Áine chats with Shaun Pianta, Disability & Inclusion Advocate, Paralympian, Motivational Speaker, Educator, Podcaster and Brand Ambassador for atWork Australia.

As a Paralympian Shaun defied his visual impairment to train in Para-alpine skiing to became a member of the Australian Para National team. He dedicated the next four years of his life to the sport and represented Australia at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in South Korea, competing in the men’s slalom and giant slalom visually impaired division.

Shaun shares his personal experience of seeking employment as a person with a disability post the games. He speaks of the importance of leadership in the workplace, of the value of creating systems which ensure diversity and equity as foundational principles of a successful organisation. Shaun also gives examples of how atWork Australia has identified workplaces that are inclusive and appropriate for people with a disability, and how they can assist those from diverse cultural backgrounds and abilities back into employment.

Áine speaks with Kate Colvin, CEO of Homelessness Australia to discuss the key findings from the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council’s ‘State of the Housing System 2025 report. 

“The report revealed households are under growing pressure, with increasing rental stress, and a sharp rise inpeople stuck in rental stress for over two years, and social housing as a proportion of all housing continuing to decline”. 

Kate discusses housing affordability, the need for urgent investment in social housing, greater funding and support homeless services and the factors underpinning the rise in mental distress and poor well-being of renters and the homeless.

Áine chats with Mark about the work of Menslink in the ACT. Menslink have been active in the ACT for over 20 years with free counselling, mentoring and education programs that they provide free and which are available to help support young men.  

Mark also shares about some of his early experiences and the struggles that made him passionate about working to support young people in our community.

Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine, CEO of Australia's National ResearchOrganisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS), shares some of the key discussion points from their recent national conference held on 14th - 16th May 2025 under the theme of: Listen, Learn, Act: Centring Children And Young People to End Violence.

The conference brought together over 60 speakers and with over 700 people attending including youth advocates, researchers, frontline practitioners and policymakers. Recognising the importance of young people's experiences and their stories by placing them at the heart of the conversation has marked a national shift in Australia's dialogue around violence in our communities. Essentially ensuring that young people are partners at the forefront of co-designing effective, evidence-based responses to address violence in our communities.

Tessa provides a clear and distinct insight from the voices of youth delegates who attended the conference who bravely shared their collective wisdom and solutions to creating long-term and effective change to the systems that are available to support them and their families in the community; and the what they see as the path forward to reducing violence.

Tessa was the founding CEO of Health Justice Australia, the national centre for health justice partnership, prior to joining ANROWS in 2024. Originally a criminologist, she has worked in health, criminal justice and human rights organisations in Australia and internationally. She was previously Deputy CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service and was the inaugural Fulbright Professional Scholar in Non-Profit Leadership. Tessa’s PhD looked at the detention and release of mentally disordered offenders.

Megan Daley is an award-winning children’s author and teacher-librarian, and a founding member of YourKid’s Next Read, along with fellow authors Allison Tait and Allison Rushby.

In 2017, Megan and two other mother's, Allison Tait and Allison Rushby were inspired by their own challenges with helping their kids to become readers, to identify and share quality children's books with friends in their community. Not all kids are readers, or find reading easy. Megan says finding books that interest them can require creativity.

Initially they established a Facebook page, Your Kid’s Next Read which has now grown into a movement amassing a following of over 38,000 members; the 200th episode in a popular podcast series; and a newsletter, all aimed at growing readers and writers and helping parents find books to interest their kids”.

With rates of gendered violence remaining devastatingly high, more needs to be done than simply understanding the problem. Áine speaks with Dr Meredith Nash, to discuss the topic of Sexual Harassment and Gender Equity and the need for evidence-based research and leadership in our workplaces and community to respond to gendered violence.

Dr Meredith Nash, an internationally recognised genderequity leader and former National Lead for Respect@Work at KPMG Australia, who also led the transformative 2022 Nash Review of Diversity, Equity and Inclusionin the Australian Antarctic Program, as Director of Communications and Engagement.  She is involved with theAustralian National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) as a translational researcher and as a member of their executive.

Áine chats with Lucas Hayden, the regional manager for Royal Life Saving Australia about the hazards and skills required to stay safe around water in Australia, and theparticular challenges facing swimmers in our ACT and surrounding region.

Royal Life Saving Australia NSW has just celebrated 130 years and the ACT branch will celebrate 50 years of support for the ACT community later this year.  In spite of advertising campaigns, many people still get into trouble in our waterways.  “The National Drowning Report 2024 revealed 323 drowning deaths between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, a 16% increase compared to the 10-year average … with 1 in 5 fatalities happening at rivers and creeks”.  Many migrants and people from overseas lack both the ability to swim and knowledge of water safety in Australia.  With these statistics learning to stay safe around the water is an imperative for all Australians.

International Women's Day 2025 - 'Accelerate Action'.

On International Women’s Day 2025 Áine chats with Michael Bayliss, Communications Manager and Spokesperson for Sustainable Populations’ Australia (SPA) about the recent massive funding cuts to by the Trump administration to international aid agencies and how this will affect women's progress and their access to family planning and other support services globally. How can women be supported to 'accelerate action' and achieve equality in the current global climate. We also discuss the current global political situation, climate change and population sustainability.

Áine speaks with Eryn Marshall, a local emerging Canberra artist. Eryn "aims to use her art as a tool for social change by starting the conversation about eating disorders [helping] to break down the stigma".

Growing up Eryn always loved art and drama. During her teenage years, as well as creating her own artwork, she also loved acting in theatre performances, and considered that acting might be her career path. At 19 she developed an eating disorder.

She speaks openly about her experience. Her eating disorder mentality; how that affected her life, work choices; the steps she took to seek help; and her eventual recovery through focus and exploration through her art creation and practice.

Eryn says, " ... healing is possible and awareness matters". "An exploration of colour helped Eryn rediscover the optimism that’s everywhere around us if we just look for it. Now, she shares her experience through her art to break the stigma of eating disorders and encourage understanding".

Eryn "takes the raw and the real – the bits people try to hide – and turns them into art that pops, art that smiles, art that screams… “hope wins!”

Eryn is passionate about raising awareness for and support for those living with eating disorders and donates 5% of each artwork to the Butterfly Foundation.Eryn can be contacted through - https://www.erynmarshallartistry.com/

Áine chats with Sammy Moynihan, Artistic Director of Stages of Empathy at Rebus Theatre about their latest project and working with people with disabilities to create moving and thought provoking works.

Stages of Empathy is a transformative, interactive training program designed to help community groups - including sports clubs, arts collectives, hobbyist organisations and special interest groups - become more accessible for autistic people and people with intellectual disabilities, and psychosocial disabilities. The project will also look at the intersection of disability and LGBTQ+ identities.

Rebus is seeking community groups and organisations across the ACT, NSW and VIC to take advantage of this amazing free inclusion training opportunity. Stages of Empathy is tailored for all types of community groups.

Stages of Empathy uses Forum Theatre, a proven, hands-on approach that brings real-life scenarios from our community consultations to the stage. Rebus theatre facilitators and actors all have lived experience of disability, and have developed the program based on community consultations.Participating organisations explore accessibility challenges through role-playing, gaining insight and practical strategies to make their organisations more inclusive.