Wednesday, 22 June 2022

Motions

Autism

Mr FINN (Western Metropolitan) (16:23): I move:

That this house:

(1) recognises:

(a) the vast and disparate needs of those on the autism spectrum and their families;

(b) that autism is regarded by many on the spectrum as a gift to be celebrated, allowing creativity and intellectual prowess to blossom;

(c) that families with a child on the spectrum often face particular challenges and difficulties and need assistance from government and private agencies;

(d) that siblings of those on the spectrum often struggle under the burden of the circumstances created by their unique situation;

(2) applauds teachers, therapists, physicians, researchers and many others working to enable those on the autism spectrum to achieve a standard of life that is self-satisfying, allowing them to reach their full potential; and

(3) further urges the government to conduct a watching brief to ensure services for those on the spectrum and their families are maintained at the necessary level.

This is a motion which refers specifically to people on the autism spectrum, their families and a whole range of changes that have occurred over recent years. I was out during lunchtime having a chat to the wonderful people from Amaze who help so many families with autism. They are out in Queen’s Hall, and if any members have not had a chance to go and have a chat to them this week, I suggest that they do, because it is really quite an experience. They do an amazing job. I said to them that what they are doing is a relatively new change, because when we had our son and he was diagnosed with autism 19 years ago, there was not that sort of support available that there is now, which is a very good thing.

I well remember going to see the psychiatrist and having him tell us that our son had autism, giving us a piece of paper and telling us to go home. I had some vague understanding of what autism was. I had heard of it, but I had absolutely no idea—and all of a sudden to be told that my son had autism and to be told to go home was a bit overwhelming. I can well understand why a lot of people over a long period of time would feel frustration, annoyance and, I suppose, anger at being told that their child has autism. Autism is something that I really have to point out is different for everybody. Just because you have met somebody with autism does not mean you know all about autism, and I discovered that myself in the almost eight years that I was Shadow Assistant Minister for Autism. I went into the job thinking that I knew a bit about it, and the longer I was in the job, the more I realised how much I did not know. To meet so many people across the state, as I had the opportunity to do over those years, was a very great honour, because there were some stories of great hardship, some stories where families had crumbled and stories of great victory, if I could call them that, where those families and those individuals had overcome the difficulty to go ahead and make a life for themselves, which is both self-satisfying and productive for the community. That is something that I will never forget, and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to do that.

I should also congratulate Dr Cheryl Dissanayake, who is the director of the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre at La Trobe University. Cheryl, if I could be so bold as to call her that, which I usually do, was awarded an Order of Australia for her work on the Queen’s Birthday, and I was absolutely delighted to see that because OTARC has done a power of good work over such a long time, of course funded by the generosity of the late Mrs Olga Tennison. They have led the world in many ways in research into autism and research into how families with autism can be assisted. So to Professor Dissanayake I offer my very warmest congratulations; as I did privately, I offer those publicly. It is a great pat on the back for her, but it is also a great pat on the back for all of those researchers and all of those people involved at the Olga Tennison autism centre at La Trobe University. I well remember Mr Ondarchie and me visiting there—was it last year? No, it would have been three years ago, pre COVID, and I think Mr Ondarchie was just as impressed as I was. I had been there previously, but even in the short period of time that I had not been there they had made even greater advances than they had previously. So I was quite, I have got to say, blown away by what they were doing there, and I say more power to them. They really are something very, very special, and I congratulate them and thank them for the work that they do.

I think that there is perhaps a misconception in the community that people with autism are in some way less than fit to fit into proper society, and that is a misconception, because the overwhelming majority are more than able to fit into society and to make a valuable contribution to our society. Of course autism, as I said before, is a spectrum, so you have some who are sitting in the corner rocking back and forth and you have others who are rocket scientists or surgeons or people who are just absolutely brilliant in their own right. That is something that a lot of people do not realise. The spectrum gives us everything, and that is something that I think we—

Dr Kieu: Physicists.

Mr FINN: Physicists, absolutely, and everything; it gives us everything. There is a degree of genius involved with autism. My son, for example, has a memory which I would kill for. My memory is shocking. His is just brilliant. He is 21—

Mr Ondarchie: What?

