AUTISM SERVICES

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (15:01): My question is to the Minister for Families and Communities. Can the minister tell the house how the state government is helping South Australian families stay living safely together?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Families and Communities, Minister for Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability) (15:01): I thank the member for his question and appreciate his ongoing advocacy on behalf of South Australians with a disability. The rate of autism spectrum disorder within our community is on the rise. As part of our 2010 election commitment to provide support, we committed an extra $4.2 million over four years to increase assessments and provide additional early intervention services.

The first $1 million of this is being delivered this financial year and will be directed in two main areas: an additional $500,000 per year to SA Health for a multidisciplinary assessment team to work across the Women's and Children's Hospital, the Lyell McEwin Hospital and the Flinders Medical Centre; plus an additional $500,000 per year funding to Autism SA for assessment and early intervention services.

The extra funding for Autism SA will achieve the following: a statewide autism services project as part—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Keep going. Where is the tally?

The Hon. P. Caica: 79 so far.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Madam Speaker, so far today the member for Bragg has interjected 79 times.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Generally, every time she opens her mouth she gets it wrong. Single-handedly—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: —lost the election for her colleagues.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my left will behave.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Every time she opens her mouth—and it's often; on average, every 69 seconds in question time. Yesterday, it was 51 seconds and today she is running at about every 45 seconds.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Don't measure the length of them, measure the length of the silences; it's not very long. A statewide autism services project as part of a partnership with Disability, Ageing and Carers. Autism SA will receive a total of—

Ms Chapman: Blah, blah, blah.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Again; 'La, la, la' the member for Bragg says in relation to, again, important disability services. She thinks it's a joke. She wants to be the minister for ageing and the minister for disability and all she does is poke fun. All she does is poke fun about important services for people—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: —with disabilities in South Australia. Autism SA will receive a total of $357,000 to manage the project across—

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Finniss!

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: —non-government sectors. It will look at the current scope of services for children and adults with autism spectrum disorder and develop recommendations for improvement in services. In addition, Autism SA has committed $30,000 of commonwealth funding to this project. The recommendations arising from the project will inform the ongoing allocation of additional $500,000 recurrent funding after June 2013.

Autism SA's diagnostic assessment service will also receive an additional $513,750 over two years and this will clear its current waiting list and boost the availability of its diagnostic services across a range of ages. Importantly, it will allow Autism SA to develop a new visiting country diagnostic assessment service which is—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: You don't think it's interesting to know about diagnostic services in the country?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: In the country? You don't want to know about it? That's fine.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: You don't want to know about that either. This will free up Country Health's capacity—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Bragg!

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: I didn't lose the election for my team. I didn't lose the election for my team. I didn't get moved right down there.

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will sit down.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: I didn't lose the election.

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will sit down.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I'm calling this question time to a halt. We won't continue with the answers.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!