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TASC Member Finalist for 2009 National Disability Awards

Category of Ministers Lifelong Achievement Award 2009

After her son acquired a severe brain injury in a football match at the age of 27, Sue Gordon has gone on to drive significant reform in the disability sector.

Over the past 10 years Sue has worked with The Advocacy and Support Centre (TASC) in Queensland where she assisted in the instigation of Australia's only dedicated criminal law service for defendants with a disability. In conjunction with legal representatives, Sue, in her role as a disability advocate helped pioneer the Disability Law Project which investigates the impact of mental illness, intellectual disability and/or acquired brain injury and the relationship to the behaviour that led to the particular criminal charge. This project and TASC's Chief Executive Officer, Mr Dan Toombs has won numerous state and commonwealth awards including the Queensland Disability Award and Ministers Award for Excellence, The Churchill Fellowship Award and National Human Rights Law Award Highly Commended.

The success of the Disability Law Project drew attention to the need for a Qld wide service and Sue was instrumental in helping establish the Queensland Criminal Justice Centre (QCJC). The QCJC provides a web based resource and practical guide for lawyers and other professionals working with people with a disability as above facing charges in the criminal justice system. This is a 24 hour resource providing a range of information on the complexities involved in dealing with defendants with a mental illness, intellectual disabilities and acquired brain injury facing the criminal justice system.

Sue also assisted in the establishment of Disability Action Group Force(DAGFORCE Inc), a community driven organisation which focuses on lobbying for people with a disability across education, employment, transport, housing and accommodation to name a few. DAGFORCE (name changed recently to Positive Action Toowoomba) is working to change attitudes towards employment for people with a disability through local business partnerships and also with local service providers to ensure community access and inclusion.

Earlier this year Sue won a scholarship to travel to New York to study the work of community courts and the work of the Centre for Court Innovation. The Centre for Court Innovation is considered to be a world leader in therapeutic jurisprudence reform particularly in regard to people with a mental illness or intellectual disability facing criminal justice systems. Sue was delighted to find the TASC disability Law Project embodied so many of the principals found in the Courts of New York.