Dear Prime Minister

The Health Department's recent report on The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in Australia does not once mention autism. In this respect, Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia regards the report as negligent. The report was signed off by the Health Minister.

Autism is a growing issue for Governments in Australia since:

Media Release

Autism groups around the country agree that bullying of autistic students in schools must be properly addressed.

For years, Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (known as A4) has cited published research showing bullying of autistic students in schools is a major problem and the result is abysmal education outcomes for autistic students (see http://a4.org.au/node/1068 and http://a4.org.au/node/1032).

by Rick Morton, The Australian

Autism experts have repeatedly told the managers of the $22 billion national disability insurance scheme they face urgent problems on two fronts that will end up reducing children’s treatment and ramping up the program’s costs by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Some of these children may never have had autism in the first place, despite being diagnosed with it

• By Darold A. Treffert on December 9, 2015

The headlines read “New study suggests autism can be outgrown”, or “outgrowing autism: a doctor’s surprise and wonder.” The stories are based on studies reporting that 7-9% of children with a documented early autistic syndrome disorder (ASD) have no symptoms of the disorder on follow-up later in childhood or adolescence. That is good news. The question is how to account for it.

Is it possible to simply “outgrow” autism? Was the initial diagnosis wrong? Did some interventions work? Or might there be other explanations for this welcome news?

A Senate committee has found a royal commission is needed into the abuse of people with disabilities, after a parliamentary inquiry heard "shocking" and "cruel" examples of violence and neglect around Australia. 

The report, by the Senate's community affairs committee, found that while there are no clear national statistics on the prevalence of violence against people with disability, there is "overwhelming anecdotal evidence".