The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is on 3 December. To mark the occasion, we caught up with Auckland Council’s Disability Advisory Panel Chair, Philip Patston. He brings more than 25 years of professional experience in counselling, social work, human rights promotion, and creative and social entrepreneurship to the panel. He also had a 13-year career as a professional and award-winning comedian.
What is the Disability Advisory Panel’s role at Auckland Council?
Disability impacts everybody at some point in their lives. It’s important that it comes to light that everything we do has an impact on disabled people, and potentially on everyone. Our role is to improve the outcomes of the disability community, as set out in the Auckland Plan, by advising the council on effective engagement with disabled communities.
What is the panel’s main focus?
There’s a lot on our work plan; activities such as community forums and the ‘Takoro – Investing in Play’ project. But the area we consider a priority is looking at the council’s Inclusive Auckland Framework. Inclusion – everything else will fall out of that!
What are the most important changes the council can make to help disabled Aucklanders?
The biggest change is not thinking about ‘us and them’. Instead think about all of us. It’s not a thing that only affects one group of people – it affects everyone they know.
What are your personal aspirations for the Disability Advisory Panel?
One of my aspirations is that we are able to give council staff and elected members advice that is useful and constructive and that we keep on a feedback loop. I want to work continuously with all parts of the council to improve what the council does and make Auckland a better place for everyone.
