This submission raises issues about the experiences of NDIS participants at the Administrative Appeal Tribunal (AAT), specifically in relation to both the conduct of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and the procedures of the Tribunal itself.
The Australian Autism Alliance is holding a webinar on Tuesday 29 March (from 12.15pm-1.00pm) at which Chair of the Select Committee, Senator The Hon. Hollie Hughes, and Deputy Chair, Senator The Hon. Carol Brown will outline the report’s key findings and recommendations.
A4's Monique Blakemore will be chairing.
On Christmas Eve, the NDIS published its consultation outcome for young autistic children: see https://ndis.gov.au/community/we-listened/interventions-children-autism-spectrum-consultation-summary-report
Basically, the result of consultation was that:
When asked "How well is Australia respecting people's human rights?" answers indicated that people with disability are at most risk of missing out on their right to education: see https://rightstracker.org/en/country/AUS?as=hi&tab=atrisk
On the 12th October 2020, Mr Hoffman, the NDIA CEO, wrote a letter to NDIS participants, their families and carers. In his letter, he claimed that
The tools [for the NDIA's so-called Independent Assessment] have been ... used all over the world for many years.
A4 doubted this was true since no such tool existed for autistic people.
Previously, the NDIS was using the PEDI-CAT to assess autistic children. It is well known that this is not a suitable tool which is why the authors of the tool have been developing a revised PEDI-CAT (ASD) for some time.
The Victorian Royal Commission released its report. It is available from: https://finalreport.rcvmhs.vic.gov.au/
The report is in 5 volumes and 4 appendices. It is a big report: the volumes range from 36Mb to 54Mb.
Very little of the report relates to autistic Victorians.
Dear person
Based on your previous interest in our publication the National Guideline for the Assessment and Diagnosis of Autism, I am writing to let you know we have just published a new landmark report for families, clinicians, researchers and policy makers, which synthesises the best available high-quality evidence about interventions for children on the autism spectrum aged up to 12 years.
The Disability Royal Commission released a report summarising its public hearing #4 that is about Health care for people with cognitive disability. The DRC includes autistic people among people with cognitive disability.
The report focuses on NSW and describes many poor experiences of autistic people in the health systems. It says:
Experts and advocates also noted the dearth of initiatives to ensure that people with autism can access and receive appropriate health care.
The NDIA’s Independent Advisory Council (IAC) published a report to the NDIA titled Promoting best practice in early childhood early intervention (March 2020) Paper, herein referred to as the IAC’s Advice. The website says the IAC gave this advice to the NDIA Board.
...
In conclusion, the IAC’s Advice to the NDIA Board on early intervention for children with disability rejects and dismisses the substantial research that shows clearly the distinct and mostly unmet needs of autistic children. It aims to solve misconceptions, problems that do not actually exist, being that:
World first research report on Australia's First Peoples experiences of autism
Positive Partnerships is proud to have collaborated with Macquarie University on a new research report titled 'We Look After Our Own Mob: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Experiences of Autism'. On Tuesday 18th February this report was launched at the State Library of New South Wales by the Honourable Linda Burney MP, NSW Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians.
