Dear the Hon Jane Prentice MP

We thank you and Mr Russell de Burgh for your response (MC17-003466 on 28/3/2017) to A4's email, and especially for specifically answering the questions we asked.

The webpage your response refers to, https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/disability-support-pension, says (repeatedly) that people who are either "permanently blind" or " have a physical, intellectual or psychiatric condition" may be eligible for Disability Support Pension. We understand that people who to not satisfy this description are not eligible. This description of eligible people excludes most autistic people. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is not regarded as a "psychiatric condition" even though the diagnostic criteria are described in the DSM-5, a manual of mental disorders. Current estimates suggest under 50% of autistic people have "intellectual impairment". ASD is not physical impairment. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that in 2012, 73% of autistic Australians have severe or profound disability (limitations on core activities), so it would seem that a high proportion of autistic adults should be eligible for DSP.

A hundred years ago people with an intellectual disability were locked up in "lunatic asylums". Today they're still locked away, but it's just behind the walls of suburbia.

This is a story I'm trying to write without being able to give you specific details. It includes allegations of sexual abuse, physical assault and degradation, so people have asked for identities to be protected.

Neelima Choahan

When Maria Thomas placed her son in a state-funded disability emergency home, she expected him to be safe.

Instead, Matthew, a non-verbal man with autism, was attacked several times at a group home, Autism Plus, that he shared with four other people.

Dear Mr Buckley,

Please find attached correspondence from William Garton.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions in regards to this correspondence.

Kind Regards

Executive Assistant to William Garton,

General Manager – Access and Operations Management,

Participants and Planning

National Disability Insurance Agency

Mr Bob Buckley

Convenor

Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (A4)

Dear Mr Buckley,

Thank you for your correspondence dated 2 February 2017.

Amanda Robbemond

FOUR months ago little Kai Patch wouldn’t turn around when his name was repeatedly called.

Diagnosed with autism in October last year, the two-year-old struggled to talk, make eye contact or interact.

Worried about his future, his parents, Sonya and Ben Patch, decided to move the family north from NSW to enrol at Arundel’s Little Souls Taking Big Steps, one of two autistic centres on the Coast and the only one that provides a one-on-one therapy program.

Dear Mr Buckley

Please find attached correspondence acknowledging your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982.

Please contact me if you require the attached document in an alternative format.

Kind regards

GA
Paralegal
Legal Branch
National Disability Insurance Agency

Susan Scutti

(CNN) Preventable injuries often lead to death among people with autism, a new study says. They are three times more likely than the general population to die because of injuries, according to the study, published Tuesday in the American Journal of Public Health.

When I was four-years-old a speech therapist told my mother that my inability to speak would right itself. Her GP told her not to worry about my severe sleep problems and that I was simply a fussy eater for only eating jam sandwiches and yogurt.

The self-harm and eating disorder I developed as a teen was put down to depression and when I tried to end my life aged eighteen, I was called selfish by the nurse who pumped my stomach.