Mr FINN: Yes, I know. It is unbelievable, isn’t it? He can remember what happened 20 years ago. I can barely remember my name half the time. But his memory is just remarkable, and he can tell you exactly where we were on a particular date, what we were doing, where we were going, how we got there—the whole box and dice. It is absolutely remarkable.

The thing that we really have to be doing and concentrating on in the autism area is realising that every person on the spectrum has a particular gift. Some have more than one gift, but they have at least one special gift. What we have to do is find out what that gift is, channel that gift in the right direction and make sure that that person on the spectrum has the appropriate job. Mathematics, for example, is an area where people on the spectrum absolutely shine. Many of them have a capacity to do numbers—and I am sorry Mr Somyurek is gone, because he would know a bit about that himself—in a way that is quite remarkable, and a lot of businesses employ specifically people on the spectrum for that reason, because they do things with such precision and have an understanding of numbers that not many others do. That is something that a lot of people do not realise. People say, ‘Autism, it’s a disability’. Well, it can be, but it can also be a very great gift if it is viewed the right way.

Mr Ondarchie: It’s an ability.

Mr FINN: Well, it is more than an ability. It is a super ability in a lot of ways. That is not to say that there is not great difficulty with families sometimes going down that path, and there is violence because of the meltdowns when children, and in particular males, go through puberty. They can become very violent, and I have experienced that myself. It is not pleasant, and it does present the possibility that families come under a huge amount of pressure because of that. That is something that we should all keep in consideration and all keep in mind in terms of providing support, whether that be moral support, financial support or whatever it may be, for those families who find themselves in that particular situation.

I should say that, whilst I was a little bit sceptical to say the least about a giant welfare program based in Canberra, I have come to see from my own perspective that the NDIS has been just an extraordinary assistance to so many people who did not have that assistance before. I know my wife and I tried for many years to do it alone, and that was pretty tough. The NDIS now is being of major assistance, and that is a very, very good thing indeed.

Before going to the second part of the motion, I should go back to the part of the motion that refers to the siblings of those on the spectrum often struggling under the burden of the circumstances created by their unique situation, and I want to mention that in particular because brothers and sisters of children in particular on the spectrum quite often do it tough. They are sometimes neglected because so much attention is needed for the child on the spectrum, and they quite often miss out on a lot of things that they would normally go to or be involved in. That is not something that a lot of them complain about, but it should be recognised as a sacrifice that they make, sometimes willingly and sometimes not willingly. So I tip my hat to and I salute those siblings who give total support to their brother or sister. Of course some have more than one person on the spectrum in the family, and that can just add to the pressures and to the difficulties involved. I have seen over the journey a number of parents who have had two, three and even on one occasion four children on the spectrum, and how they have managed to get through that I do not know. My admiration for their courage, their guts, their determination is boundless. They are just extraordinary people, and generally speaking their children have turned out to be fine adults, doing what they want to do to a very large degree.

There are a lot of people, as is mentioned in section (2) of the motion, teachers, therapists, physicians, researchers and all the others, working to enable those on the autism spectrum to achieve a standard of life that is self-satisfying, allowing them to reach their full potential, and the commitment of most of these people is just astonishing. They give their lives to help these kids. They commit to it almost seven days a week. It is just remarkable. I have met many of the teachers and so forth. It is a passion with them and something they are never going to give up on, not until they get to where they want to be. They are never going to give up, and I commend them for the work they do every day. I just wonder where we would all be, those of us in the autism community, without that commitment, without that determination that these people have to provide the support and the change quite often that certainly has been needed and probably is still needed. I just say to them, ‘Thank you for the work that you do’, because it is truly remarkable and something that we are all deeply appreciative of.

I mention in this motion at section (3) that this house:

further urges the government to conduct a watching brief to ensure services for those on the spectrum and their families are maintained at the necessary level.

