At the time of writing, the Abbott government has just handed down its first budget. Fortunately, it seems the NDIS has emerged from the budget relatively intact, even though health and welfare generally has taken a battering.

While there may be a few sighs of relief within the disability world, there are other reasons for families with a member with ASD to be concerned about the operation of the NDIS. For more information on these reasons, visit the A4 (Autism, Aspergers Advocacy Australia) web-site and read the article by Bob Buckley published there. (The article is also reproduced in the ATAC (Action for Tasmanian Autistic Children) April-May newsletter).

Among many other concerns, Mr. Buckley raises the issue that I have previously mentioned in this newsletter – under the NDIS, Advisors may have little or no knowledge/experience of Autism, and thus be ill-equipped to determine the appropriate (both type and amount of) services the person will need. Potentially, many children in the future will miss out on the early intensive behavioural intervention which should be their right (given EIBI has been recognized as the “treatment of choice”). Already, there is anecdotal evidence from “launch sites” that this has happened.

Hopefully, lobby-groups like A4 will be able to convince the Government to ensure that the needs of persons with ASD are properly catered for under the NDIS: if not, the costs of catering for future generations of “untreated” adults with an ASD are likely to be astronomical.

Returning to this issue of Rhubarb, please accept my apologies that there is so little reading matter herein. It seems everyone is too busy to be writing, but if a picture is worth a thousand words, then there is a wealth of information in the following pages!

Daryl Cooper

Editor