Christopher Newell is Associate Professor in Medical Ethics within the School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, teaching at undergraduate level and supervising post-graduate research. He publishes and speaks regularly on matters associated with spirituality, pastoral theology, bioethical issues and the situation of people with disabilities. He is active with a variety of community and professional bodies.

Some of his recent books include:

• Death, Dying and Euthanasia: An Anglican Resource, (1998)
• What is this Thing Called Bioethics? (1999)
• Exclusion & Embrace: Conversations about spirituality and disability, (2002)
• From Out Back to Out Front: Voices in Spirituality and Disability from the Land Down Under, (Haworth Press, 2004)
• Disability in Australia: Exposing a Social Apartheid, (with Gerard Goggin, UNSW Press, 2005)
• Disability in Education: Curriculum, Context and Culture, (with T Parmenter, Australian College of Educators, 2005)

In 1999 A/Prof Newell was Highly Commended in the Australian Human Rights Awards, with the citation reading 'For significantly contributing to the promotion and protection of human rights and equal opportunity in Australia'. In 2001 he was awarded the 'Australian Achiever' award in the Australia Day Awards, with the awarded presented by the Prime Minister. In 2001 he was also appointed in the Queens Birthday Awards as a Member of the Order of Australia, with the citation reading

For service to people with disabilities, particularly through advocacy and research, to the development and practice of ethics and to health consumers. In 2002 he was awarded the Tasmania Day Award for community service. In 2004 he was the recipient of the University of Tasmania Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2005 he was elected as a Fellow of the Australian College of educators for his contribution to education.

Lecture Description

Disability is often conceptualised as a specialised, technical issue, the subject of policies to do with inclusion, special accommodations and government strategies that suggest "we care". Yet in order to transform disability in Australia we need to tackle our deep-seated fears, moral convictions and relationships. We need to seek to transform people with disability from "other" outside of the moral community, to part of "us", the nice, normal and even natural. Such a project requires us to draw upon the largely rejected wisdom of people with disability, their families and carers. It requires us to address the power relations of disability and the way in which disability serves and reinforces dominant institutions and even our narration of the nation itself. The transformation of disability in Australia will not occur via jingoistic campaigns which take the "dis" out of dis-ability, or by a re-jigging of labour market and other social policies, while the meta-narratives of disability continue unchecked. Transformation requires the fostering of purposeful and mundane relationships which are based upon, and help us to explore, the inherent worth and contribution of people with disability to Australian society. Out of these relationships flow policy initiatives vital to social change. In so doing we will find that it is not just disability that we are transforming, but Australia itself.