Bob Buckley provided the submission below to the Oversight Committee of the National Autism Strategy (NAS) and the relevant Ministers. 

It was written quickly ... with less consultation than is ideal. While it's his submission, a summary of the issues raised was shared with A4's Management Group who provided input towards the submission.

A4 provided detailed commenatry on parts of the Health working group's draft Health Roadmap for Autism. 

The proportion of young children (age 0 to 6 years) diagnosed with autism in the NDIS has declined significantly since the full roll-out of the NDIS. The number of autistic NDIS participants aged 0-6 years old in the NDIS decreased 27.4% in 18 months from 30/9/2022 to 31/3/2024.

The following chart shows the number of children in the NDIS with different types of "primary disability" according to data published by the NDIS on their website. 

Updated data ... Aug 2024

Response received 8/7/2024 - see below

The Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP
Attorney-General
PO Box 6022
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Dear Attorney-General

Subject: protection for AAT s42 agreements with the NDIA

A4's submission on the government's proposed changes to the NDIS legislation have been published (as No. 142) on the Committee's website - see https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/NDISAmendment2024/Submissions

Or you can download a copy using the links below.

The Department of Social Security is charged with managing the development of Australia's National Autism  Strategy.

The consultation process for the first draft strategy has closed -  see https://engage.dss.gov.au/developing-the-national-autism-strategy/

A4's "silver buckshot" response to the draft National Autism Strategy prepared by DSS staff is available from the links below.

The National Autism Strategy Oversight Committee has released it's draft strategy for comment.

Please review the draft strategy and be encouraged to respond. 

see

• https://engage.dss.gov.au/developing-the-national-autism-strategy/draft-strategy/ 
• https://engage.dss.gov.au/developing-the-national-autism-strategy/ 

Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (A4) published its report updating its views on the number of Autistic Australians who are officially identified as autistic. The numbers are substantially higher than some "authorities" claim. For example,