Fireworks costing tens of millions of dollars go up in smoke every year in Australia and the world, to the accompaniment of a few 'oohs' and 'aahs' and expectations that next year will be even bigger.

New Years Day and Australia Day are our main celebratory displays, but the cost of staging these events is obscene.

This is not Stooge talking. As communities we are responsible for all the children in our care. Bringing children up has been the responsibility of parents, family and community for thousands of years. This is how and why it has worked, how our species has learned, evolved, survived and thrived. It is only in the past couple of hundred of years that this has begun to fade in the west, and the habit is spreading worldwide.

When I say children, I mean ALL children, not just kids who are fit, healthy and able bodied, but severely disabled children as well, whose right to be here is equal to everyone else.

If your child is born with a severe disability there is still a good chance their reasoning abilities are still intact. They can learn, think, imagine and feel just like the rest of us, but are unable to communicate any of this in the conventional way.

For most this equates to a lifetime of frustration and loneliness. I cannot imagine what it can be like to have, say, a hair on your nose that's itchy, but can do nothing about it except perhaps, if I'm lucky, scream or cry about it.

What is it like never to taste food, feel water pass your lips, talk, walk, play, tell people around that you love them or experience any of the thousands of things we take for granted every day of our life.

For the families of children in this condition the strain is enormous. There is no less love, but many are living in constant fear of loss, desperation, frustration and helplessness. Some deal with it better than others, some can't cope and put their children into care, others dedicate their lives to caring for their child.

What has this to do with fireworks?

There are hundreds of equally needy causes in our so-called 'lucky country' but we'd be hard pressed to find one more extreme than this.

Communication devices have been developed, especially since computers have become so advanced, that can allow a child who cannot move to communicate with people around them, using just their breath, or movement of an eyebrow. With specialist training many of these children can learn to speak through their computers. Imagine what it would be like for a parent who has never heard their child speak, perhaps never been completely sure they understand anything that goes on, to read 'I love you' written by their son or daughter.

And it's all possible now, except for one obvious thing. This equipment costs many thousands of dollars. Sometimes five, ten, fifteen even twenty thousand dollars for one device.

Even the wheelchairs these children need are exorbitant in price, costing as much as a family car. One basic replacement for a nine year old girl I know will come to $12,000 dollars, and most families are already under huge financial strain bringing up severely disabled children, and most simply cannot afford it.

So, to add on to the inability to move, eat, drink, share and play, the only means of communication is denied these children and their families due to lack of money. Anywhere in the world this is, as I said, obscene, but in Australia this is criminal.

The raising of children IS the responsibility of the WHOLE community. Local, state, national, regional, WORLDWIDE community.

So when the leaders of our various communities put on their annual bash for the people who elect them, with millions of dollars allocated to fireworks going 'bang bang bang' for half an hour, I wonder if they ever think this money could be put to a better use?

Here's a challenge. Next New Years Eve, next Australia Day, or whatever celebration is happening wherever you are in the world, lobby your decision makers. Ask for the money delegated to firework displays to be re-directed to programs helping the children of families in the community.

Instead of half an hour of bangs and flashes and the odd 'ooh' and 'ahh', this money can change the lives of thousands of children and their families in ways so profound we cant, without experiencing it ourselves, begin to imagine.

If a society can be judged on how it treats members of their community who don't fit into what we arrogantly call 'the norm', Australia is way down the league table. And this is a country that relies on an annual 24 hour television fundraiser to maintain the viability of children's hospitals, when in reality the billions of dollars pouring into government coffers negates the need for any such fundraisers.

Children with severe disabilities are as much a part of our community as everyone else living in that community. Stop these ridiculous firework displays that even young people are getting a tired of, and make a difference to the lives of these children and their families.

If it's a 'feel good' thing we need to kick start a new year or to make us feel more like Australians, then knowing that a child who has never spoken is able to talk with those who love them due to our collective, community involvement, then this gesture will be the pinnacle of 'feeling good'.