World Autism Awareness Day

The Hon. M. EL DANNAWI (14:47): My question is to the Minister for Autism. Will the minister inform the council about how SA is leading the way this Autism Awareness Day?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (Minister for Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Autism, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:47): I thank the honourable member for this question and interest in the topic, particularly on this day, World Autism Awareness Day, 2 April. This morning, it was wonderful to host members of the autistic and autism communities, members of our advisory committees and advocates to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day. I thank the members who joined us also, particularly from this chamber: the Hon. Ian Hunter, the Hon. Tung Ngo, the Hon. Tammy Franks and the Hon. Connie Bonaros.

This morning, we were also lucky to be joined by a tennis superstar whom I have spoken about before in this chamber, Andriana Petrakis, one of the top players in the world for her disability category and number one in Australia. Andriana gave an inspiring speech this morning, one that closed with one of her classic mottos: 'Be brave and be kind,' very wise words to live by.

We were also lucky to be joined by someone who is no stranger to our parliament, Patrick Saunders. We know it is not easy to share your story, let alone share it on the floor of parliament and with the entire state. That is exactly what Patrick did at this year's Teen Parliament, where he shared a powerful message to all South Australians as an autistic non-speaking advocate.

Earlier this week, I visited Patrick at home for an interview on the couch to learn more about his ideas about how to create a more inclusive autistic community and how to improve the lives particularly of young autistic people. As a government, we are all about learning from and creating opportunities for autistic people. We have also done this previously with Tim Chan, a non-speaking autistic person, whom we made a keynote speaker at the last conference in 2024 for autism inclusion teachers. We have learned firsthand from his lived experience as a nonspeaking autistic advocate how we can change our educational systems and what we can do differently. I look forward to seeing Patrick and hearing about his story at the next autism inclusion teachers' conference.

As part of a government that has become a world leader in autism inclusion I want to keep on delivering the progress we have made so far in making our state an autism inclusive state. Importantly, though, our government recognises that none of the changes we have made could have been achieved without standing alongside our very proud autistic and autism community. Once again, I thank the many people who came today, and wish everyone a happy World Autism Day.