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Neale Daniher used his valedictory address as Australian of the Year to urge governments, the medical sector and the broader public not to lose momentum in the fight against motor neurone disease, warning that despite increased awareness and funding, the task remains unfinished.
Speaking by video because of declining health, Daniher opened his farewell speech with an apology for being unable to attend in person. “Sorry I can’t be with you in person today,” he told the event at Canberra’s Parliament House, explaining that “health reasons are not working in my favour”, but assuring the audience he was “there with you in spirit”.
As he prepared to pass the title to the 2026 Australians of the Year, Daniher placed particular emphasis on the responsibility that comes with the role, offering clear advice to his successors about how the platform should be used.
“Use this platform wisely,” said Daniher, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2013. “Shine a light on causes that matter. Give a voice to those who can’t. Challenge what seems impossible. And, most importantly, use it to bring people together.”
A year on from being named 2025 Australian of the Year, Daniher said the recognition had left him “absolutely blown away”, not as a personal accolade but because of what it represented for the broader motor neurone disease community. The honour, he said, belonged to “everyone who has stood shoulder to shoulder with us in the fight against motor neurone disease. Or, as I call it, the Beast”.
Throughout the speech, the former AFL coach and player returned to the idea that the role had helped bring MND “out of the shadows”, shining “a bright light on this awful disease and the people battling it every day”. While his illness limited how far and how often he could travel during the year, he said the defining feature of his time as Australian of the Year was not the places he visited but the people he met.
Daniher said he encountered “ordinary Australians doing extraordinary things” across the country, from community groups and school kids to tradies, nurses, footy clubs and farmers who had chosen to support Fight MND and those living with the disease. At every stop, his message was deliberately simple: “Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for your compassion. Thank you for not turning away.”
He said the national profile of the award had also opened doors at the highest levels of government. Meetings with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, federal Health Minister Mark Butler and most state premiers, he said, helped push forward the need for vital research, expand support for people with MND and place the disease on the national agenda “in a way we’ve been striving for more than a decade”. He thanked the federal government for its ongoing support.
But the 64-year-old was careful to frame the past year as progress rather than resolution. “We’ve made progress. Real progress,” he said. “But let me be clear. This fight is far from over.”
MND, he warned, “is not rare”, can strike “anyone, at any age, at any time”, and its impact continues to escalate. Until researchers fully understand its causes, develop better treatments and ultimately find a cure, Daniher said there could be no slowing of effort. “We can’t afford to slow down. Not for a moment.”
He stressed that titles and recognition were secondary to the work itself, returning to a message he first delivered when receiving the honour 12 months earlier: “No matter the odds, no matter the diagnosis, we all have the power to choose our attitude.
“We can choose to smile. We can choose to fight. We can choose to do something,” he said, urging Australians – and those who follow him in the role – to keep pushing, together, against what he has long called “the Beast”.
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Rob Harris is the national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Canberra. He is a former Europe correspondent.Connect via email.From our partners
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