From advocacy to honour: Professor Christine Bigby recognised in King’s Birthday List

One of Australia’s most respected disability advocates and researchers, Professor Christine Bigby, has received the Officer of the Order of Australia — AO — in the General Division for the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours. She has been acknowledged for her exceptional work as the director of the Living with Disability Research Centre at La Trobe University in Melbourne.

Professor Bigby has partnered with disability support and advocacy organisations to investigate the effectiveness of programs and practices to support the social inclusion of adults and older people with intellectual disability.

She has won the Research Award of the Australasian Society for Intellectual Disability four times since 1993.

Professor Bigby was a member of the College of Experts of the Australian Research Council from 2019 – 2023 and has published 10 books, 52 book chapters, 192 journal articles and numerous research reports.

She is the founding editor of the Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and has served as President of the Australasian Society of Intellectual Disability since 2022.

In a podcast released by SBS News, she told the host, Peggy Giakoumelos, that the biggest change she has noticed throughout her work in the sector has been the closure of large institutions that used to house people with intellectual disability and the newfound access to community services.

“People moved out of institutions into small group homes. We built small group homes and, obviously, since 2013, there’s been the National Disability Insurance Scheme that has opened up more options for people with intellectual disabilities to live in more individualised settings or to make group homes smaller and to support their social inclusion more broadly,” she said.

“So, there’s been much more investment and attention to people with disabilities over the last 10, 12 years.

“So, I think we need to introduce some really clear standards for what we expect of disability support workers who are working with people with intellectual disabilities and we need to introduce some mandatory training and qualifications for this group of people.

“There are no standard qualifications for support workers. There’s no mandatory training at all and many people come in off the street from other sorts of work and really are ill-equipped to do that work and organisations don’t have the capacity to train to a high standard.”

This prestigious national honour acknowledges her deep commitment to meaningful change — not just through research, but through action.

The Living With Disability Research Centre has a catalogue of resources for frontline staff and training to reflect the needs of people with disability.

Her reflections serve as a reminder that disability advocacy is everyone’s responsibility and that real progress is powered by collaboration, courage and care.

To read the complete list of recipients and those honoured, please visit the Governor-General’s website.

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