Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

April was Autism Awareness Month around the world, and on Friday, 30 April, Rainbowland Autism Services Inc. organised the inaugural Autism Rainbow Day as part of a global autism awareness campaign. My electorate office team joined in the awareness campaign on the day by wearing plain-coloured T-shirts symbolising one of the colours of the rainbow. The campaign, not surprisingly, attracted widespread public interest both from within Australia and from overseas. I say ‘not surprisingly’ because of the number of children around the world with autism. Through greater community awareness it is hoped that there will be greater community understanding and, in turn, increased levels of support for children with autism and for their families.

I will take a moment to provide some background with respect to autism and the Rainbowland Autism Services community organisation. An autism awareness fact sheet describes autism as ‘a lifelong neurological disorder characterised by impairments in communication, socialisation and restricted patterns of interest and behaviours’. In Australia autism is estimated to affect one in every 160 Australian children and around 30,000 Australian families. The estimated cost of autism to the Australian community is around $7 billion per annum. The social impacts on and costs to the children and those 30,000 families in the form of learning difficulties, limited social opportunities for the children and very high rates of parental depression and separation are immeasurable. There is no cure for autism but providing the right kind of early intervention can be very beneficial for children and, in turn, ultimately saves millions of dollars in costs later on.

Understanding the behaviour of children with autism and being able to correctly interpret that behaviour is an important first step. Speech therapy, early intervention, occupational therapy and home modifications all help, but for the families they come at a cost, as does the destruction to the school life of the children, which raises an additional concern. Many schools are simply unprepared; they do not have the resources or the expertise to deal with children with autism. In that respect, autism-specific preschools such as that in Brisbane are a terrific start.

I welcome, as I know many of the parents I have spoken with do, the Rudd government’s $190 million Helping Children with Autism package, the first national initiative to help families deal with this challenging disorder. The package provides families with $12,000 in early intervention funding. Rainbowland Autism Services is a local autism group formed by local families in Makin who are affected by autism. The group is led by Alison Dix, who through her determination, her tireless efforts and with the support of other parents has established the Rainbowland playgroup for children with autism.

I have visited the playgroup, spoken with parents there and seen for myself its benefits for the parents and for the children. There is no doubt, however, that more needs to be done for both the parents and the children. Raising community awareness through initiatives such as Autism Rainbow Day will highlight the needs and in turn hopefully lead to more support being provided. It also serves to remind the parents of children with autism that they are not alone, that support networks are in place and that with others who share their problem they stand the best chance of being heard. I am also aware that through those kinds of networks they are able to support each other both in a social sense and in providing guidance to families who are finding it very difficult to cope by directing them to some help and assistance.

It is a terrific initiative, and I commend Alison Dix, Helen Howson and all of the other parents they work with for organising Autism Rainbow Day and for being a voice for the thousands of children with autism and for their family members. It is one of those initiatives that was started by a local group of people who simply believed that there were not enough support services and who were prepared to create this organisation. It is doing a terrific amount of good work, certainly within my electorate, for those families who are faced with the challenges of autism. In turn, they are becoming vocal advocates for families and children with autism around the country. I commend the work that they are doing.

Question agreed to.