Jenny Karavolos

There was a lot to absorb actually.

If I look for the positives in what was being said, it was great that it was being recognised that it was a system failure problem and it wasn't based on people with disability and in particular autistic people.

And it was also great to hear that it was being said, which is something we've espoused for a long time, that fraud is not being done by people with disability.

The language for me, there was a difference between when you hear about aged care, which absolutely I support, it was about respect and investment.

And when you heard about disability in the same context, you hear about costs.

And it was said that human rights was an achievement, which is great, but still everything was couched in terms of costs and making sure things were sustainable.

It is huge.

It is absolutely huge.

I have a saying at the moment and it's autistic people should not be the shock absorbers of systems governments have not yet fixed.

The issue here is the risk is losing what's been working before.

many people that they're referring to as low and moderate support needs, they receive a great outcome because a little goes a long way in sustaining education and employment.

Before the NDIS, there was no coherent system for people with mild to moderate needs.

Access and supports were inconsistent.

And in fact, there was a Senate inquiry into autism that confirmed that systems were fragmented, complex and failing to deliver outcomes.

The evidence is clear that autistic people experience poorer outcomes across

The whole lifespan, education, employment, health and inclusion, generic systems didn't deliver effective outcomes and the NDIS has delivered real benefits.

So if autistic people aren't in that scheme, what scheme were they meant to be in?

Well, definitely the issue that it came across that there's all these initiatives, which we absolutely support reform and that the need for the NDIA is to be sustainable.

But there's a capping, for instance, on supports.

So as soon as there's capping on supports, it still means what happens to the need.