Student Highlights
Working in policy in the disability sector

Bianca started her undergraduate studies hoping that her career would involve travelling to remote areas and overseas. She enrolled in Development Studies due to her passion for international development.

After graduating, Bianca’s first role took her to the remote town of Tennant Creek where she worked as a Case Manager. From there, Bianca’s interests have pivoted from international development towards working in policy, currently in the disability sector.

What have you been up to since graduating?

Bianca has been working as a Policy Officer for the Disability Royal Commission since late 2021. She works in the Economic Participation and Employment team which is focused on investigating the violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation in income support and employment settings for people living with a disability.

Bianca takes submissions from people with disabilities and their advocates such as friends, family, and advocacy agencies. These submissions outline the lived experiences of people with disabilities, including the issues and challenges they face in the employment setting or access to income support like the Disability Support Pension.

The report that will be submitted by the Disability Royal Commission, to the Australian Government in late 2023 will highlight the issues faced by people with disabilities and make recommendations for change and improvements. The report will cover a broad range of issues faced by people living with disabilities. The Final Report will cover areas such as housing, the NDIS and education.

Bianca’s role involves reading submissions and adding to evidence that supports the issues and recommendations. Bianca achieves this by utilising the foundational skills, such as critical thinking, writing and research, that she developed during her Bachelor of Development Studies.

Prior to her work with the Disability Royal Commission, Bianca had a range of on the ground case manager experience. When Bianca first graduated, she took a Case Manager role with STEPS Group Australia, located in the remote Northern Territory town of Tennant Creek. Bianca experienced culture shock when she first arrived, however she quickly adapted to her new environment and learned a lot whilst she worked with youth and young adults around education, training and employment.

From there Bianca moved to Darwin to continue her case manager experience with Anglicare NT. Bianca’s role involved providing support and advocating on behalf of public housing tenants which included working families, young people and people with mental health.

After working in the one-on-one case worker setting for a few years, Bianca was ready to try something different and give herself a new challenge. Bianca applied via the Australian Public Service job site, seeing that the Disability Royal Commission would give her a completely new range of challenges where she could apply the skills she had learned in her previous positions.

How relevant has your degree been since you graduated?

Bianca’s Development Studies background gave her a good introduction to the experiences of the culturally and linguistically diverse people, that she has worked with one-on-one over the years.

The understanding she developed in the degree of intersectionality and how this can compound disadvantage has been crucial to how Bianca understands the challenges faced by people she supports in her work. Bianca’s strong research and communication skills that she began developing in her undergraduate degree are now vital in her current role.

Read more of Bianca's story here

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Bianca Hambly

Bianca enrolled in Development Studies due to her passion for international development, but her interests have now shifted to working in policy for the disability sector.

My advice: challenge yourself.