Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak about matters particularly relating to autism spectrum disorder within our community. I know that members would be aware that the Gillard government have made a significant range of commitments in relation to funding to assist children with disabilities, particularly with early intervention services. We know that, as part of that package, the federal government have committed $190 million for the four years to June 2012 to help provide supported services for children with ASD. There are a number of other very valuable initiatives in the Helping Children with Autism package, including provision for autism advisers and assistance for parents and carers of children with ASD to help them better manage the pressures that they face in raising their children. I know very well that there is always more to be done in helping to address this issue. We also look to our state colleagues in order to address the needs of those affected by ASD.

That is why I would particularly like to mention today the construction of stage 2 of the Eastern Autistic School project in Ferntree Gully in my electorate. I recognise the particular need for a primary to year 12 school dedicated to the education of the children and young adults with ASD. Assuming that stage 2 of the school does proceed, it will give families with autistic children a great deal of comfort and support. I say ‘assuming’ that it does proceed because, although the former Victorian Labor government had committed funding for that project, there is now doubt that the Baillieu government will provide that funding in order to complete stage 2 of the construction. Indeed, it appears that funding has only been committed for the junior levels of the school, and the Victorian government has to date given no assurance that the additional funds needed for completion of the primary to year 12 project will be forthcoming.

What we are beginning to see in the Victorian government is a reflection of exactly what their federal counterparts are inclined to do when it comes to making genuine commitments. They make all the right noises without actually coming equivocally to make a commitment to deliver what is needed. They feign support for education and then fail to back it up with a cash commitment. Indeed, at the last federal election, the Liberal Party in my electorate committed to well over $100 million in spending, including a commitment—or seemingly—of over $80 million for a road upgrade. Unfortunately, as we discovered just days before the election, most of those commitments that they had purported to have made were not included in their own party’s costings.

For the present, I will give the Victorian government the benefit of the doubt, but I invite them to clearly spell out a genuine commitment to funding the completion, in full, of the Eastern Autistic School. I hope that they will recognise the confusion and upset that this will otherwise cause to local families with children who propose to enrol in the school.