Dear Mr Buckley

Thank you for your email of 13 March 2018 to the Chief Executive Officer of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), Mr Robert De Luca regarding National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants living with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Mr De Luca has asked me to reply to you on his behalf.

I appreciate the time you have taken to provide feedback about the NDIS in your email and in your previous correspondence with the NDIA.

The NDIA is committed to ensure the needs of all children and their families and participants are considered through the NDIS including people with ASD.

I can confirm the NDIA has recently been approached by the Autism Australian Alliance (Alliance) for a discussion about how to ensure that the NDIS works effectively for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The NDIA is in the process of organising a meeting with the Alliance to discuss their feedback and options for ensuring the scheme implementation is consistent and responsive to needs identified.  This will ensure a shared understanding of the issues and a consistent pathway for future feedback.

It is my understanding Autism Asperger’s Advocacy Australia (A4) is a partner to the Alliance, and the NDIA look forward to discussion with Tracey Myles from A4- who was a co-signatory to this request.

Thank you for bringing your concerns to the NDIA’s attention.

Yours sincerely

Stephanie Gunn
General Manager, Partners in Community
Participant Planning Experience

National Disability Insurance Agency

Note: This response relates to the letter at http://a4.org.au/node/1664

It turns out that while Tracy Myles' name was on AAA's meeting request as a representative name for A4, she did not sign it. Nor was there any indication (or implication) of who might represent A4 in discussions between the Australian Autism Alliance (AAA) and the NDIS.

As indicated above, the NDIA organised a meeting but not with the NDIA CEO. The meeting was between a NDIA minion and a few people from AAA (not including an A4 representative), The result of the meeting is that another meeting will be held with an even lesser NDIA minion. As yet, there is no recognition nor discernible progress on any of the ASD-related issues raised.