Almost, two months after A4 made its submission to the Thriving Kids inquiry, the Committee got around to publishing a redacted version of the submission - see https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=aa16eb63-911d-40fb-a99f-3d….

A4 is a national disability representative organisation (DRO) for autism that is recognised by government. A4 is the only national recognised DRO for autism representing the full autism spectrum.

The Committee conducted numerous hearings before it got around to acknowledging A4's submission. 

The Committee's redaction of Annex C from A4's submission omits the story of a child with severe autism who the NDIS initially considered too mild to be eligible even for early intervention. It took 7 months to break through their gatekeeper ... and despite an autism diagnosis the NDIS had not recorded his permanent disability even as the matter went to the ART hearing. 

The Committee has not explained why it redacted that part of A4's submission - it seem to us that the Committee simply can't handle the truth that the NDIS does not understand autism. The Committee chair said Annex C was redacted to protect privacy - but the ART had already used the HWSN pseudonym for that purpose. A4 provided an updated version of its Annex C hoping to make the relevance clearer (see below). 

The Thriving Kid's inquiry has not called A4 to give evidence. 

Parts of the autism sector have expressed serious concerns about the conduct of the inquiry committee - see https://www.asan-aunz.org/thriving-kids/ that says:

Unfortunately, autistic representatives were not provided with a fair opportunity to present evidence, and ASAN AUNZ has submitted and endorsed complaints regarding this to the committee and the Australian Human Rights Commission.

See also https://a4.org.au/node/2753

A4 understands that the Australian Autism Alliance (another DRO recognised by government) also made a submission that the Committee has yet to publish.