17/11/2025
Sounds like they are not really listening to Autistic voices at the Thriving Kids enquiry.
THIS IS NOT HOW CONSULTATION WORKS
Today I had the chance to speak at the Thriving Kids Inquiry for the second time. And while I’m incredibly proud of how Autistic advocates have shown up for each other — shout out to Regional Autistic Engagement Network, The Australian Neurodivergent Parents Association - ANPA and The Autistic Self Advocacy Network of Australia and New Zealand for today— it’s now impossible to ignore that the entire Thriving Kids consultation process has been a sham.
At its core, Thriving Kids proposes to move whole cohorts of disabled children (Autistic kids and children with developmental delay) out of the NDIS; yet it was announced with no consultation with Autistic people, families or Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs).
In the face of opposition, the Government then appointed an advisory group to “design” the program; yet invited no publicly disabled members and just one DPO (Children and Young People with Disability Australia.
Then came the "consultation." Announced without notice, squeezed into a 1 month window, at the same time as 50,000 other consultations, and accompanied by a survey that was biased, leading, and collected identifiable data — making it extremely unsafe for many Autistic people and parents of disabled children (the two groups that will be impacted most by TK).
Despite concerns, many of us rushed to put submissions together (I myself co-authored 3), and then were asked to appear at Hearings with very little notice and significant accessibility barriers. I’ve now spoken at these Hearings, twice, on behalf of 2 organisations.
The 1st time, representing Every Australian Counts, my colleague Nick Avery and I were only allowed to join by phone, not video. The Chair forgot we were there, and we had to interrupt to remind him. He then allowed me approximately 1 min to speak, during which I rushed through my statement, only to be cut off before my final sentence. Nick wasn’t given the chance to deliver her statement at all.
Today, representing the Regional Autistic Engagement Network, accessibility was better... We were invited to join via video and RAEN and ANPA were granted extra time to read our statements (which notably, we requested). But despite us asking for those same adjustments to be extended to all Autistic speakers, our colleague Alexandra Bignell from ASAN was cut off mid-sentence.
Later, when MP Ali France suggested that Tasmanians “don’t want change” and that her local community supports the proposed changes, I attempted to respond — because that is absolutely not what we are hearing — and was again cut off, along with my colleague, Nicole Moran.
These are not the hallmarks of genuine consultation. Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), governments must ensure full, meaningful consultation and co-design with disabled people and DPOs. That requires accessible, safe, genuine consultations, where disabled people are not only invited, but actually heard.
Reform affecting thousands of disabled children cannot rely on rushed timelines, inaccessible hearings, biased surveys, and advisory groups with no disabled representation. It must be designed with us, not around us, and definitely not in spite of us.
Despite all of this, I am grateful to have had the chance to speak twice. I’m proud of the solidarity and strength of Autistic advocates who continue to show up, even when the process makes it difficult. And I’ll keep showing up (at least for now), because our community deserves to be heard, and because lived experience must shape the policies that affect our lives.
The Australian Autism Alliance
[Image: Two women wearing blue “NBA STAFF” lanyards sit in an office setting. The woman on the left looks shocked and confused, while the woman on the right gestures toward her with an exasperated expression. Large white text reads: “THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS!” The word UTOPIA appears across the bottom, indicating the TV show the scene is from.]
