By Natassia Chrysanthos

A diagnosis of autism is unlikely to be enough to guarantee future access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme as the government prepares to clarify that individualised packages were designed only for Australians with profound disabilities.

Elena Filipczyk Autistic writer

It took me two years after my formal autism diagnosis to build up the courage to ask my kind, empathetic GP to help me access the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). I was mortified, but most of all, I felt like an impostor.

As my GP smiled warmly and took the paperwork off me, she admitted she’d never filled in an NDIS form before. I looked down at my feet and dug my nails into my palms. Was I wasting her time? Was I wasting government money?

Danielle Cahill

Thousands of autistic drivers could find their Australian licences are in legal limbo due to changes quietly made last year to the national standards that govern who is considered fit to drive.

The national 2022 Assessing Fitness to Drive standards are the first to list autism as a condition that "should be assessed individually", which may involve a practical assessment.

MEDIA RELEASE 

17 November 2023

The CEO of A4, a recognised Disability Representative Organisation for autism, has described an ANU researcher’s comments regarding the ‘prevalence of autism’ as flawed. 

The article says:

Australian estimates of prevalence in children are the highest in the world and have grown faster than the global average. Incentives in government policy, specifically the NDIS, is the key factor unique to the Australian context and potentially explains the additional growth in Australian prevalence. 

Bob Buckley

Research indicates that diagnosis rates for autism in Australia have been increasing for some time.

There are people who claim autism is over-diagnosed in Australia.

In 2005, several paediatricians published their claims that

Rick Morton

A leaked review document shows the National Disability Insurance Agency used ‘legalistic brinkmanship’ to force disabled people to ‘bargain away their rights’.

A backlog of thousands of National Disability Insurance Scheme tribunal appeals was almost entirely artificial, not based on proper legislative interpretation and driven instead by “external pressures” to rein in costs of the scheme, according to independent reviewers chosen to work through the stricken cases.

In addition to previous submissions, A4 worked with GCG on an employment strategy. And submitted the report to the National Autism Strategy development team. 

GCG also wrote a paper on Road Map to Inclusive Education: Developing School Policy Reforms for Australian Schools (K-Y12) for the Australian Autism Alliance.

The final report of the Royal Commission into into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (DRC) has surprisingly little to say about Autistic Australians. The full report is a dozen volumes.