Department of the Premier and Cabinet, $508,394,000

Administered Items for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, $27,324,00

Minister:

Hon. E.S. Bourke, Minister for Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Autism, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing.

Departmental Advisers:

Mr W. Hunter, Chief Operating Officer, Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

Ms J. Pisani, Executive Director, Strategic Engagement, Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

Ms C. Hodgetts, Director, Finance and Procurement, Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

Ms S. Kemp, Director, Office for Autism, Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

The CHAIR: The portfolio is the Office for Autism. I declare the proposed payments open for examination and I invite the minister to make an opening statement, if she so wishes, and to introduce her advisers.

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: I would like to introduce the members who are with me today: Jessica Pisani, Executive Director, Strategic Engagement, Department of the Premier and Cabinet; Wayne Hunter, Chief Operating Officer, Department of the Premier and Cabinet; Claire Hodgetts, Director, Finance and Procurement, Department of the Premier and Cabinet; and Sarah Kemp, Director, Office for Autism, Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

Mr WHETSTONE: Welcome, everybody. I will start off with assessment and diagnosed training support, Budget Paper 5, page 58. The assessment and diagnosis training support initiative aims to help address the barriers to autism assessment and diagnosis. Have specific barriers been identified, and how will this funding directly contribute to reducing those barriers?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: I thank the member for his question. I guess this is a space, if you talk to members in the community, as to why we came about with a policy agenda in this area and that is that having access to autism assessments can be tricky. We have learnt that there can be many reasons behind that. Some could be just not having a knowledge of where to start. Some could be if you go to a GP they might refer you to a certain space because that is where they have been referring you to for the last however many years.

We also know that, as a person seeking an assessment, knowing where to start is hard. I guess that is why we made the commitment to invest in a policy that would start addressing autism assessments and what they are in South Australia.

At the start of this year, for the very first time—I think we are the first state to achieve this—we are bringing allied health professionals together, the allied health professionals that participate in autism assessment, to start finding some answers to these questions about what is an autism assessment, where do you start that journey in autism assessment, and also what happens next after you might get a diagnosis of being autistic?

If we do not answer these questions we are never going to take that pressure off the system. It is a really important thing to be able to achieve. What we are hearing is that sometimes our health providers might not have the confidence to be able to provide those assessments. This investment that we are making is going to give us great flexibility in enabling us to invest in maybe micro-credentials, maybe other supports that enable people to build that confidence, to provide an autism assessment.

But really we have to wait for this committee, the strategic group that we have brought together, to tell us what is required because, at the end of the day, they are the allied health professionals and they know what is needed. The community is also a part of that, so it is really important that we include them in this feedback and hear how their experience has been when they have been seeking an autism assessment. We are hoping that, by the end of this year, we will have a really clear understanding of how to address some of those concerns and having this budget line enables us to invest in those changes, too.

Mr WHETSTONE: How many individuals are expected to benefit from this initiative annually?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: In the autism assessment funding?

Mr WHETSTONE: Yes.

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: It really would be hard to put a number on that. We know that one in four Australian families has an autistic family member and, as I highlighted earlier, this is really about upskilling and bringing knowledge to not only our allied health professionals but also the broader community about what an autism assessment is. This is not necessarily about going to find a new workforce to be able to provide autism assessments; it is about giving that knowledge to the existing workforce. We feel that it will have an incredible impact on what this autism assessment journey looks like, but it also enables us to complement other investments that we have made.

If you look at our school system, for example, we gave over $300,000 to provide autism assessments in the northern suburbs that are free assessments for children who are already on the CDU waitlist so that we can take them off the CDU waitlist and get those assessments underway and hopefully enable them to know who they are as individuals so we can keep engaging them in the school system.

We are trialling new things that have not been done before and we are doing things that people have spoken about for a very, very long time when it comes to getting answers to actually understand what an autism assessment is in South Australia. How do we find the workforce? We actually have the workforce already. It is just about getting the knowledge to them.

