Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I take the opportunity to place on record my deep thanks to the Rudd Labor government for selecting Liverpool as one of the six locations to establish an early autism development centre. When we started looking at the issue of autism in our communities, I had the opportunity to work with a lot of my local organisations. I discovered that, in New South Wales, 50 per cent of families that live with autism reside in the south-west of Sydney. I hasten to add that this has nothing to do with our water supply or the air that we breathe. I think it is probably more to do with the property values, because people who live with autism do it pretty tough financially, and, as a consequence, issues of property values and living in more affordable areas of Sydney become quite significant.

The other very tragic thing that I learnt about living with autism is that very few families survive it. Most of the families I see that live with autism are single-parent families, and the single parent is most often the mother. Indeed, a woman I had the opportunity to employ in my office, Vicky Meadows, has a profoundly disabled daughter. It is one of those things that I think is important for all of us members. When we are elected into this place we do not exactly take matters from people off the street, only if it concerns federal Constitution based issues. Something that Vicky brings to my office is a sense of caring for all people with disability. It is not simply bringing sympathy into the equation; she genuinely empathises because she lives it day in and day out. So I am one of those very fortunate members who have the opportunity to have a person like Vicky Meadows working for me.

The community in Western Sydney has very strong autism advocacy these days, and I pay particular tribute to Grace Fava and what she has been able to achieve in the south-west of Sydney. Grace and her husband have two boys who suffer from autism. I see what they go through and I appreciate the time that they put in not only on their own behalf but on behalf of all other members of the community who are similarly suffering the effects of autism, which are significant. My grandson suffers from autism. He is a very bright and able young kid, but from time to time he has an episode which throws a classroom out of its routine. We need to come to terms with these things. We need to assist not only those who live with autism but those members of our community who care about it. On behalf of the community members of the south-west of Sydney, I am very pleased to be a member of a government that is able to take the initiative and show leadership in autism in the south-west of Sydney.