It should be pointed out that services for autism sometimes can be pretty expensive. You cannot say that one size fits all because it does not. Particularly with regard to autism it does not, and that adds costs. You have got various changes. You are trying to put a round peg in a square hole sometimes, and that does not work. You have actually got to personalise these services to the individual traits, to the individual characteristics of the people involved. That is going to cost money, and indeed it does. Given the numbers of people with autism, on the spectrum, that we have in this country now, and particularly in this state, that is going to cost a lot of money, and indeed it does cost a lot of money, but it is necessary. If we are going to provide a standard of living, if we are going to provide a degree of independence, if we are going to provide the necessary wherewithal to allow people on the spectrum to live a decent life, that money will have to be spent. I am not big on spending money, as members of this house would be aware, but sometimes you just have to, and on this occasion I certainly believe that we should.

I have to commend the government for its support for the autism community. I know the opposition up until relatively recent times was also very enthusiastic about supporting the autism community. So I would like to think that that bilateral support would be there and that both sides—all sides, in fact—would be supportive of this motion and indeed supportive of those who are in the autism community and in need of that support.

I know there are a couple of others who are really itching to speak on this, so I will leave it there. I urge members to support this motion. I think it is very important that we send a message to those in the autism community, whether they be on the spectrum themselves or whether they be families with autism. And I say ‘families with autism’ very specifically because once a member of the family has autism everybody in the family is affected by it. So it really is a question of families with autism, and we need as a Parliament to send a message to those people that we stand with them, that we support them and that we have their back. So I urge you to support this motion today, and I urge you, if you have not already, to wander through Queen’s Hall and have a look at some of the wonders that are on display today and, I think, tomorrow as well. They are well worth the trip out there. Before you do that, make sure you vote for this motion.

Ms WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (16:41): I rise to speak on this motion, and in doing so I would like to note that I am really proud to be part of a state government that supports Victorians with disabilities. Can I take a moment before I leap into my remarks to acknowledge and thank my friend Chris Varney. He is my friend and mentor and would be known to some of you as an extraordinary leader in the community. His leadership of the I Can Network is absolutely extraordinary. So, Chris, thank you for guiding me and guiding our community to a place where we now celebrate, honour and respect people with autism in such a profound way, including right here in our Parliament.

About one in every 100 Victorians is autistic; however, many autistic people live without a diagnosis, and the true rate of occurrence may be higher. Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that shapes people’s social communication and interaction, patterns of behaviour, interests and activities. Autistic people may also experience different reactions to what they see, hear, smell, touch or taste. Many autistic people do not see autism as a disability but rather as a different way of seeing and interacting with our world.

I would like to pause here for a moment to acknowledge that my use of language is very much guided by the many autistic and neurodiverse Victorians who told us during development of the Victorian Autism Plan that they have a strong preference for the use of identity first language—that is, for the use of ‘autistic people’ rather than ‘people with autism’. Language is a powerful, powerful tool for changing community attitudes, promoting inclusion and fostering disability pride. It is our job to make Victoria inclusive and accessible for every autistic person to foster opportunity, community and pride. Autistic Victorians experience persistent barriers to inclusion and participation in social, economic and civic life. The Victorian Parliament’s inquiry into services for people with autism spectrum disorder gave unprecedented insight into the daily experiences of exclusion and marginalisation faced by autistic Victorians, their families and carers. The 2017 final report of the inquiry highlighted numerous ways in which autistic people miss out on education and employment, social and civic activities and access to quality services. This leads to poorer health and mental health outcomes, lower income and fewer opportunities for active participation in their communities and the economy.

The Victorian Autism Plan was originally built on core elements of Absolutely Everyone: State Disability Plan 2017–2020, which guided Victoria’s work to be more inclusive of all people with disability. The plan drives changes in areas where autistic people have told us that they are most missing out, such as community inclusion, early identification and diagnosis and pathways and support through key life transitions. It also incorporates commitments to removing specific additional barriers faced by the autistic community. While we have supported our progress through the five-year autism plan with a range of investments, ahead of the plan’s release we supported early actions through an allocation of $22.4 million in the 2017–18 budget. We also provided an additional $7.1 million to support the release of the plan in 2019.

The Andrews Labor government also committed $7.4 million over four years in the 2020–21 state budget to deliver an additional 3150 publicly funded autism assessments. This builds on the existing public assessments delivered across Victoria’s 13 child and adolescent mental health service catchments. The Victorian government also allocated $1 million over two years to continue the Change Your Reactions campaign. This investment is part of the broader Inclusive Victoria: State Disability Plan investment of $15.1 million over two years. This will complement work underway to refresh the autism plan at its midway mark.

