Senate debates

Wednesday, 29 March 2017

Motions

Autism

3:47 pm

Photo of Carol BrownCarol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | | Hansard source

I, and also on behalf of Senators Siewert and Reynolds, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) 2 April 2017 is the ninth anniversary of World Autism Awareness Day,

  (ii) the theme of World Autism Awareness Day 2017 is 'Towards autonomy and self-determination', and

  (iii) current estimates indicate that over 1 in 100 Australians are on the autism spectrum;

(b) acknowledges that:

  (i) awareness of autism is relatively high in the community, with recent polling commissioned by Amaze showing that over 50 per cent of Australians know or have known someone on the autism spectrum,

  (ii) the same poll showed that 74 per cent of Australians agreed that autism and its associated behaviour is still very misunderstood by the broader community, with only 29 per cent agreeing that they have a good understanding of how to support people on the autism spectrum, and

  (iii) more needs to be done to increase community understanding and acceptance of autism to better support autistic Australians to live an ordinary life; and

(c) recognises that the same polling showed that 72 per cent of Australians agreed that more needs to be done in schools, workplaces and the wider community to better support autistic Australians, and urges all governments to consider the specific needs of autistic Australians in the development of policy and programs.

Question agreed to.