Mr WHETSTONE: I will just come back to that question about how many individuals are expected to benefit from the initiative. You have a set budget and that will curtail how many individuals can benefit from the initiative. Do you have a number? Do you have an aspiration?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: In regard to just clarifying what this funding could be made available for, it is not necessarily only for doing an assessment. It might be upskilling people so they can participate in the assessment process. It could be providing knowledge to people about what happens after an autism assessment so they have a greater understanding of what services they would also require. So it is not necessarily about this funding going to individual autism assessments; it is actually about opening up the opportunity for more assessments to be made available because we are giving that skill set and that knowledge to the workforce.

Mr WHETSTONE: How will the effectiveness of this initiative be evaluated and by whom?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: With a number of our programs, we do assessments of how they have been successful. If I look at one, the Solasta program I referred to previously, that is in regard to the up to 100 people who can now get an assessment and my understanding is that we will be doing an assessment on that process.

So there are opportunities, but the point of this funding is really about us being able to upskill a workforce so they have the opportunity to provide assessments. I do not know how many a GP would see a day or how many a speech pathologist would see a day.

At the moment, there are people in our community who are available who could make an autism assessment, but they just do not have the confidence to do it, so where we are really trying to focus is going back to the beginning of the story. If someone wants to seek out an autism assessment, they quite often do not know where to start. This enables us to give the confidence to say that, if you go to an occupational therapist, they will now have the skills and knowledge in how to provide an assessment as well because we have come together as a group to provide opportunities to gain skills.

Mr WHETSTONE: Will there be training provided for those people to assess? A typical GP would need some level of upskill to be able to assess autism.

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: That comes back to what I said before about the advisory group. We need to know why this confidence is not here at the moment for them to be able to provide assessments. This is why I keep coming back to the fact that this investment can help us.

Maybe one of the recommendations is a micro-credential, and that micro-credential could enable this workforce that we have already that is available that can participate in autism assessments. They could participate in that micro-credential. The recommendations and what they look like from this advisory committee will also determine where these investments are made.

Mr WHETSTONE: Moving on to program net cost of services summary, Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, page 13, the Office of Autism overspent its budget by $860,000 in 2024-25. Can you give the committee an understanding of why?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: Just as we have heard throughout the day, that would not be an overspend; it is just where funding has been made available, through the commonwealth, for example. Commonwealth funding has been made available for a program called Inklings, and that is an incredible investment for a really small team from the Office for Autism and what they have been able to achieve in gaining access and funding through the commonwealth government. That funding was put towards the Inklings program so that we can get that underway in South Australia.

That program is an initiative that is a partnership between federal and state government and will be supporting babies between the age of six and 18 months of age. This has been a project that has been called on by many in the community who have previously said to us that you often find out when you are at child care and a speech pathologist or a childcare worker says to you, 'You might need to go to see a speechy,' and it is a bit much for the parent to take on at that point. Then you get told the same thing once they start school and they are in year 3 and you hear something similar about your child and that you might be interested in going to see a speech pathologist. Then, before you know it, your child is in year 5 before they have received a diagnosis.

So what we have done is invested in a project called Inklings. If a parent has an inkling that their child has a communication difference, they can go into this free program that is being funded by federal and state government to work with trained professionals in how to change the environment around a child so that they can thrive. This is a unique project that has not been invested in elsewhere as it has been in South Australia, and one, again, where we are leading the way.

Mr WHETSTONE: Minister, can you give me a breakdown of what component of the Office for Autism is funded by state and what component is funded by the commonwealth?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: If you refer to page 31 of the budget papers, you can see the breakdown of the commonwealth revenue, which is highlighted there as between 2025-26 and 2024-25.

Mr WHETSTONE: Is there a commonwealth-funded component of your programs within the Office for Autism? You obviously have a number of support initiatives, programs, grants. I am looking for a breakdown of what component the state are funding and what component the commonwealth are funding.

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: My advice is they contribute to the funding of the Inklings program because, as I said, that is a jointly funded program. My understanding is the remaining of the funding comes from state government.

