Former AFL player and coach Neale Daniher AO has been named as the 2025 Australian of the Year, for his work advocating for a cure for motor neurone disease (MND) since his diagnosis more than a decade ago.
The 63-year-old was bestowed the honour at a ceremony in Canberra on Saturday, and said it was hard to believe that a “boy from outback Australia from a small town” could be given such an award.
Receiving the award with the assistance of his wife, Jan, Daniher played a pre-recorded audio version of his speech, in which he acknowledged Australia’s “entire MND community”, and his family.
His daughter, Bec Daniher, described how her entire family was overcome with emotion when his name was read out.
“To see his smile up there … to listen to his speech, these are memories that will stay with us forever,” she said.
“We’re so incredibly proud of dad and everything he’s achieved.
“This is a very surreal moment for him.”
Daniher said the award would allow their cause to support the “best and brightest researchers who will find a way to tame the beast”.
Daniher played more than 80 games for Essendon between 1979 and 1990 in a career plagued by injuries, before he began coaching, leading Melbourne from 1998 to 2007. His diagnosis of MND in 2013 led him to become a tireless campaigner for a cure for the disease. He helped to set up the FightMND charity, which has raised and invested over $115m into medical research.
He described MND as a “beast of a disease”.
“It doesn’t discriminate. It robs you of your ability to move, speak, swallow, and eventually breathe. But it did something else, too. It lit a fire within me. A determination to fight for those who are currently affected, and those who will face it after me.
“Our vision is simple. A world without MND,” he said on Saturday night.
“Some may call it a dream, but I don’t believe it is an impossible one. This disease is not incurable. It is simply underfunded and misunderstood. With focus, funding and unwavering determination, we can change that.”
Indigenous scientist Dr Katrina Wruck was named as the 2025 Young Australian of the Year winner. The Mabuigilaig and Goemulgal woman’s pioneering work in the field of green chemistry has led to the creation of the world’s first reusable laundry system.
“Representation matters,” Ruck said in her acceptance speech, acknowledging her immigrant and Torres Strait Islander heritage “as both integral parts of my identity”.
“Here, in precolonial Australia, we had country, known by 250 unique, self-determining nations. These societies were guided by chosen, initiated elders – custodians of deep knowledge passed through thousands of generations. That knowledge and sovereignty were disrupted by the forces of colonisation. Today, we still exist under the structures of the British empire.
“Tomorrow, January 26, is known by many names: Australia Day, Invasion Day, Survival Day. To some, it is a day of celebration, a public holiday. To others, it is a stark reminder of the violent dispossession, a legacy that continues to this day.
“I stand here as a neurodivergent black woman, a golden trifecta that by all accounts, wasn’t supposed to succeed. Early in my journey, I worked tirelessly to prove others wrong. But along the way, I realised I wasn’t doing it for them, I was doing it for myself, for my family and for the community they represent.”
Western Australian Brother Olly Pickett, 84, was recognised as Senior Australian of the Year for his work helped thousands of children in developing countries across the world gain their mobility. As the co-founder of the charity Wheelchairs for Kids, he has helped to provide more than 60,000 free wheelchairs for children in more than 80 countries.
Through his work with the charity, Brother Pickett also designed a wheelchair to World Health Organization standards that grows alongside the children who use them.
Vanessa Brettell and Hannah Costello were both named Australian Local Hero for their social enterprise cafes in Canberra helping migrant women gain jobs.
They take the reins from outgoing Australians of the Year in 2024, pioneering melanoma researchers Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer.
“We see in you so much of what is best in the Australian character,” the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said in his opening remarks at the beginning of the ceremony.
“Of all of Australia’s resources, none is greater than our people,” he said.
More than 30 finalists were in the running to be named Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia’s Local Hero.