Other investments that will support the Victorian Autism Plan outcomes include $35.903 million over two years to provide effective and timely support to Victorians with disability who are not eligible for the NDIS and to ensure our service system responds to the needs of NDIS participants. Like Mr Finn said, the introduction of the NDIS has made a profound difference to the lives of people with autism, and I really do think that any additional investment to make that easier is a very good thing. There was also $560 million to upgrade 65 schools across Victoria. Included in that is $326 million for 36 specialty schools, improving educational outcomes through world-class classrooms and learning facilities. We are investing an entirely unprecedented $1.6 billion to make sure our youngest Victorians with disability are supported in the classroom through an Australian-first disability inclusion package. The record investment will transform support for students with disability in Victorian government schools, doubling the number of students receiving extra support in the classroom to 55 000. All schools will benefit from the change, enabling them to better support students who have previously been ineligible for targeted support, such as those with autism, dyslexia or complex behaviours. Building on the achievements through the Absolutely Everyone: State Disability Plan 2017–2020, the midway refresh of the Victorian Autism Plan will support alignment with the new commitments and systemic reforms in the Inclusive Victoria: State Disability Plan2022–2026.

There is so very much that I could go on with when it comes to our work, including the additional 175 actions to improve outcomes for people with disability across all life domains. Inclusive Victoria contains six systemic reforms to drive long-term change for all people with disability, including autistic Victorians. These are: the co-design with people with disability, ensuring people with disability are at the table in designing policies, services and programs; Aboriginal self-determination, working with Aboriginal Victorians with disability and listening to what works best for them; intersectional approaches, recognising and addressing the intersection of ableism with other forms of structural discrimination; accessing communications and universal design, building accessibility into everything we do; disability-confident and inclusive workforces—I am kind of excited about this one—skilling up workforces to understand the social and human rights model of disability; and effective data and outcome reporting, getting better at measuring and sharing the progress of actions in the new disability plan.

While I say this I am actually repeating some words that were spoken by Minister Carbines at the launch this week here at Parliament House—and can I just thank the minister for speaking to the community about what it is that the Victorian government is doing. There is so very much that we are doing, but it is worth saying that there is still much more to go. We have made really big progress, including recently I had the distinct pleasure of joining the minister for a sensory room launch with Netball Victoria, which was a really special moment to see inclusion and participation in sport for people with autism. It is a really big thing. Families now can go along to netball and have a space where they can enjoy the game but also take some time out if they need to. So thank you to Netball Victoria and so many others in our community who have stepped up to make our community more inclusive and more welcoming for people with autism. It is by working together with people with disabilities in collaboration and partnership that we will get there. And we will continue to draw on the expertise of our Autism Plan Advisory Group, which includes representatives from key organisations, including a number of autistic-led non-profit organisations, some of which you will see in Queen’s Hall today and in fact all this week. So thank you to those that have turned up. It is community expertise, it is the vision and it is the ambition that will help us drive change through the Victorian Autism Plan.

Can I just wrap up by saying thank you for being here, thank you for stepping up for your community in a really real and tangible way. It is leaders like Chris that make life for the next generation all that very much easier. So thank you to Chris, Amaze and all of the wonderful organisations out there today making the celebration of this very significant week all that much more powerful by their inclusion today.

Ms BATH (Eastern Victoria) (16:51): I am very pleased to rise this afternoon and throw my support behind Mr Finn’s motion on the autism spectrum and endorse each and every one of the four points that he raises in relation to autism. Also it is wonderfully coincidental and synchronous that he has put this motion forward in the week that we have in Queen’s Hall various elements and organisations that support families with autism and really lead the way in terms of support, information and a positive outcome. Amaze is in there, and I have had a great conversation over the last few days with David Tonge from Amaze. I endorse Ms Watt’s comments around I Can Network—I remember going to a school where Chris presented, and the children were all spellbound by his enthusiasm and positivity that he carries on in the lives of others—the Yellow Ladybugs, Different Journeys, Olga Tennison, Aspergers Victoria and La Trobe University research, and in doing so I congratulate the Parliament for also having this as a great initiative.

