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Argument, Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2024
The autism strategy working group found no answer on federal and state responsibility
In short
At the 2024 Autistic Pride Day Symposium Kyriakos Gold asked where the national strategy ends and the states begin. A working group member said the gap was real, especially in schools, and unresolved.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
Partway through the Melbourne panel on autism strategies at the 2024 Autistic Pride Day Symposium, on 8 June 2024, Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the session, asked how the relationship between state and federal government works. “I live in Victoria but I also live in Australia,” he said, and he wanted to know at what point his conversation with government was limited to the state and at what point it became national. The answer from a member of the working group that drafted part of the national strategy was that there was not yet an answer, and that the gap was a real barrier.
The layers had been visible from the start of the session. A panellist had opened by describing a national strategy being run by the Department of Social Services, a separate South Australian strategy with its own Office for Autism, and a Victorian autism plan that had been refreshed the year before.
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Sources the story draws on
- National Autism Strategy 2025 to 2031 (opens in a new tab), Australian Government Department of Social Services
- National Autism Strategy 2025 to 2031, First Action Plan 2025 to 2026 (opens in a new tab), Australian Government Department of Social Services
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