Office for Autism

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:40): My question is for the Minister for Autism, and it is my first opportunity to ask her a question. I congratulate her on her elevation. Minister, what are the specific goals of the Office for Autism? Does it have published or publicly available KPIs, and how will its success or failure be measured?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (Minister for Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Autism, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:40): Thank you for your question. I was worried what you were going to ask me because I didn't respond to your Christmas message. Thank you for your question, and I will go gentle, but your question does sort of grate me a little because in South Australia we have a strategy, which is an incredible KPI to have. It is an incredible strategy that had a lot of consultation, in my understanding one of the highest consultations for a disability-focused YourSAy survey.

The community really drove that process, and because of that we now have a KPI called a strategy. From that, we are able to deliver on it, and we are well and truly doing that in South Australia. One of the very first things we were able to achieve was developing a charter, and that charter was rolled out in South Australia. The opposition decided not to sign that charter for whatever reason, and I open that up again for you to be able to sign it because it has been developed by the autistic community. Again, it is a great target for us to be seeing what we can do across government to be more inclusive for the autistic community.

Something we are working on that was just reannounced last week to remind people that it is happening is an advisory round table regarding assessments. Everyone knows in this chamber—you would have heard a story from many people in your community—the challenges sometimes in seeking an assessment. Where do you start? How do you go about getting an assessment? Then maybe when you are diagnosed autistic, what happens next? It is a really big conversation to have, and one that has not been coordinated before.

So, going back to your questions earlier about what my role is, it is to do just that: to bring people to the table who have not been at the one table before to have these really mature conversations to figure out what we can do to better improve autism assessments in South Australia. We are really excited that that process is now underway.