We learn by understanding, and we understand when we talk to those who are directly involved in either living with autism and being on the spectrum or being a family member or providing those services and being the conduits to the important information and education and diagnoses. I do have a very personal experience with autism, because I have two fantastic sons and my second son was born a bit different. It took me probably about five years through various different diagnoses and going to various different specialists to find out and gain a diagnosis. I asked him this afternoon if I could make some mention about it, and he said, ‘Yes, Mum, go for it. You raised me. I give you my full endorsement to have a conversation’.

If I can start with the end, he had some very significant struggles, as we all did, growing up, but gaining a diagnosis is so significant. It is a horrible thing to say, but finding out ‘what’s wrong with me’ is very important. Then ‘what’s wrong with me’ actually turns into what is flourishing and what opportunity exists in that person and in that beautiful spirit. But at the launch and as you go through the whole process it is finding out whether there is anything happening with the eyes, ears, nose or body and kinetics and physiotherapy and going through all those diagnoses and not meeting some benchmarks but being extremely successful in others. These are some of the things that our journey took us on. Along the way, a child psychologist looked at him and said, ‘I can give him 3 hours of assessment’, and he did, ‘but I can tell you now he has got Asperger’s syndrome.’ He is on the spectrum and, we later learned, has dyslexia. In fact I almost think the dyslexia was as significantly challenging in that space and in schools. Schools play a really important role in a child’s development—a significant role in a child’s development.

One of the things that I think is really important from the Combined Next Steps for Victorian Autism policy is early diagnosis. The dot points—I am sure people have read them—talk about the increased proportion of autistic children assessed and diagnosed by the age of three. If a child is diagnosed within 24 months, they found, 8 per cent have an intellectual disability. If it takes three to five years, it ends up being that 24 per cent or so have an intellectual disability. The same goes for if there is early diagnosis—around working through and being educated in a mainstream school with early diagnosis. The later the diagnosis, the less the proportion of children going through mainstream school.

One of the key things I think for me that this document spoke about is neurodiversity training and embedding mandatory training on inclusive education and autism in initial teacher training and teacher registration requirements. One of the important things I learned is that many teachers are really supportive of children in their classrooms—absolutely the length and breadth of their classrooms—but sometimes they do not have those background skills because they did not learn through the training process how to understand a child who has a learning difficulty or is on the spectrum and what to do. It is very, very important that the school embraces those learnings and provides training for staff but also that the education department provides, both in the public and private sectors, time off for particular learning and that they have a special classification for teachers to be able to provide that throughout the school. It is vital that children are understood and that individual support plans are then provided for those students. The parents also need to have a choice around whether they go to a mainstream school, and it depends on the level—1, 2 or 3—of diagnosis and disability. But can that child go into a mainstream school, or do they need to go into a special developmental school or a special school? Can there be a blend? Depending on the educational setting, the school and the town that those parents or carers live in, there can be a blend. That requires a whole other level again of support networks within that education system.

Children have the capacity to grow, and it takes a village to raise a child. When you are the parent of a child on the spectrum, sometimes those speed humps are so significant, and it is vital that people outside the family group can provide that lifeline of support. We had a teacher who provided educational support, confidence and validation of who my son was, and we paid for that every week. The NDIS did not exist back then. We just did it because we knew we had to get through some of the speed hurdles in his life. The other really important thing is that some of the children sometimes do not meet the criteria, and I think government needs to be flexible about criteria—the IQ was too high, but the behaviours were significant. As we know from various other reports, often it is not just an autism spectrum diagnosis, they often have mental health issues, depression and anxiety. When people do not understand that child or behave in a way that understands that child, it does impact on them. We have had doors with big dings in them, we have had him sitting in a cupboard banging his head. It is heartbreaking as a parent. However, it is also the most rewarding and most worthwhile thing to see them come through some of those huge anxieties and out the other side. But it does take not only the family unit but the education system, valuable support crews and physiotherapists and the like. Really, often we need to treat the mental state of the family and support network. There are some great support networks around.

