Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I start by thanking the member for Kingston for moving this very important motion. I also acknowledge the member for Hughes and thank him for his personal contribution and his personal story. I think those stories are very important when we are talking about issues such as autism. I rise to support the motion and note that the Australian government is firmly committed to improving the support and care for people with autism spectrum disorders and also for their families.

Autism is sometimes referred to as an invisible disorder in that people with autism often do not have any observable signs, but they can have difficulty communicating or interacting socially, sometimes behaving inappropriately. Of course, many people who have autism are very intelligent, capable people and often behave very appropriately. It is because of a behavioural change that they tend to be unfairly labelled as naughty, bad or obnoxious when they do exhibit inappropriate behaviour. Instead, they should be recognised by onlookers as experiencing great difficulties in making sense of what is going on, and their outbursts of inappropriate behaviour are their way of expressing confusion, fear and frustration. We have heard many stories about the many challenges that children with autism have, whether that be in accessing school activities and some of the support services at school, and also many stories about the many challenges and difficulties that adults face. That is why it is so important that the government has committed to taking as much action as we can to provide that support and care. In 2007, the Australian Advisory Board on Autism Spectrum Disorders released a report on the prevalence of autism. The report indicated that around one child out of every 160 may display behaviours that would suggest that they may fall on the autism spectrum. The government understands the importance of early intervention services for children with autism.

The government is improving access to those early intervention services during the most critical period of a child's development through the Helping Children with Autism package, which has provided over $220 million for services for children with autism. Since the commencement of the package in 2008, more than 19,000 eligible children have registered to access over 550,000 early intervention services in 1,300 locations across Australia. That is a very significant difference. The package supports and recognises the enormous challenges for children with autism, their families and carers. And there is a whole range of intervention measures in the package, such as the Autism Advisory and Support Services, early intervention funding, specific workshops for the information of parents and carers, lots of PlayConnect play groups and a website. There are Medicare items as well. There are also positive partnerships for the professional development of teachers and school staff who work with students with autism spectrum disorders. There really are a whole range of intervention processes.

In addition to the package, the government has established six autism-specific early learning and care centres, which provide specific early learning programs and support to children with autism or autism-like symptoms in a long day-care setting. So there are a whole range of very important interventions and support services available to parents and carers.

As we know, the state and territory governments are the main providers of disability services in their respective jurisdictions. The package that I spoke about earlier is intended to complement state and territory government services by allowing families the choice of using their package funding on state and territory government services in ways that are most appropriate for the needs and requirements of their children. As I have explained, some of the government's commitment will continue to focus on supporting these children and their families in the early years. We will continue to do that as we move forward with the broader reforms underway with the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

A big focus of the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be on ensuring early intervention services are available to families when they most need them to help our children get the best possible start in life. We understand that. That is why the government has had such a very strong commitment to the National Disability Insurance Scheme and why we made a commitment in the budget to get that underway. We know that will be very important for families right across the country. We have taken that action for children, and particularly those with autism, because we understand that it is important for them to access those early intervention services. We also want to continue to provide support and counselling services for them and for their parents and their carers. We acknowledge many of the challenges that they face. We understand how important it is for us to continue to provide the ongoing support and education that they require.

See this speech in context