Champion Australian para-athlete and Carcoar native Kurt Fearnley met with some of nation’s most high-profile politicians on Thursday morning, as the Turnbull Government committed $130,000 to the Australian Paralympic Committee.
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After the funding announcement was made in Canberra, Fearnley met both Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten.
Posting on his Twitter account, Mr Shorten said it was “great to catch up with my mate Kurt Fearnley. It’s not every day you have a 3-time Paralympic champion in your office, so I had to show off.”
Western Australian Greens senator Jordan Steele-John said he was both “honoured” and “a bit starstruck” to meet the three-time Paralympic gold medal winner.
Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham described Fearnley as “a real champion for advancing para-sport in this country”.
Fearnley took to Twitter to thank Mr Turnbull and Minister for Aged Car and Indigenous Health Ken Wyatt for their “continual support of the paralympic movement”.
“Great to spend some time with the Parliamentary Friends of the Paralympic movement! We have had a powerful foundation us, but our best days are head of us!! #Tokyo2020,” Fearnley said on Twitter.
The funding will go towards encouraging and supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living with disabilities.
Speaking at the funding launch, Fearnley said the funding has potential to have an incredible impact.
“In 50 years time we’re going to be shaking our heads saying, ‘Ah gee, were we really this far behind?’,” he said.
“We’re going to push this thing forward for the next 50 years. We will.”
Fearnley said people with a disability in Australia are still fighting for a place.
“We are bringing community with us and when the community grabs hold of who we are, they love our movement because we are basically what this country is,” he said.
“We are resilient. We appreciate the good things and we will fight for them. But also we do need advocates.
“It’s not something that can be solved. Disability’s a conversation that we all have on a day-to-day basis.”