The Gillard Labor Government today announced that it will start work immediately with states and territories on measures that will build the foundations for a National Disability Insurance Scheme, following the release of the Productivity Commission's final report into the matter.

The Government asked the Productivity Commission to examine reform of disability support services because we believe that the system we have today is not delivering the kind of care and support Australians expect for people with disability.

The main recommendations of the Productivity Commission are:

From The Daily Telegraph, July 20, 2011

• Students with autism up 165 per cent over eight years
• Rates of other mental health diagnoses up by 75
• Autism attracts more funding, more assistance

SOME parents and doctors are colluding to deliberately misdiagnose school children as autistic so they can get help for other problems, a medical professional claims.

Parents are seeking the autism "label" because funding for the condition has increased and more assistance is available for autism than for other conditions.

PARENTS of disabled students are taking the Education Department to court alleging discrimination, saying their children are being punished for their disability by being suspended from school.

One boy from Wagga Wagga, with a mild intellectual disability and emotional disorder, was suspended three times for a total of 80 days as an eight-year-old. He is now 10 and his mother last month filed a $50,000 damages claim against the department in the Federal Court.

Miles Kemp
From: The Advertiser
June 30, 2011

SEVERELY disabled people will be able to give evidence in court against those who sexually abuse them.

Attorney-General John Rau has pledged to change laws to make it possible.

The announcement, to be made today by Attorney-General Rau, has been welcomed as vindication by disabled advocates and the Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner Leena Sudano.

A MELBOURNE family is moving to the US for "emergency education" because it believes the Victorian school system has failed their 11-year-old son.

The autistic boy is from one of at least nine families suing the Education Department through the Federal Court for discrimination and what they claim is inadequate education.

Some families say they have spent up to $100,000 on therapy, tutoring and legal fees in their bids to get their "left behind" disabled children up to speed.

Following recent NGO membership to the United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI),
Autism Awareness was invited to present at the annual NGO Orientation Program commencing on
Wednesday 1 June 2011 in New York (EST)

A BLOWOUT in the number of autistic students at NSW public schools may have been triggered by doctors misdiagnosing children to secure extra funding.

Department of Education figures obtained by The Sunday Telegraph show one in 74 students at state schools is autistic despite the accepted Australian prevalence being one in 160.

The state government spends more than $1.1 billion each year on students with disabilities.

Doctors say the only way to secure extra funding for children who are borderline cases or who have learning difficulties is to stretch the diagnosis.

Urgent action must be taken to ensure Australians with disabilities - including children and young people - are protected from unnecessary restrictive practices that put their lives and wellbeing at risk, along with those of the people working with and caring for them, according to the Australian Psychological Society (APS).

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Psychologists and disability sector experts are worried about what they say is a hidden problem across the country - the physical abuse of autistic children.

It's allegedly occurring in both special and mainstream schools and the experts say it's due to a lack of teacher training.

Mary Gearin reports, and a warning that this story starts with some disturbing images.

(adults wrestle with and pin down a boy, who moans and cries)

Jessica Hamzelou, reporter One in every 38 children may have an autism spectrum disorder - more than double the current US estimate. The latest research in a South Korean population suggests that by overlooking children attending regular schools, previous reports wildly underestimated the true prevalence of the disorder.