Presentations

Wayne Herbert is the Director of Progress and Property at LEAD Disability Services, where he leads with bold, strategic vision and lived experience to drive change for people with disability and members of the LGBTIQA+ communities.
An outspoken leader, activist, international speaker, comedian, and writer championing the rights and inclusion of people with disability and LGBTIQA+ communities, Wayne’s leadership spans local, national, and international levels. He has contributed to global disability, employment, and health policy forums, advised Australian government agencies on inclusive recruitment and employment, and helped shape regional governance through his roles as Deputy Chair of the ACT Government LGBTIQA+ Advisory Council and a member of the ACT Disability Reference Group.
Wayne currently serves as Deputy Chairperson of LGBTIQ+ Health Australia, board director of Sharing Places Inc and currently sits on the ACT Territory Committee of National Disability Services (NDS). Wayne also previously served as a board director and Deputy President of Meridian, He brings extensive experience in peer-led organisations, board governance, and reforming employment systems to be inclusive of disabled people and those from LGBTIQA+ communities.
A nominee for the ACT Australian of the Year in both 2018 and 2025, for services to the disability and LGBTIQA+ BB SG community Wayne is known for challenging the status quo and enabling organisations to lead with inclusion, integrity, and courage. His body of work is grounded in a powerful combination of technical expertise, governance knowledge, and personal lived experience. Wayne is a graduate of the LGBTIQA+ Executive Leadership Fellowship.

Elly Desmarchelier is a disability advocate, writer, and movement builder whose work exists at the crossroads of policy, lived experience, and the kind of systemic change that actually sticks.

Diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at birth and with ADHD, Autism, and CPTSD in her late twenties, Elly knows first-hand what it means to navigate systems that were never built with you in mind — and what it takes to change them from the inside out.

She has worked within the NDIS, advised the Office of the Prime Minister, and taken her advocacy to the floor of the United Nations in New York. As a lead voice in the Defend Our NDIS campaign, she has helped shape the national conversation on disability rights — appearing on ABC Q+A, at the Sydney Opera House, and in venues that once would have barely registered disabled voices as worth amplifying.

Elly’s work is defined by a simple conviction: that disabled people don’t just deserve a seat at the table — they should be setting the agenda. In the disability employment space, this means asking harder questions. Not just how many disabled people are employed, but whether those jobs are good ones. Whether workplaces are actually built for us. Whether the sector itself is disability-led.

She brings that same directness to everything she does — including this stage.

Elly is based in Brisbane with her very important Labrador, Spencer Joe Biden.