Mr WHETSTONE: What is the commonwealth's component of that funding?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: It is the full amount that is stated in the budget papers.

Mr WHETSTONE: Full amount?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: In the commonwealth revenues line that is stated in the budget paper on page 31.

Mr WHETSTONE: Thank you. This year's budget sees an increased allocation of $646,000. How will this additional allocation be spent?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: Sorry, can you just repeat that question?

Mr WHETSTONE: Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, page 13, program net cost of services. This year's budget sees an increased allocation of $646,000. How will this additional allocation be spent?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: My understanding is there is an increase from indexation but also the program that I mentioned earlier, the $2.1 million over five years for the assessment and diagnosis training supports.

Mr WHETSTONE: The same reference point. Regarding the South Australian Neurodivergent Public Sector Employee Network, how many members have joined the network to date?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: As you have highlighted, this is a new network and we have, I have been advised, 180 members.

Mr WHETSTONE: How many public sector employees have completed autism awareness training in 2024-25, and what is your target for 2025-26?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: Just while we are looking for those numbers to help you with those answers, this is an initiative that has come about from the Autism Strategy in South Australia. This is our first strategy that was delivered in our state regarding the autistic community.

The important part of this is it has been co-designed by the autistic community from the very beginning, even from what the questions would be when we went to consult the community, and then the number of forums. I think I held 25 forums in three weeks to make sure that we could get out to as many people as possible, and hear how we should be shaping our strategy.

From that strategy came the charter. The charter is important to mention in regard to the training because the charter was signed up to by every government department to say how they were going to make change and be more inclusive in their workplaces. Considering the state government is one of the biggest employees in our state, it was a good place to start to build that knowledge about what it is to be autistic, and how we go about changing our environment that people work in to make them more inclusive.

You may not have heard this before because you are not in the same chamber as I am, but it was disappointing that the only political party in this parliament that did not sign that charter to seek change was the opposition. It is an opportunity for us as a state not to play politics, particularly with a significant agenda that was designed by the autistic community for the autistic community. This charter has enabled us to roll out training across government, where it is often run by an autistic person. I believe, in the short period of time that we have had, almost 4,000 people have been trained in knowledge, and that is an incredible outcome.

When people are making policies, we do not want it to be an afterthought. We want it to be an opportunity where they have been given those skills and new learnings to be thinking about it when they are writing those policies. We know there is a long, long way to go, but this is a significant start. Not only have we done this in government, but this training has been rolled out in the private sector as well.

Just recently, we held an autism employment summit called Autism Works because we believe in our state that autism does work. We had almost 500 people at that forum, where we also gave free training to them as well. This training is free and enables it to be rolled out in areas where we feel it is needed, and is something that has been really well received not only across state government but by the employers and also by community groups.

Mr WHETSTONE: Minister, which South Australian universities partnered with the Office for Autism to enhance disability and inclusion components in the teaching degrees and what changes have been implemented so far?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: All that provide a teacher's degree have participated. This has been a significant change. It is not usual to have all universities come to one table and sit down and, as competitors, tell us what is in their teacher's degree, but that is what they did because they realised as a government that we were investing so heavily in upskilling our current workforce. We now have autism inclusion teachers in our public primary schools, an investment that we have made of $28.8 million so that we can take a teacher out of the classroom, have the ability to backfill them because of that funding investment, so that they have the time to learn.

What we learnt from that role is that something had to happen before people enter our school system as teachers. They wanted to learn about it when they were studying to be a teacher, so that is why we brought those universities together. Each South Australian university that provides a teacher's degree came to that table, and we were able to invest in a micro-credential through Autism CRC that they could utilise and provide to their students while studying a teacher's degree. We know that has been complemented by the Positive Partnerships training that is now also available to university students.

The feedback we have been receiving is, 'I can't believe I was going to start my job as a teacher without this knowledge beforehand.' It has been an incredible outcome, but it has also come about because, as a government, we decided to invest in that autism inclusion teacher, which really triggered the opportunity for us to realise something had to be done before people even entered the classroom as a teacher.

