Already and this is this is the Daily OS. This is the Dahlias. Oh now it makes sense.
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the third of April.
I'm sam, I'm emma.
And this week the Federal government released a draft strategy aimed at improving the lives of Australians with autism. It comes after a twenty twenty two inquiry found that outcomes four autistic people in Australia were unacceptably poor.
So what does the strategy recommend and how could it improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of Australians. In today's deep dive, we're going to speak to the CEO of Autism Awareness to find out more. But first, Emma, what is making headlines?
Four international aid workers, including an Australian, have been killed by an Israeli air strike, according to a fish in Gaza. The workers were part of the World's Central Kitchen charity located in northern Gaza. The charity said in a post to X humanitarian aid workers and civilians should never be a target. Prime Minister Anthony Alberanzi called the reports very concerning in comments to the ABC and said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was urgently investigating.
National house prices increased by an average of around twelve thousand dollars or one point six percent in the first three months of twenty twenty four. That's according to the latest findings from property data firm core Logic. It's also the fourteenth consecutive month property values have risen. Rents were up two point eight percent in the last three months, with unit rent prices rising faster than housing rents across the capital cities.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has appointed its first female Prime Minister, Judith Sumnwar Teluca, will take on the role of PMS amid increased violence across the country. Teluka, an economist, was previously Minister for Planning. Speaking on national television, she said she is aware of the great responsibility of the role of PM and that she will work for peace and the development of the country. There are over seven million displaced people in Congo. According to the United Nations.
And Today's Good News, free flu shots are now available in Queensland ahead of the flu season. Queenslanders above six months old will be able to access the vaccine at local GPS and pharmacies. State Health Minister Shannon Fentamen said that nearly all people presenting to hospital with the flu last year had not been vaccinated, and that offering free vaccines will aim to reduce the number of people in hospital.
So am I.
Yesterday we learnt that the government is looking to improve the lives of Australians with autism through this draft National Auto Strategy. But I want to back up a little bit on this story. First, while autism is very common and there's a good chance our listeners right now know somebody with autism or have been diagnosed themselves, what is it exactly?
Yeah, I'm sure most people have, as you say, heard of autism or know someone with autism. But to be specific, autism spectrum disorder, and that word spectrum is something that comes up a lot in this conversation. Is a condition diagnosed through developmental assessments and behavioral observations. So there are about two hundred and five thousand Aussies who've been diagnosed with autism, and it is important to note that autistic Australians are almost eight times more likely to be unemployed
than the rest of the population. This is the kind of key difference in outcomes that has inspired conversation and inquiry, recommendations and now this strategy, this draft strategy we're talking about today.
So we have the draft in our hands, we can flick through it, we can read it. What does it propose exactly?
Basically it is a huge document which identifies the key challenges facing people with autism and from those challenges proposed measures to improve their lives. So this is across key areas ranging from social health, economic, educational, workplace outcomes. But there is a lot there. So we really wanted to talk to someone who understands this world, who knows their staff when it comes to autism in Australia and the importance of this strategy. So today we're talking to Nicole Rogerson.
She is the CEO of Autism Awareness Australia and she joins us Now. Nicole, thank you for joining us on the podcast today.
Welcome, Thanks so much for having me.
So we're talking about the draft National Autism Strategy released this week. What can you tell me very top line about this plan? Why is it important?
Look, I think it's a really positive step. Australia needs a national Autism strategy the same way it has a national Disability strategy. A lot of other countries have them, and it's important to have an overarching idea of what we know we need to do to improve the lives of Australians with autism. In saying that, it is a very big laundry list of things that, to be honest, we've known for a really long time were the issues.
And I guess where I'm a little bit more focused on is great to have a strategy, but how we're going to execute on that, How are we actually going to do it? Because it's a very complex document that covers off an enormous amount of issues across a lot of different areas.
To understand the scope I suppose of the strategy you've kind of touched on, I think maybe it would be helpful for us to understand perhaps some of the challenges that people with autism live with every day. Of course it's a spectrum, but what are the kinds of challenges that people in the community are facing and how does that inform this strategy.
Yeah, I think the challenges that they've really focused on in this particular strategy are those of social inclusion, so being included as a valued member of your community or your school community, I think they're focused on mental health issues, which can be very difficult for people across the spectrum. And obviously access to employment is another huge effect that it will have on individuals with autism. We know they
are eight times more likely to be unemployed. So there are a whole range of really important and significant things listed in this strategy. But it's more than that. It's not just those things. It's housing, it's schooling, it's mental health provisions. But how do we support people with autism in a way that's appropriate for them as opposed to potentially mental health strategies that might work with people without autism.
You know, there's just so much complexity here. I think the top takeaway is everybody in Australia who had any views on this thought it would be a good idea to come together have a strategy.
They did that, Tick, let's.
Consult with lots of people, lots of different groups so everyone feels heard and the strategy was co designed. I think Tick, they did that, what do we do about it? And I think that's where I land. And this is really just because I've spent twenty five years in this sector and some of the issues that are listed in this strategy were true when my son was diagnosed back in nineteen ninety nine. So I can't help it to be a tad cynical about all of a sudden our
ability to be able to tackle these things. But my old lady citicism should not get in the way of the fact it's a great strategy, Jock. It lists out a lot of the things that we need to do. I'm just going to focus my organization's attention on making sure we execute this strategy.
One of the biggest issues in autism is always diagnosis, that first step or that first barrier to kind of support. Can you give us a bit of context on what diagnosis looks like in Australia at the moment and why that might not be working.
