Dear The Hon. Christian Porter MP

Your reference: MC15-015074

Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (known as A4) received a response from James Kemp in your Department.

I am sorry, but I cannot see how his response relates to the matters mentioned in the meeting request (see http://a4.org.au/node/1118). Please consider the meeting request that we sent to you on 5/11/2015.

regards

Bob Buckley

Convenor, Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia

21/12/2015

The third ASfAR Conference will be held at the University of Western Australia, Perth, with support from the Telethon Kids Institute on Thursday 8th & Friday 9th December, 2016. Autism CRC events would precede the Conference on Tuesday 6th & Wednesday 7th December 2016. Dates and information re Conference Registration will be put up on the website shortly. Registration is free but you must be a member of ASfAR to attend. If you are not currently a member, please submit a membership application form.

03 December , 2015

A Shorten Labor Government will provide an additional $2 million a year to peak disability advocacy organisations to ensure people with disability have a powerful voice in the debates and decisions that affect their lives.

On International Day of People with Disability, Labor affirms its support for advocacy services and recognises their crucial role in the successful rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Dear The Hon. Mr C Porter MP,

Minister for Social Security



Today I spoke with Lucy in your office. She asked me to write to you.

Recently, I have been contacted about several people who were told that Centrelink has reassessed them and they no longer qualify for Disability Support Pension because they have Asperger's Syndrome.

NOVEMBER 16, Lucy Hodula

OVER the past week there have been some awful stories about parents struggling to cope on their own with children who have disabilities.

The overwhelming message from advocates is that you don’t know what goes on in other people’s homes and how hard it can be.

Lucy and Gabor Hodula know that better than most. Their 25-year-old son Mark is severely autistic, and every day is a struggle. Lucy has written this to give outsiders an insight.

***

Ehsan Knopf

A letter between a Queensland girl, born with autism, and her mother has gone viral just hours after it was shared to Facebook.

The letter, an exchange between seven-year-old Cadence and mother Angela, was written after Cadence - overwhelmed by negative news stories about children with autism - took shelter beneath her schoolteacher’s desk.

Early intervention can play a vital role in the development and wellbeing of a child with Autism, but what is the cost and who will pay for it? Dr Nancy Sadka has some answers for parents and carers.

This sparklingly humane book makes the case that there is no such thing as neurologically ‘normal’

by Steven Poole

Bill ​O'Chee

It is shocking to discover that children with disabilities are being disciplined using the same methods used by the CIA in the torture of suspected terrorists.

While the CIA's interrogation methods have attracted widespread condemnation, there has been but a muffled squeak over children with autism being locked in darkened rooms, cages or boxes in Australian primary schools.