Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia

Miriam Webber

NDIS Commission boss Tracy Mackey will step down from the role in May, after a tumultuous 12 months for the agency.

Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill Shorten announced Ms Mackey's resignation in a statement on Tuesday, saying the government was working to "build a better NDIS disability watchdog".

Mr Shorten's statement did not say why Ms Mackey was leaving the role, but thanked her for her time at the commission, and wished her well.

Tom Burton

Dr Simon Duffy warned a decade ago that the design of the national disability insurance scheme created perverse incentives, leaving it flawed from day one.

The British social policy reformer who warned a decade ago that the design of Australia’s national disability insurance scheme was flawed from the start and would be expensive and unsustainable said his worst fears have come true.

The NDIS publishes quarterly data about NDIS participant plans. A4 used these data for the analyses of NDIS costs below.

Following are annual average budget costs for autism in the NDIS from 2019 to 2023 broken down by age.

Caitlin Cassidy

Andrew Whitehouse, who joins national school funding board, calls for urgent reform amid new government negotiations

Diagnostic delay is a major concern for children and young people with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)—and also for their loved ones.

The delay is the gap between first concerns about a child's development, and their eventual diagnosis. In some cases this can be more than five years.

Sarah Lansdown

One in five students in a class are likely to have some level of disability, but not all teachers have the evidence-based skills to cater for the diverse needs of students in their classes.

Angus Lange, 18, with his mum Sarah Lange talks about his struggle with dyslexia in school.

University of Canberra doctoral lecturer Julia Davies-Duff exposes her pre-service students to the latest research on best practice for teaching neurodivergent students.

 Lanie Tindale

There is never a dull moment in the Sugars-Daniel's "neurodivergent house", mum Rhi Sugars laughs.

But the struggle many Canberrans have in getting themselves or their child an autism or attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) diagnosis is no laughing matter, she says.

The mother-of-two lives in Lake Bathurst and works in Queanbeyan.

Sarah Basford Canales and Stephanie Convery

Chair of Actuaries Institute committee says money could go towards establishing early intervention programs for those with developmental delays

Anne Connolly

The head of the government watchdog for the NDIS, Tracy Mackey, swore and said she might have to resign after she discovered she had mistakenly told the ABC the regulator had shut down a program where children with disabilities were abused, court documents allege.

Laura Tingle

The scheme was overwhelmed by autism cases with nowhere else to go. Creating new services for them is one of the pointiest issues in the review.

One in five children in Australia have disability or developmental concerns, according to the Australian Early Development Census.