Tricia Malowney OAM

In her own words

The beauty of my role is that I get to do what I do well which is talking with and connecting people,  and challenging their thoughts around what they think about people with disabilities. My specialities are disability and gender. Women with disabilities are less likely to be educated than men with disabilities and more likely to have their children removed at higher rates than anybody else including men with disabilities.

My role as Chief Accessibility Advocate was created by the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning and they found me after people kept putting up my name! I work in this role three days a week and it is a dream job, because you do something different and important every single day. Recently I was looking at a mock-up of a new train, developed after a range of people from the disability community did an onscreen assessment of the concept and provided input. We suggested changes and people can now see these changes have now been made. It’s fascinating because the whole co-design process is working as it should.

In the transport space in Victoria we have good leadership and a Department that is absolutely open to suggestions. 

My career started in the railways in 1978. Just over a decade later I joined the Victorian Police and was working on increasing the number of women in policing when the opportunity to become the disability liaison officer arose. My first thought was – do we have anyone in the force with a disability? When I went looking I found them and realised they were so disadvantaged for no reason apart from having a disability. Interestingly all the people I found with a disability were men; I was the only woman. I thought ‘I could do this role’ and took it on.

When I left the police in 2000, I had health issues and didn’t work for a couple of years. I became a stand up comedian and did a gig for Women With Disabilities Victoria and became its convenor two weeks later. It was a women’s feminist collective, and the work gave me insights into sexual assault and family violence but most of all a network of fabulous women across the health sector. These women literally took me by the hand and introduced me to politicians and senior bureaucrats, to get us set up and really establish ourselves as a fighting force for change. We did some great things, including getting disability into the family violence act. 

Ask the same question of everybody

My key role in transport is to amplify the voices of people with disabilities but I have also taken on board advocating for older people, parents with prams, and women’s safety. For me it is about ensuring everybody has access to public transport because transport is a social determinant of health. My role is to make sure people have access to the public transport they need easily and safely.

In the Department of Transport and Planning everyone knows this is my passion and many staff come and speak to me about their roles, projects and sometimes career progression. I am available to talk about anything! Recently I had a question from a member of a talent acquisition team about how do you employ the right person? The answer is to ask the same question of everybody and that question is -  ‘what support do you need to be able to do your job?’ 

What I often say to people who approach me is ‘don’t be afraid to make a mistake with me. Ask your question.’ Because there is absolutely nothing you can say that I haven’t heard before or that could possibly offend me.

Australia is doing comparatively well in terms of transport and accessibility and inclusion because we are increasingly appreciating that everybody in the community needs to be in the room when decisions are made, particularly in the co design space.

Keep sight of your goal

My advice to others is to be yourself – always. And for women – you don’t need to be like the blokes. We need you to use your skills and your ways to make life for better for others; don’t try to replicate what somebody else is doing. 

The big thing is not to lose sight of your goal. For me it’s all about empowering others and I don’t care how I get there. I have always been an activist but not one to chain myself to the front of a tram. Instead, I am more likely to speak to a Minister and I treat everybody the same.

I have my Mum to thank for my resilience and drive. Looking back, Mum was 24 years old with four kids under five years and one with a disability and she just got on with life. 

Growing up as one of 10 kids and the eldest girl, Mum pushed me harder than the others because she said ‘you will do it tougher’. I once ask her why she didn’t put me in a home like other people were doing and she said: ‘well I never ever thought about it. I didn’t know what I was doing but I knew that wasn’t right.’ I went to a mainstream school and no one ever considered me as having a disability. I believe your personal resilience is shaped by how you are socialised early in your life and your attitude.