Welcome to our monthly newsletter 

Dear readers 

I am beyond proud that this year’s Disability Confidence Awards and IMPACT 2024 national conference were bigger and better than ever, with more than 300 people attending our awards night and almost 600 virtual and in-person attendees at our conference. 

Our annual Disability Confidence Awards once again showed us how we can all play a role in changing attitudes and systems to increase inclusion in the workplace by following the lead of our amazing award winners and nominees. 

My heartfelt congratulations to all our award winners. Every one of our finalists and winners is making a real difference in the lives of people with disability and it was such a joy to see the enthusiasm, commitment and passion that was evident in all our nominees. I would also like to thank former Disability Discrimination and Royal Commission Commissioner Alastair McEwin for his outstanding effort as MC for the Awards night. 

The IMPACT 2024: Connect, Share, Act, conference the following day at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre gave delegates the opportunity to connect, learn and take away knowledge that will help their organisations create a disability confident Australia where people with disability can participate equitably as employees, customers, and stakeholders. 

The excitement and energy in the room, and the audience’s desire to network, participate and engage with speakers was extraordinary. Every panel discussion included speakers with lived experience of disability and every session provided attendees with practical tools that could be applied to their organisation. 

I was especially proud that in an Australian-first, we brought together five CEOs of leading organisations to discuss what their companies are doing to increase the employment of people with disability. 

Australia Post CEO Paul Graham, Coles CEO Leah Weckert, Medibank CEO David Koczkar, Pacific National CEO Paul Scurrah and Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson provided valuable insights into the different processes and programs their companies have implemented and their short and long term strategic plans to provide employment and career opportunities to people with disability. 

Our CEO panel illustrated that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to improving workplace diversity and inclusion. However, the one common ingredient within these five organisations is the commitment of their CEO.  

A CEO’s commitment is imperative to create a more inclusive workplace. To quote one our incredible keynote speakers The Valuable 500 founder Caroline Casey, “Leaders make choices, and those choices create culture.” 

I am truly grateful to these CEOs for speaking publicly about diversity and inclusion and I encourage other CEOs to set an example to other leaders by shining a light on disability employment. 

And during this time of economic uncertainty, I encourage all employers to retain their Diversity and Inclusion teams who are doing such important work. Without a D&I team, organisations will miss out on the opportunity to employ people with disability who represent a wide, untapped pool of talented individuals. 

Thank you to all our speakers and delegates who made the conference such a special day and thank you to my incredible team who made it happen. 

We will be sending all the delegates a post-conference survey next week. I encourage you to take a few minutes to fill in the survey as we’re very keen to hear your feedback about how we can make the conference even better in 2025. 

Scroll down to play videos of these magical few days. 

Celebrating our annual award winners  

Our annual Disability Confidence Awards night was a heartfelt celebration of the passion, determination and achievements of individuals and organisations who have worked hard and instigated changes to improve accessibility and inclusion of people with disability. 

More than 100 organisations and individuals entered the awards, and more than 300 people attended the awards ceremony at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on May 8, hosted by former Disability Discrimination Commissioner Alastair McEwin. 

All the nominees and finalists were exceptional, and we want to congratulate everyone for their significant achievements. 

The individual award for Disability Changemaker of the Year went to Briar Harte from NBN Co.

Briar’s recognition as this year’s Inclusive Changemaker is a testament to her unwavering commitment to fostering an inclusive environment at NBN Co. Briar’s initiatives are many. They include spearheading the NBN Co Disability Reference Group, influencing policy changes for hybrid work, embedding accessibility into procurement, uplifting NBN Co’s brand for accessibility, contributing to many forums and government programs, and developing comprehensive training modules.  

The Commonwealth Bank won the Inclusive Initiative of the Year and the Disability Employee Network of the Year was won by Jacobs Group (Australia). 

Ruth Bonser from Westpac won the Mentor of the Year award and Esther Pritchard from Optus won Mentee of the Year. 

Joanne Rae from the Victoria Department of Education won the Supervisor of the Year award and Claire Smith from the National Disability Insurance Agency won Intern of the Year Award. 

Coles Group was the Top Performer in the Access & Inclusion Index, followed by Westpac and NBN Co which benchmarks organisations on their long-term commitment to understand and implement practices to meet the needs of customers and employees with disability. 

View the full list of finalists and award recipients 

Highlights from our IMPACT 2024 Conference 

Emceed by award winning author and journalist Tracey Spicer, our annual conference was held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre the following day. 

Almost 600 delegates attended the in-person and virtual event. 

Our international speakers included: 

• Former UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility, Professor Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes, who also co-authored the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and served as chairperson on the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  

• Randy Lewis, former Senior Vice President of Supply Chain & Logistics, Walgreens has received recognition worldwide for transforming one of America’s largest corporations into a workplace where people with disability could not only succeed but thrive.  

• Caroline Casey, Global Founder of Valuable 500, the world’s largest CEO collective dedicated to creating disability inclusion.

• Jenny Lay-Flurrie, Chief Accessibility Officer at Microsoft. 

Our CEO Insights Panel featured 5 of Australia's biggest employer CEO's

Australia Post CEO Paul Graham, Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson, Coles CEO Leah Weckert, Medibank CEO David Koczkar and Pacific National CEO Paul Scurrah.

Our sessions covered a huge array of topics

• Disability employment targets
•  Accessibility in tech
• Disability employment recruitment strategies
• Global access and inclusion priorities
• Strategies implemented by major corporations to increase the employment of people with disability

And we also launched deep dive research into Workplace Adjustments:

We also launched our in-depth Workplace Adjustments Report, based on more than 500 survey responses from employers, and employees and job seekers with disability. 

Access to content from IMPACT 2024 

Our virtual and in-person attendees have access to recordings of all the conference sessions for the next 12 months. 

We want to thank all our wonderful sponsors, speakers and attendees and we look forward to seeing you at our 2025 conference.