Writer and disability advocate Hannah Diviney has turned a discussion about Beyoncé using an ableist lyric on her album Renaissance into a call for those with lived disability experience to be more involved in politics and the NDIS.
Diviney, who a month ago also called out singer Lizzo for using the same ableist slur as Beyoncé, was asked about it on Thursday's episode of Q+A.
She said she had been trolled online since tweeting at Beyoncé, a move that has seen the pop star change the lyrics in her song Heated.
"Both of these women — who it has to be said occupy incredible spaces as marginalised people themselves — have shown everyone around the world how to be an effective ally," Diviney said before revealing the trolling.
"I just wish the people who are passionate about the fact that they had to change the lyrics in their song would get that message.
"I actually debated whether or not to bring this up because I have a lot of people that I care about watching and people who care about me and they don't quite know the level of trolling I've got this week.
"I have had people basically sending me photos of, or GIFs of, people in wheelchairs being pushed over and pushed off cliffs."
Diviney said she was not sure how Beyoncé initially thought the word was OK, but she said she would continue to call out ableist slurs when they were made.
"I wasn't really sure how someone on Beyoncé's team missed that memo that if they kept that word in the song they were going to run into the same problem [as Lizzo]," she said.
"I don't know if they thought: 'She's called it out once and she won't dare call it out again.' But trust me: I can and I will every time."
Diviney said the slur had been used against her before as an insult, "and is especially being used against me now".
"It's been used against people I care about … and it presumes a lack of intelligence or emotional control, which is not at all things that I want associated with me, things I want associated with my disability," she said.
"They don't reflect my life at all.
"If people had lived with spasticity, I don't think they'd be using it as an insult, because it hurts."
'Lived experience should count for something'
The conversation then turned to representation of people with a disability.
Diviney said she would like to see them represented more frequently across society, specifically calling out politics.
Q+A host Stan Grant asked Diviney about whether she would like to see a minister for disability who has lived experience.
She said she would but refrained from questioning the ability of the current minister, Bill Shorten, to perform in the role.
"When people have to make decisions about marginalised communities, it's my view that the person who is making the decisions should probably be a part of that marginalised community," she said.
"Maybe lived experience should count for something.
"While obviously there are multiple barriers to people with disabilities, political participation, the fact that there is only one senator in the whole of the history of Australian parliament who has had a visible disability and the fact they then had to make changes to Parliament House that they weren't making before shows me just how far we have to go."
The senator she was referring to was Jordon Steele-John.
His Greens colleague, Sarah Hanson-Young, told Q+A Senator Steele-John still faces plenty of challenges on a daily basis in the Senate chamber.
"Being there with Jordan in parliament and having to see how he still has to navigate … simple things like when we have to stand to speak and he can't get the president's attention [are a problem]," she said.
"We're often having to kind of wave and say Jordan has something to say.
"Across the board, every day there is another challenge."
She echoed Diviney's calls for those with lived experience to be placed in important roles within the NDIS.
"That is the kind of leadership that we need to hear from people who have lived experience," Senator Hanson-Young said.
"It's one of the reasons why I think, and I know Senator Steele-John is pushing for this quite hard, there's a couple of vacancies at the moment in relation to the NDIS — the chairperson and the CEO.
"Those positions should be being actively filled by people with lived experience so they can show that leadership."
Labor senator Jenny McAllister said Mr Shorten was very much looking at prioritising people with a lived experience for those roles.
"Labor went to the election with a range of things that we hope to do in relation to the NDIS," Senator McAllister said.
"One of them was to return lived experience to the centre of its administration, in board and senior executive positions.
"There are vacancies there at the moment and Minister Shorten is going through a proper process of selection.
"He's made it very clear that lived experience matters."
