G'day, humans. Well, we are in the penultimate week of an election campaign in Australia,

in which minority parties are advertising impossible nonsense, like that they'll hold interest rates

at 3% somehow. And the major parties are targeting negative ads at micro-demographics on social

media, where the leaders

debate was marred by shout-fests that sucked up all the oxygen in the room, the media chasing

them along like obedient little toads. This is not a political episode today. It's a consciously

apolitical one. This is about the deepest conversations we have with

ourselves and each other, about what it means to be an individual, what it means to be part of a

community, what it means to flourish and to decay. In the throes of a partisan political battle,

perhaps more than ever we need to lift our eyes and open our minds and talk to each other across the trenches, across the front line, in ways that are Kurt Fernley, an amazing bloke, born with a congenital disorder that prevented fetal development of certain parts of his

lower spine, which has meant that he's always been unable to walk.

He has risen to the heights of athletic triumph.

He focuses on long and middle distance wheelchair races.

He's won medals in sprint relays as well.

He participated in the 2000 games, 2004,

2008, 2012, 2016 Summer Paralympics. He has 13 medals, three gold, seven silver, three bronze.

He's been triumphant at the Commonwealth Games. He was the Australian flag bearer at the closing

ceremony of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. I mean,

incredibly accomplished and also a true humanitarian who's just channeled all of the celebrity and success that he's had into the most worthwhile causes. I won't bang on about him here.

You'll hear what an incredible, insightful, thoughtful person he is. And I wanted to talk to

him. I mean, the uncomfortable component of this conversation is like,

how do you talk to people who are living with a disability?

...