Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Flinders for moving this motion. I have in my electorate, as there are in every electorate, a number of families who have children with autism. They are one of the most wonderful groups of parents that you can possibly imagine, and both previous speakers have referred to how extraordinary they can be.

One of the things that I am very proud of in being part of this government for the last four years is the work we have done which helps empower some of those parents even further through early intervention and the development of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Sometimes we think we are pretty clever in this parliament because we allocate money and set up programs, but we all know that at the end of the day it is the work the parent does in the home and how well you can enable that parent to work with their child which makes the most difference at the end of the day.

Back in 2007 in the election we announced that we would launch the Helping Children with Autism program. It was originally meant to be about $190 million; it is now sitting at about $220 million. It unashamedly focuses its efforts on early intervention. We all know that intervention in the early years makes an extraordinary difference to the life of a child with autism and to their family. There are a number of elements to the Helping Children with Autism program which we have been rolling out for quite a few years. There is the Autism Advisory and Support Service, which has some 36 centres with advisers around the country. It is a one-stop shop where a parent can go for advice on how to get assistance. We also have early intervention funding. This is quite a change from the way funding was delivered in past years. It is $12,000 per family with a child under the age of seven. It allows the child's family considerable flexibility in deciding which services—such as pathology, psychology and occupational therapy—they want for their child with autism spectrum disorder. Again, this is quite a change from past years, when the funding was attached to the service itself. It is part of the change we are undertaking which moves us to the National Disability Insurance Scheme where families will have a far greater role across the board and where the relationship between a family and the providers of the services will change in quite a significant way.

We have launched Early Days workshops for parents and carers of preschool and school age children with autism spectrum disorder. We have also launched PlayConnect groups. There are about 150 playgroups around the country specifically for families and children with autism spectrum disorder. Again, both those forums—the Early Days workshops and the PlayConnect groups—provide opportunities for parents, families and carers to come together to share what they know and to feel the support of being with people who face similar kinds of challenges and joys in the raising of their children, something that again makes parents stronger as individuals and stronger as groups. One of the things that we all should acknowledge is that the more we empower parents, the more we help them actually work in the way they need to with their children, the stronger they become, not just as parents but as lobbyists as well. The stronger we make them the more they will rightfully ask of us, and that is one of the things that we will probably do that will have an incredibly profound impact in the long run. They are already one of the most extraordinary groups of parents, and they already know each other, but as they get to know exactly what is happening elsewhere, and build those networks further, they will become even stronger in their quite rightful demands for the future of their children. They are a wonderful group of people.

We have also established six autism-specific early learning and care centres around the country. There is one in south-western Sydney—not one in Parramatta, unfortunately. If there is going to be a seventh one I would like to put my hand up, as I am sure we all would. These centres provide places where children with autism spectrum disorder get the specific help that they need. Their families can see their progress on a daily basis and we have had wonderful reports of how well those things are going. Again I commend the member for Flinders for moving this motion. It is an incredibly important area. The more support we can provide early on in a child's life, the greater the possibilities of that life. I commend the motion. (Time expired)

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