In 2000, Muecke founded Vision Myanmar at the South Australian Institute of Ophthalmology.[10] In 2008, this evolved into Sight For All, a social impact organisation dedicated to fighting the causes of blindness[1] with projects in Aboriginal and mainstream Australian communities,[11] as well as training and equipping eye surgeons throughout Africa and Asia.[12] Muecke is Chair and co-founder of Sight for All.[8] Working with AusAID funding and the co-operation of both country's governments, Muecke created a program to create more than 30 specialist eye centres in Myanmar to treat cataract blindness.[9]
In November 2019, Muecke was named South Australian of the Year for 2020.[14] In January 2020, he was named Australian of the Year for his work in preventing blindness.[11][10] He had planned to speak at events around the country throughout the year, but the COVID-19 pandemic meant most of his presentations outside Adelaide were delivered online.[15]
On being appointed Australian of the Year, Muecke immediately advocated for a tax on sugary drinks in the fight against Type 2 diabetes,[16][17] which is the leading cause of blindness among Australian adults.[12] He advocated for TV commercials for unhealthy products to be limited to certain hours, and asks supermarket chains to curb their "predatory sales and marketing tactics", without success.[15]Australia Post did remove junk food from their checkouts following a meeting with him.[15] In late November 2020, he gave a controversial speech to the National Press Club outlining what he described as the country's "flawed, biased and unscientific" Australian Dietary Guidelines.[18] He also brought his concerns to the Health MinisterGreg Hunt.[19] He was credited by Hunt in the launching of a new ten-year National Diabetes Plan in November 2021.[20] Muecke is also a key contributor to Australian Community Media's "Silent Assassin" series on the causes and consequences of Australia's type 2 diabetes epidemic.[21][22]
In 2016, Muecke had to stop conducting surgeries due to an inherited neurological condition (focal dystonia) impacting use of his right hand.[23][24]
Honorary Doctorate, University of Adelaide, 2021[26]
Personal life
Muecke is married to Mena, a former architect who is Sight for All's events director, and they have two sons.[8][5] He is a keen amateur photographer and has held exhibitions and self-published a coffee table book, which helped fund a children's eye unit in Myanmar.[8]
