Martin Sullivan

For years my goal has been the creation of a non-disabling society in which people with impairments flourish; a society in which disabled people and disability no longer exists. 

This vision has not only driven my activism in the disability rights movement over the years but also underpinned my teaching in Disability Studies and Social Policy at Massey University for the last two decades. 

About to retire, I became involved in the roll out of Enabling Good Lives in the MidCentral health region mainly because I believe that DSS (Disability Support Services), based on the precepts of EGL, will provide the footings on which a non-disabling society can be built.

Over the years I have been active in the Disabled Person's Assembly and served on various groups including the Expert Panel of People with Disabilities for the Health Research Council (2002-05), the National Ethics Advisory Committee (2001-07), New Zealand Guidelines Group (2008-11) and currently the NZDS 2016-26 Advisory Group.

I stood for the MidCentral Regional Leadership Group as I believed that the time and opportunity for systemic change in DSS had finally arrived and that the onus was upon all disabled people to seize that time and work critically and constructively for and in that transformation.  

I will bring to the MidCentral RLG an array of theoretical knowledge tempered by over 45 years of lived experience.

Of course there’s time for play in my life as well.

I enjoy current affairs, reading, film, pottering about in the garden, enjoying a glass of wine in that garden with friends, and there’s also rugby, cricket and sport generally to get excited about. I live on my own but have whānau in Wellington and Auckland.