I could speak a lot about the people who come into my electoral office who I have got to know. They are a privilege to know—families of children of all ages, classes and states but particularly those parents with children on the spectrum and with disability. In the Latrobe Valley there is Voices for Special Needs, and they are adamant about standing up for the rights of children. Quite often some of these children are not verbal, so you have to negotiate and understand what is happening there. They go to school, and they cannot come home and say, ‘Mum, I had a bad day’ or ‘I had a good day’. That is why I asked this afternoon a constituency question about providing an audit on how schools communicate with families, because communication is key. Some schools do it brilliantly in terms of a diary or an education book, and I have heard from parents that other schools do not do it well at all, and that does not serve the school, the student or the parent.

You can see that this is a topic that I am very passionate about. I would like to put on record my thanks to, having worked as a teacher in my school in Mirboo North, the very wonderful teachers aides, who go 110 per cent—210 per cent—more for their students, and the other teachers, who do an amazing role. I call on the government, though, to be mindful of really meeting the needs of the parents, not just going through the hierarchical education system. Sometimes the education system wants to protect its own rather than look at the wellbeing of the student and parent.

Dr CUMMING (Western Metropolitan) (17:01): I rise today as well to advocate for more to be done for people with autism and especially their families, seeing that there are far too many children out there and families out there that cannot afford the assessment for their children. There are far too many people out there at this time who are not able to get the proper diagnosis that they need and the proper help that they need. It is far too expensive. The waiting list to actually get an assessment is far too long. It can take years, and we need to actually shorten that time. There are plenty of studies to show that the sooner you can get diagnosed, even in your younger years, the more help you can actually get. Therefore we need to do more to make sure that we can get those assessments within the school system, within the schools, as well as having that training for teachers so that they can recognise what is going on—that neurodiversity training that is much needed. It is needed in all of our schools for these children to actually get diagnosed.

In my time here in Parliament I have raised this numerous times. I have seen far too many kids that have no obvious physical or neurological impairment but maybe have difficulties with concentrating or communicating or understanding. These learning difficulties are not being diagnosed, or they can have a very late diagnosis, which does not help those children through their school years. For me, I am very pleased to get up this week to push once again and advocate for having more robust policies. We need to identify supports. This government also need to put their money where their mouth is and actually have the packages within the schools so that families and children can get diagnosed within the school system. I will leave my contribution there, because I know there are many others today that wish to speak on this important topic.

Ms MAXWELL (Northern Victoria) (17:04): I am very pleased to be able to speak to this motion today—a motion which was a topic jointly determined by the crossbench and our new member, Mr Finn. It is absolutely something that many of us in this chamber are very passionate about. I will keep my contribution brief because I know we are very limited for time.

I would firstly like to acknowledge the tireless efforts of workers in the education sector, service providers and all those who work with those who live with autism and their families, and I think that Ms Bath articulated that so eloquently—and I hate to say this, but so did Mr Finn. I do not think ‘eloquent’ and ‘Mr Finn’ have probably been used in a sentence in this Parliament. In saying that, I think that it is so lovely to hear from people who have that firsthand experience with their own children. I think it certainly helps us to realise the compassion they have and the dedication to strive to support their child each and every day.

I have had the pleasure also a number of times of visiting the Mansfield Autism Statewide Services—

Mr Finn: I have been there. It is extraordinary.

Ms MAXWELL: It is an extraordinary place, Mr Finn. They provide assistance not only to children but to families right across Victoria. They are currently transforming a 40-hectare property into a residential complex and an onsite family camp. This camp provides an opportunity for families to spend time with their child in an environment and a setting that is so casual and so relaxed that it is so therapeutic not only for the children engaged in that education setting but for the families able to enjoy and see firsthand—

Mr Finn: That is very important.

Ms MAXWELL: Absolutely, Mr Finn. Those families see firsthand the smile on those children’s faces when they are engaging with the horseriding or feeding the chickens. It is an incredible farm, and I would encourage anyone to actually go and visit and see the work that they are doing. They hold a rideathon as one of their key fundraisers, called Operation Gamechanger, and whenever I can I sign up to raise money to assist them in their endeavours to meet their target, which is $100 000. I know the state government has contributed to the Mansfield autism school.

