament last October – not long after she took on the Olympics ministry (Opposition Leader David Crisafulli had already added the word “Paralympics” to his title). Ms Palaszczuk used the same excuse she has given every time since when asked – that Australian Olympics supremo John Coates had advised her that it was not necessary.

But that advice ignores the fact that at most recent Games, the relevant Minister for the Olympics has also had Paralympics in their job title – and indeed for the 2024 Paris event, the French Minister for Sport Amelie Oudea-Castera is also the Minister for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Last night, the Australian Olympic Committee said it “has no issue with the change, but this is a matter for the Queensland Government”. Yep, that is, it has always been Ms Palaszczuk’s decision.

Hopefully this will all serve as a wake-up call for Ms Palaszczuk, who will surely now never forget to point out that in 2032 Brisbane hosts both the Olympics and the Paralympics.

And that is critical, because as athlete Ella Sabljak explained at a recent lunch at the Queensland Academy of Sport: “Every time we leave the Paralympics out of the conversation you are forgetting one in five, and it starts with our Premier and her title ‘Olympics Minister’ – which ignores the fact there is a whole other movement.

“As women we don’t want men making decisions for us, and it’s the same for Paralympic athletes.

“The first thing about accessibility is getting your foot in the door, but if there’s a step in the way that’s not inclusion.”