Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2025 10:11:11 +1100
From: Bob Buckley <convenor@a4.org.au>
Subject: urgent meeting request - NDIS impairment categories and autism
To: minister.rishworth@dss.gov.au, Amanda.Rishworth.MP@aph.gov.au 

Dear Minister

I write to request that we meet urgently to discuss changes to the NDIS legislation that require the NDIS to give participants impairment categories, changes that in effect removes autism as a disability from the NDIS,

Current NDIS legislation lists repeatedly, in Sections 24(1)(a), 25(1)(a), and 32BA(3), six impairment categories none of which is part of autism diagnostic criteria … though the listed impairments may be included as additional information in a diagnosis report for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This means that even the most profoundly autistic Australians, unless they also have other disabilities, are not eligible for NDIS support for their autism as their autistic impairment cannot be supported under the NDIS’s latest legislation.

This is a fundamental problem in the NDIS legislation. It is something that needs politicians to understand and fix.

The DSM-5 (2013) and DSM-5-TR (2022) classify ASD as a neurodevelopmental disorder. Autism/ASD is often described as a triad of impairments: social, communication and behavioural disorders … with the DSM-5 adding environmental sensitivities. Autism/ASD can be associated with intellectual disability, language delay or disorder, and various other conditions that are also associated with impairments. But these other impairments are not ASD.

At least 50% of NDIS participants, that is those who are autistic, have impairments that clinicians advise need support but cannot be described using the categories available in the NDIS legislations. This likely means that many Australians with severe or profound disability are or will be classed as ineligible for NDIS support for their severe/profound disability. Autism is a serious problem for government but pretending it does not exist is not a viable solution to that problem.

Hopefully, the government did not intend its legislation should make severely/profoundly autistic Australians ineligible for NDIS supports.

Please can we meet to discuss this issue and how government might address it.

Yours sincerely