I have also had the great pleasure of visiting our very own Wangaratta District Specialist School. That provides educational support for children with a range of intellectual disabilities, including autism. I must say that meeting the staff, children and families in these settings really does have a profound impact on you when you go and meet and see these beautiful children. Some of them are non-verbal, and I was actually so inspired by the teachers, and how they find ways to communicate was exceptional. It is really difficult to articulate the importance of their work. I guess at the end of the day, when you have a child that is smiling and the next morning is still wanting to go back to school it says a lot for that individual school that they are attending.

I would like to say thank you to all the people who provide support to people living with autism and their families—to autistic people. As I said, it is an enormous commitment, and it is done with so much compassion and empathy and dedication. So many people I have met from the autism school in Mansfield—you could never imagine them doing any work other than the work that they do.

As this motion notes, autism has a spectrum, and so the needs of each person are different, as Mr Finn stated in his contribution. I appreciate and applaud the shift in seeing disability in conjunction with ability. We all have ability, and the difference that can make to our lives, recognising that ability, can make a significant difference to potential outcomes for each individual. For those living with disability and the challenges that this brings, recognising ability and potential should inform how support can be delivered, and I think that Ms Bath alluded to that as well. It should also contribute to bridging any divides in understanding and acceptance.

Part (3) of the motion recognises the important role of the government and private agencies in assisting families, and we have a long way to go to improve how schemes such as the NDIS really deliver what families need, not what the organisations believe they need. I realise that NDIS is a federal scheme, but ultimately people have little concern for which level of government has responsibility. They just want help. When systems like the NDIS fail, this can send a family into such a horrific crisis that they simply do not know where to turn. I know of the lived experiences of families right now who are really struggling to get the support that they need for their child. When it reaches crisis for them it results in calls to the police and often ambulance services, and no parent ever wants to have to make those calls. It is incredibly traumatic for the entire family, including siblings and the child that is suffering.

Once again I will talk about the early intervention that can help prevent a matter from leading to crisis, and we need to ensure that those supports are there at the earliest point of time. We almost need—and excuse my arrogance if it is already out there—some sort of Lifeline phone call where, when people are in that crisis mode, they can ring and they can find some sort of 24-hour access.

Mr Finn: That was our policy at the last election. Sadly we did not get implement it.

Ms MAXWELL: Well, people need this.

Mr Finn interjected.

Ms MAXWELL: When you are finished, Mr Finn. When you have nowhere to turn, sometimes you just need to pick up that phone and be able to remove yourself from a situation so that you can have someone help you to gather your thoughts and talk you through the process that you may know in your mind but at that particular time are just not able to gather your thoughts about, because you are so immersed in the crisis and the trauma that is happening around you and within your family.

I will leave my contribution there and note that tomorrow there will be a briefing at Parliament on public policy issues impacting Victoria’s autism community. I certainly look forward to attending this briefing and welcoming the panel to Parliament. I thank the house and, as I said, Mr Finn for bringing this motion before the house, and I think it is an incredibly important topic that I hope will be continued in the very limited number of weeks that we have left before us here in this place.

Ms TAYLOR (Southern Metropolitan) (17:13): I am certainly very happy to speak on this motion, noting that about one in every 100 Victorians is autistic, so certainly it is a very important conversation to have. However, many autistic people live without a diagnosis, and the true rate of occurrence may be even higher. Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that shapes people’s social communication and interaction, patterns of behaviour, interests and activities, and autistic people may also experience different reactions to what they see, hear, smell, touch or taste. Many autistic people do not see autism as a disability but rather as a different way of seeing and interacting with the world. I think pursuant to the conversation we have had today that we certainly would be unified on that front, and I am very pleased that there is that very honouring and appropriate perspective in this space.

I would also like to pause here for a moment to acknowledge that my use of language is very much guided by the many autistic and neurodiverse Victorians who told us during the development of the Victorian Autism Plan that they had a strong preference for the use of identity-first language—that is, for the use of ‘autistic people’ rather than ‘people with autism’. Language is a powerful tool for changing community attitudes, promoting inclusion and fostering disability pride. It is our job to make Victoria inclusive and accessible for every autistic person and to foster opportunity, community and pride. (Time expired)

Business interrupted pursuant to sessional orders.