Episode 6 - Mel Smith

With government accusations of overspending in the disability sector and cutbacks in benefits, I called Mel Smith who is the CEO of CCS Disability Action to get her perspective on these issues. Mel has worked for and with people with disabilities for more than 20 years since she was a student social worker at Otago University. After a stint in Perth as an Employment Consultant with the Western Australia Deaf Society she not learned to show employers the reality behind many of their myths around employing Deaf people, but walked the talk, by becoming an Australian sign language interpreter. She returned home to New Zealand in 2009 to take up the Team Leader role at CCS Disability Action Otago rising to become the General Manager for the South Island. Now Melissa (call me Mel) heads up CCS Disability Action and spoke frankly with me about the myth of overspending and some of the realities facing people with disabilities in our country today. You can find out more about CCS Disability Action here: https://www.ccsdisabilityaction.org.nz Funding for independent public journalism has been cut off by the current government. To support my work in speaking truth to power, please share posts on your social media sites. If you are a free subscriber, please consider becoming a $5 per month paid subscriber which will also give you access to premium posts, documentaries and podcasts plus the comment and chat facility. To those of you who are already paid subscribers - thank you for helping me to keep going. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bryanbruce.substack.com/subscribe