It looks really differently depending on what age you're talking about. So we know we pretty reliably can diagnose children as young as eighteen months to two years if the signs are there. So if we're doing the right kind of assessments at those ages, we can pick this up really early, and that is ideal to start early intervention as early as we possibly can. But just meaning that if a child has a developmental delay, the sooner we can catch that delay up, that's what we want to do and
support that child the way they need support. The problem then becomes some children with milder forms of autism, particularly those in girls, may get missed at that age because they might not be displaying some of the behavioral characteristics that will go on to meet criteria for autism. Because remember, there's no blood test here, there's no way to find out if you've got autism. It's really an observational diagnosis. So those kids can sometimes get missed until they go
to school. But then there's this another complete different cohort who may be missed all together. And I think this has been the biggest growth we've seen in autism diagnoses in the last year, those of adults who have gone through life and struggled with a number of things and not really known what to call it, and then later in life they find out that they actually meet criteria for an autism diagnosis.
So what does the strategy table about improving diagnosis, whether that's improving rates, improving costs, access practitioners, what's it suggested.
I think it's all on the table, and it's pretty light on the detail. At this point in time. You know, there's a recognition that we need to do better. It might be a discussion whether this becomes a medicare rebatable. There's sort of some early suggestions in there, but this is by this strategy has not done a deep dive in how to solve these problems. It is a list of the problems and areas that we need to concentrate in.
But again, it's never going to happen unless we have an execution plan for this strategy.
The strategy also touches on visibility and representation of autism in the national media sport arts. What is the importance of visibility, Why is that included in this strategy?
What does that mean to the community.
If you live with a condition, whatever it is, whether it be autism or whatever your hasens to be, the more society understands it, understands you and understand how it affects.
You, the easier it is for you.
You know, it's just as simple as that people will understand where you are and having that visibility and to be seen and to be understood is really important to the community. But we've got big issues here. Representation is not the thing that's getting in the way of actively supporting individuals with autism.
What happens next?
You know, there's this sort of feedback process, a public consultation.
How does that actually work?
And if people are listening, who you know, either are living with autism, love someone with autism, or in this space and they feel your kind of frustrations, what can they do about that?
Do you know? It's a really good question.
And I know that what you said was right.
People tend to think this is bureaucratic, that's a submission into a inquiry, and that all seems hard and.
I can't do it.
What I would really encourage people to do is jump on and read the strategy. And even if you can't be bothered to do that on the government website, they've actually got a great thing called an easy Read which is designed for people with intellectual disabilities to be able to read these reports. But I find them very helpful for me too, So by all means, you know, have
a little look at it. What I would really encourage people to do is if it all seems too much and it's too big and the scope is too much, just go back to the inquiry and give them your thoughts on the bit that really matters. To you. So if employment is your focus at the moment, just go and write your story about what that's meant for you, what you find about the strategy that you think would work, what would really help you, or what you think might
be a bit silly. I think no submission is not considered realistically.
What is the kind of timeline and process. Then you know, after we get the feedback submitted, public consultation is over. That closes at the end of May. What happens to the strategy from there?
I think it gets panel beat it into a better kind of looking document, and I think it will be released by the end of the year. What I don't want to happen is in six months, we get together, we talk about it to release, everyone pats itself on the back, and it goes and sits on a shelf somewhere.
I would like this to be a working living strategy document, and we split the list and you go and do that, and you do that, and you do that, and it's an activity and we get it done and we start chiseling away at some of these issues that we have known for a long time were difficult for people with autism. There is honestly not a lot new in this strategy. We've known it now, it's what are we going to do.
About it in five years time?
And considering the impact on your life and your son's life being in this community.
How would you like your life to change?
What are the sort of achievable short term goals that maybe in five years time we get this awesome round of lived experience feedback, we re polish the plan things. A legislator, the world is looking better. What does that world look like to you?
Oh, that's so complex, And because to be honest, you know, my family are some of the lucky ones. My son is an absolute delight and through a lot of luck and a lot of intervention and a lot of support, he has a really happy existence. And autism doesn't play a negative role in our family. If anything, it's quite a positive role. And so you've got to understand, autism is my whole community, it's what I work with that they're all of my friends, they're my my son's friends.
You know, I live in this community twenty four to seven. So what I want at the end of all of this is for everything to just be a little less difficult for everybody. There are certain parts about autism that we can't change. For some people, the sensory issues are just too hard and living in a very loud, obnoxious, bright world is not something we can change for them.
We can make some accommodations here and there, but I can't change the world to easily make sure it accommodates my autistic child in every way, shape or form possible. We have to be realistic about that. You can say we need the world to accept autism. I want the
world to change to be more accepting. Okay, that would be nice, but the world isn't accepting of lots of different people actually, So we have to find ways to support our loved ones in our community and inform our institutions and our society so that that just makes those interactions less and less fractious. And if we keep moving towards that, and we keep understanding that it's not just autism, how do we feel about difference, How do we get along?
How do we stop yelling at one another? There are so many areas that this kind of traverses a lot of the problems that we're talking about. What we need to fix here we need to fix more broadly in Australia, for those with mental health conditions and for those who are finding modern society just quite frankly difficult. And I think that's a lot of Australians.
Now, thanks for that chat em, and thank you for joining us on the Daily OS if you're interested in learning more about the strategy and submitting public feedback. As Emma and Cole discussed, there's a leak think in today's show notes ullyak again in is tomorrow morning. Until then, have a great Wednesday. My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Calcotin woman from Gadighl Country.
The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.