Page 3630 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 24 November 2021
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seeking autism assessments for young people aged 12 and above. This statement has not been amended in any way by Minister Davidson because she knows that it is true. Families and their children are falling through the cracks and their numbers are growing. In fact, what Ms Davidson has demonstrated today is a slap in the face. She knows that this problem exists in the community. However, she does not want to help them at all, whatsoever.
What is her solution to these, often desperate, low income families and their children? She does not have one. If you look at her last three paragraphs to section (3), each one is a request for the government to just continue doing things it is already doing. This is very clearly an admission of their complete failure. Of course, the minister does not like to admit failure. Instead, she blames a nation-wide skills shortage. Nonsense! As still noted in the motion, other jurisdictions are successfully providing this service, despite any skills shortage.
The Northern Territory uses school psychologists to do autism assessments for secondary students. When I asked the minister during estimates hearings if any of the school psychologists in the ACT are qualified to do autism assessment, she confirmed that some of them are. But unlike the Northern Territory government, this government lacks the will to use school psychologists to help low income families.
Western Australia could fall back on the excuse of a nation-wide skills shortage as well. Instead, it provides public autism assessments to all young people under the age of 16 or 18 and then turns around and helps fund private assessments for anyone who has been missed.
Queensland is able to provide public assessments to young people up to the age of 16. South Australia successfully provides a mixture of free and subsidised assessment to children, young people and even adults, despite the skills shortage. Tasmania, which is only slightly larger than the ACT in population, currently has three full-time psychologists on staff to provide public autism assessments to children and young people up to the age of 18.
It would appear that Minister Davidson’s nation-wide skills shortage excuse is not stopping other jurisdictions from providing assessments to young people with delayed diagnosis. This Labor government just lacks the will to make it happen. What that tells us very clearly is that this is a government that does not care and is very ignorant. The plight of these families means nothing to them.
Finally, I note that Minister Davidson’s amendment commits the government to continue making reasonable adjustments to support school students with their learning, whether they have an autism diagnosis or not. This sounds nice on the surface but it is just more nonsense. Learning supports need to be personalised and individualised to be effective, based on a child’s unique needs. How does this happen without an assessment ever taking place in the first place? Clearly it does not. This is more evidence of a government that does not care and does not know what they are doing.
I have circulated an amendment to Ms Davidson’s amendment to restore the call and the plea from families to extend access to public autism assessments to young people under the age of 18, and I commit this amendment to the government’s amendment.
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