letter or email to various people

hoping for a better Administrative Review Tribunal

By bobb |

Dear Justice Kyrou and Mr Michael Hawkins

I write about some of the operations of the NDIS Division of the new Administrative Review Tribunal (ART). 

I am a volunteer advocate and have now helped over 60 NDIS participants in their requests for the AAT and ART to review the statements of participant supports (SOPS) in their NDIS Plans. These have mostly been reviews of plans for young autistic NDIS participants.

Complaint about DSS sponsored advice on ABA for families of autistic children

By convenor |

Dear sir/madam

I write to formally protest the current content of your webpage 
https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/therapies-guide/applied-behaviour…
Its content is very poor quality and largely misleading. I suggest you revert to the page's previous content until more appropriate content can be developed in consultation with relevant stakeholders. 
I raised my concerns previously on 7/1/2025 but I have not heard from you. Please acknowledge my complaint.

A family living with autism responds to the National Autism Strategy (NAS)

By bobb |

Dear Minister,
As parents of an inspiring young man with Profound Autism , we have taken a keen interest in the development of the National Autism Strategy. We appreciate the efforts of many involved, and the commitment to provide a national strategy. We have contributed extensively to the Senate Select Committee on Autism and to the NAS (before and after the draft).

The Assembly - ABC casting

By bobb |
ABC logo

Hi Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia

My name is Catherine and I am the Casting Director for The Assembly TV documentary series on ABC.  We were in contact for S1 and I wanted to let you know that we have started casting for the second series. We are offering autistic people with an interest in journalism the opportunity to take part and I was hoping you could help me share the news.

Understanding NDIS reforms 2024-25

By convenor |
NDIS logo - broken into two parts

A4's Co-convenor wrote to the NDIS and the responsible Ministers with questions about the changes to the NDIS that came into effect on 10/10/2024. Many people feel the NDIS's descriptions and explanations were very confusing.

The Acting Deputy CEO, Service Design and Improvement replied on 2/2/2025. There is a link to the emails below.

Sadly, the response is not very helpful. 

One of the big changes is the two new lists that are meant to list things that the NDIS can fund, and things that it cannot fund. There are many problems with this approach.

no confidence in DSS and Foundational Supports

By convenor |

The letter below says there are 134K autistic children getting CA(child) and 148.5K autistic NDIS participants in the relevant age group. In 2022, the ABS SDAC estimates there are 161K autistic Australians most of whom would be eligible for CA(child). At 9% growth per years, the ABS estimate would be around 191K in 2024. These data suggest that it is likely that in 2024 around 30% of eligible autistic children did not get CA(child). A4 suspects that those missing out are likely to be children who most need this Foundational Support.

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