The following list shows A4's recent advocacy. This list contains both publications (including briefs and submissions) and communications (letters & emails).

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The Australian newspaper - misinformation about autism in Australia - response required

By convenor |

Dear Ministers Butler and  McAllister

The Australian newspaper (in A caring approach to autism 25/2/2026) says incorrectly:

Nationwide, about one in three children are now diagnosed as autistic, Adams says, ...

Please, understand that the information is wrong and the writer, Sian Powell (cannot be called a journalist), misquoted the source, Prof. Adams.

the creep is the author

By convenor |
portrait of Ministers Butler and McAllister

Dear NDIS Ministers Butler and McAllister

no doubt you are aware of the AFR editorial today, A truly sustainable NDIS must stop autism creep (see https://archive.md/4GcDX). Your government needs to push back on this misinformation immediately if it hopes to preserve any credibility in relation to autism policy.  

The creep here is the uninformed author of this article.

Concerns Mount Over Autistic Children's future under Thriving Kids

By convenor |

Media Release

Families of autistic children say they are being left in the dark about how the government will determine which children are classified as having “mild to moderate autism” under the Thriving Kids program. 

Recently, government reported on its Thriving Kids program for children with “mild to moderate autism”: it released reports from

ABS: Information about disability severity in SDAC [SEC=OFFICIAL]

By convenor |

On 4/2/2026, A4 received the following information in an email from the Australian Bureau of Statistic (ABS).

Hi Bob, hope you are well.

As promised late last year, please find attached an explanation for how SDAC collects and derives the ‘Disability Status’ data item, aka severity. Apologies that this information has taken a while to reach you.

When you apply this explanation to the SDAC 2022 data for autism, you get the following:

Westmead's One Stop Shop responses from governments

By convenor |

In relation to A4's advocacy for improving essential hospital services for profoundly autistic Australians (see https://a4.org.au/node/2758), A4 received the following responses from governments and Ministers that were contacted initially. 

  • NSW response
  • federal response 

The NSW response is positive. We are keep to see how this develops ... both at Westmead hospital (inner-western Sydney) and in other NSW hospitals.

Letter to DSS/Health official - meeting request to discuss issues

By convenor |

The letter below was sent to a key health (former DSS) official raising issues and requesting a meeting. A more senior official made sure he got it.

One of the issues was how many mild to moderately autistic children were in the NDIS ... and likely to be caught up with the Thriving Kids program. He told a DRO Forum (4/9/2025) that work had not started ... which is different to what the NDIS told the media previously (see https://a4.org.au/node/2750). 

He has not acknowledged the letter nor responded. 

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