To help you learn more about the Alliance and the way we work, we'd like you to meet our team and various community members. Firstly, let us introduce Daniel Comensoli. 

“Public policy needs to be informed by evidence, but that fundamental principle is under serious attack. We are seeing a disturbing rise in anti-intellectualism and distrust of scientists, academics, or experts.”

I’m the Policy & Research Coordinator, for the National LGBTI Health Alliance. I joined the Alliance at the start of 2018.

Since the completion of my degree in chemistry, I became increasingly interested in politics and the health and human rights of LGBTI people. I was lucky enough to join the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby’s Policy Working Group, which was the first time I was exposed to policy analysis and development within the LGBTI rights space.

While volunteering for the Australian Marriage Equality campaign, I began to engage with community members at the local level, and I saw how vital community engagement is to achieving meaningful change.

The principle that public policy should be informed by evidence is under serious attack. As a policy analyst I am very concerned to see a rise in anti-intellectualism and distrust of scientists, academics, or experts. This motivates me in the policy work that I do at the National LGBTI Health Alliance.

Consultation and data are vital elements of informed decision making.

I am determined to contribute to fostering a policy environment that is informed by evidence, human rights, and community perspectives and not influenced by individual perception, moral judgement, discrimination, or at times hatred of LGBTI people.

Working on our submissions into the Royal Commission into Aged Care.

While working on the research that formed these submissions, I have found that ageing and aged care is an extremely complex policy area. I helped facilitate a number of consultations with older LGBTI people, and it was a privilege to listen to and learn from their life experiences. My former colleague Teresa Savage and I used the material gathered from these community consultations to write 7 submissions to the Commission, focusing on a range of issues.

I am keen to learn more about the aged care system and how we as a society can adequately meet the needs of older LGBTI people.

Upcoming policy, research and advocacy work:

• Submission to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. This will be informed by some of the fantastic work being done within our disability program EmployableQ and their community consultations and feedback, with regards to employment issues faced by LGBTI people with disability.
• Continuing research and advocacy on LGBTI aged care impacts from COVID-19 and associated social isolation and financial impacts.

We are also waiting on the outcomes of several government inquiries, and ensuring positive outcomes, including:

• Productivity Commission’s inquiry into mental health
• Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety
• The final report from the Australian Human Rights Commission’s inquiry into protecting the human rights of intersex people in the context of medical interventions
• Working with the Australian Bureau of Statistics to update the Sex and Gender Standard, as well as developing a new Sexual Orientation Standard. This continues the work of our Census inclusivity Campaign and will hopefully lead to robust LGBTI data indicators that can be embedded within health and social services to inform service planning and delivery.

For updates on our policy, research and advocacy work, please subscribe for updates here.