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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-03-08 Daily Xml
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Neurodiversity Celebration Week

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (16:01): I move:

That this council—

1. Recognises 13 to 19 March 2023 as Neurodiversity Celebration Week;

2. Acknowledges Neurodiversity Celebration Week as a time to increase knowledge and understanding of neurodiversity and celebrate neurodivergent people, including members of the autistic community; and

3. Congratulates the Malinauskas government's commitment to start supporting neurodiversity through the establishment of the nation's first Office for Autism in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, placing inclusion at the heart and centre of government.

I rise today to speak about Neurodiversity Celebration Week. Neurodiversity Celebration Week will take place next week from 13 to 19 March 2023. Neurodiversity Celebration Week is a time to increase knowledge and understanding of neurodiversity and celebrate neurodivergent people, including members of the autistic community.

Listening to the experiences of the autistic and autism communities, I am constantly reminded of how difficult it can feel for autistic people when they have to navigate spaces where there is little understanding or knowledge of neurodiversity.

Just last month, at one of our community forums in Mount Gambier, I joined close to 100 members of the local autistic and autism communities to listen to the story of Shekinah, an autistic woman and member of our Autism Education Advisory Group. Today, Shekinah is a successful teacher and leader in the autistic community, but she was once a girl who spent much of her childhood mimicking others and writing social scripts just to fit in. This ritual of observing and practising social behaviours in order to be more like others is known as masking and it is a common practice amongst autistic girls and women.

By celebrating neurodiversity and neurodivergent people, we can reduce the need for autistic people, like Shekinah, to feel like they have to mask when they attend school, go to work or visit the doctor's office. As Shekinah said:

I had a really great childhood, but I often imagine what it would have been like if my neurodivergence was taken seriously right back at the beginning.

It is stories like Shekinah's that demonstrate why the Malinauskas Labor government has committed to start supporting and celebrating neurodiversity. We have started by funding access to an Autism Inclusion Teacher in every public primary school in South Australia so teachers can start building knowledge and understanding of autism.

We have listened to the calls of the autistic and autism communities who have long advocated for cultural change. Just a few weeks ago, the Malinauskas Labor government established the nation's very first Office for Autism in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, placing inclusion at the heart and centre of government. During our consultation, the autistic and autism communities stressed the importance of a centralised hub of information led by autistic people.

We are working side by side with the autistic and autism communities to bring about cultural change in South Australia. I am proud of what we have started, and this government will continue to celebrate neurodiversity and the neurodivergent people who make this state so very great.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. N.J. Centofanti.

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