As one exclusionary flag is reverently lowered in Melbourne’s Banyule City Council to mark the end of Pride month, a new exclusionary flag will be hoisted in its place. July, you see, is Disability Pride month, and its flag, which is not unlike the Pride flag, is a riot of colour.
‘Each colour of the Disability Pride Flag,’ explains the council, ‘represents a different type of disability. Physical (red), cognitive and intellectual (yellow), invisible and undiagnosed (white), psychosocial (blue), and sensory (green).’ Unlike the Pride Flag however, there is a darker, more sinister element to the Disability Pride flag. ‘The charcoal background symbolizes mourning and rage for the victims of violence and abuse, and the coloured bands are placed diagonally to convey ‘cutting across’ societal barriers.’ Powerful stuff.
Someone being paid by Banyule City Council has clearly put a lot of thought into this. They explain that ‘Disability Pride challenges the stigma people with disability can experience, which can lead to discrimination and exclusion. By promoting Disability Pride Month, Council encourages people with disability in Banyule to proudly be themselves and invites our community to advocate for greater accessibility and inclusion across our places, spaces, services and programs.’
Speaking of inclusion across ‘places and spaces’, in 2021, local ratepayer Sharon Bowden from Heidelberg West, found herself included in a ‘space’ in which she did not particularly want to be.
Ms Bowden has a disability which requires a service dog and a motorised wheelchair. On one particular outing, she had to be rescued by passers-by after her wheelchair became stuck in a large crack in the pavement, almost tipping her out of the chair. Her exhortations to the council to do something about the terrible state of the pavements which were posing a risk to her safety, apparently fell on deaf ears.
Could it be that the council is more interested in virtue signalling about disability than it is actually taking practical measures for the disabled? In the 2022/23 budget, Banyule City Council allocated just over $3.92 million for foot paths in the area, which is just 1.6 per cent of its revenue. At the same time, the council has allocated $75 million for salaries, which is 40 per cent of its revenue. That says it all really.
