Five days earlier than I thought they would, the Senate Select Committee on Autism has tabled it’s final report. It was due on the last sitting day of the Senate in March (March 30) and with March 29 being the day of the federal budget I wasn’t expecting it any sooner. Mind you – it may have been published but it’s tabling may simply be ratified next Tuesday anyway just for completeness.
My name appears in the report eight times. Six of the mentions are in the page notes, one is in the main report and one is simply the note that I made a submission. The now defunct Spectrum Labor scored a total of forty mentions – thirty four in the pages notes, five in the main report and the note of the submission per my personal submission. The spot where my name was mentioned in the body was a reference to my experience with Victoria’s Housing Commission with regard to the shift in preferred location from the Grampians office to the Loddon office (ie from Ballarat to Bendigo).
I have reviewed the recommendations briefly. There are 81, and none of them are objectionable although some do have some riders. For example, Recommendation 6 is great but it is limited to actual participants of the NDIS. It should be expanded to everyone who should be covered by it – and that of course means the whole of Autistic community who needs assistance. Recommendation 11 is also great, but the term awareness should be replaced with acceptance – or both should incorporated. Recommendations 33, 39 and 50 are directed to the states and territories, which honestly should not be in the committee’s direct jurisdiction. Recommendation 44 is right, but we already have a one stop shop for appropriate service referrals in place. The NDIS. It should be used as that.
I have a particular interest in Recommendation 43;
The committee recommends that the Australian Government commit funding to quality research to continue addressing gaps in the evidence for early intervention approaches.
This research option could be the open door that is needed to fully investigate my theories relating to sensory overload and the behavioural base in Autism’s genetic identity. So an acceptance of this recommendation of the 81 is the highest priority for me personally.
The only issue I have with the report lies in what was not there. It would take too long to go through everything, but one has to note that there is wriggle room for a lot of it to be the next step beyond. That means that this report is intended to lay a firm base, which can only be a good thing. There is one exception – the lack of reference to the issues of hate speech in my supplementary submission. I will be following up on that as part of the election campaign.
I have to speak about the dissenting report – not from Labor but from the Greens. It was pathetic. The claim that the report is based in the medical model of disability is ridiculous and paranoid. The claim that this was an opportunity missed gives no credit to the base. This is reflected in his five recommendations – of which only the fifth is okay and I would assume done as a matter of course anyway. The rest smacks of reverse ableism. An assumption is made that all Autistics can communicate – that is not true. Many Level 3 Autistics can not communicate effectively. Recommendation 4 is particularly guilty of this. Anything else outside of that is the wriggle room of the main report’s recommendations. Much has been made of the bullying within the Liberal Party and the Labor Party in the media. The reality is that the Greens have this issue too and unlike Labor who are aware of it and act, the Greens do not. Senator Steele-John demonstrated with this dissent that he is a part of the problem and not part of the solution.
It should of course be noted that this report would not have taken into account the recent issues with the NDIS so any commentary in that regard should be avoided in responding to the Committee’s report. But the wriggle room I mentioned can incorporate the needed response to that issue.
The whole report is 439 pages (including blanks and what not) and carries an important roll in dealing with Autism going forward. It is useful and should not be degraded or nit picked. The bigger picture needs to be observed, based in the recommendations in the main report. We need to work from that.
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Autism/autism/Report
Phil Gluyas: Autism News and Views 