Today on World Autism Day, South Australia’s Parliament House will light up in a spectrum of colours to celebrate SA’s Autistic and autism communities.

The coloured spectrum represents the broad and diverse nature of South Australia’s Autistic and autism communities and South Australians are encouraged to take a selfie in front of Parliament on Sunday night and tag #WorldAutismDaySA to celebrate.

On World Autism Day there is much to celebrate here in South Australia.

From the State’s first Autism Strategy, to the country’s first Autism Inclusion Teacher network, to the pioneering Office for Autism, our state is leading the way when it comes to policies and meaningful cultural change for the Autistic and autism communities.

The State Government is also in the final stages of appointing the SA’s first Autism Strategy Advisory Committee which will guide development and implementation of the State Autism Strategy. The Committee will be chaired by the world’s first Assistant Minister for Autism, the Hon Emily Bourke MLC and it is believed will be the first predominantly Autistic led committee of its kind in Australia.

It will ensure that Autistic people and their families are leading the development of the State’s first Autism Strategy and providing advice to government on autism policy.

Public consultation on South Australia’s First Autism Strategy Discussion Paper attracted record engagement from the Autistic and autism communities with over 1200 responses with 33 per cent of YourSAy responses from Autistic people.

The Advisory Committee will meet for the first time later this month. One of its first tasks will be to review the public consultation report, which reflects what was heard during the recent Discussion Paper consultation period.

*This document uses identity-first language throughout. We recognise there are people in the autistic community who prefer person-first language, people who prefer identity-first language and people who use the terms interchangeably.

Quotes

Attributable to Nat Cook

The fact we received 182 applications from people wanting to be on this Advisory Committee shows there is a real desire from the Autistic and autism communities to be heard.

This community wants a seat at the table, and I’m delighted that we are establishing the Advisory Committee to support the development of South Australia’s first Autism Strategy.

During the consultation phase we proactively engaged the Autistic and autism communities through forums organised by the Department of Human Services and led by people with lived experience where we sought the views of autistic children, teens, young people and adults as well as parents of autistic children.

Attributable to Emily Bourke

This World Autism Day we have much to celebrate here in SA.

The public consultation on the State’s First Autism Strategy was historic – it attracted the highest level of engagement on a disability-related issue since the YourSAy online consultation hub began.

Our level of engagement was nation leading - outscoring Victoria both in number of submissions and autistic engagement. This shows the strength and passion of the South Australian autistic and autism communities.

This government is committed to achieving change for South Australia’s autistic and autism communities and this committee is just one way we will continue to work side-by-side with the Autistic and autism communities.

This World Autism Day it is great to celebrate how we are building knowledge and create lasting and long overdue cultural change for the Autistic and autism communities here in South Australia.