Mr WHETSTONE: Thank you. How many students have been involved in the free autism assessment pilot to date?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: To clarify, is this in regard to the ones that have been provided in the school system?

Mr WHETSTONE: Yes.

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: My understanding is that 30 have been through that assessment process already and 70 will be rolled out over the life of that funding.

Mr WHETSTONE: Just moving to targets, page 31. When are the Autism Assessment and Diagnosis Advisory Group's recommendations expected to be finalised?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: We are aiming to provide recommendations in September.

Mr WHETSTONE: Will the recommendations be made public?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: We obviously need to work through that with cabinet to start with. It is a cabinet approval that would have to be undertaken first.

Mr WHETSTONE: So that is no? If it is cabinet, it will not be made public?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: That is your analysis of my answer. That is not what I have said.

Mr WHETSTONE: No, it is cabinet-in-confidence, as I understand it.

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: If you were to look at what we have achieved in autism in South Australia, when we have provided information to the community we have always started with the community as well, and that is what we have done here. The people participating in this round table first need to be able to see and be a part of that review process, the outcomes and the recommendations. That is our priority at the moment and that is what we will continue to do. It has always worked with the people who are providing that feedback first.

Mr WHETSTONE: On behalf of the families, if it is going to be cabinet-in-confidence, across all of the office's targets and initiatives how is the office ensuring that autistic individuals and families have a direct input into the program, and how will they receive feedback?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: As we have done across the autism strategy charter and our advisory groups is we have people with lived experience from the autistic community. We also have autistic people on our committee with regard to the autism assessment committee. The lived experience is also at the table, but we will be making sure that we can have the opportunity to go through the review and the feedback with people from the autistic community.

We have also provided a survey that has just recently gone out to the autistic community asking: what was an autism assessment like for you? What was the experience? How did you find the knowledge of the person providing the assessment? That feedback will also be then included in those recommendations. We have tried to make it that at no point in our policy decisions have we not gone back to the autistic community. It is something that we have really invested in, and we have the advisory group, the Autism Advisory Group, as well.

Mr WHETSTONE: Minister, there was—

The CHAIR: Last question; definitely the last question.

Mr WHETSTONE: Definitely the last question.

The CHAIR: I have been generous.

Mr WHETSTONE: Thank you. There was a budgeted income of only $4,000 for grants under program summary income in 2024-25, but over $1 million received. Where was this income derived from, and is it the same expected for this year?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: I understand that is an Inklings contribution from the Department for Education. Because this is a program that can help support across so many different agencies, we have been able to make sure that we are not just working as a silo. It is something that has been an incredible asset, being based in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet. It has enabled us to work across agencies and departments to really get some policy change, as we heard with the universities, bringing them together as well. We really are trying not to work in a silo with these policy outcomes.

The CHAIR: Thank you, minister. The time allotted having expired, I declare the examination of the Office for Autism completed. Examination of proposed payments for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet is now complete. I would like to thank the minister. I would especially like to thank all the public servants who have been involved in preparing for the last five days of committee hearings. It is a lot of work in the background, preparing for these days, so it is greatly appreciated.

I would like to thank the opposition, also, over the last five days, for the very civil and constructive approach taken to the questions asked, always following the direction of the Chair, limited though that was. Thank you to the members of the government for your patience. It can feel like a very long time.

I would like to thank also the parliamentary officers for their able assistance and Hansard, busily working away in the background. I always like to mention the long-suffering security people up there, sitting, sitting, sitting for such an extended period of time. I know there has been talk at times about reforming estimates, and maybe one day we will get around to doing it, but it is an important mechanism for holding the government to account, for going through the budget. Like many of these different approaches, it is all part of having a decent and open democratic society where questions can be asked. With those few words, I lay before the committee a draft report for Estimates Committee B.

Ms HUTCHESSON: Thank you, Chair, for all of your work over the last few years. I move:

That the draft report be the report of the committee.

Motion carried.

At 16:19 the committee concluded.