Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

For Australia to be involved in a groundbreaking program like this, to see those extraordinary young men—and their families—who have an amazing capacity for precise attention to detail, who are able to systematically process information, who have long concentration spans that make them ideal for and make them love work in information technology is actually quite rewarding. It is quite heartening to see that a collaboration like that, working on something like critical IT testing, can actually come together with Autism SA, with Hewlett Packard and with these young men and their families.

They have settled in incredibly well. I think that they expected to be welcomed by the Australian parliament when I made these observations this afternoon, not trashed by those opposite in the way Senator Cameron and Senator Collins did. They have settled in really well. They did their induction and training with Hewlett Packard and then they came to work with us. They are incredibly bright; they are incredibly talented. They have very impressive academic records, but, unfortunately, they found it hard to get jobs in the routine workplace. This partnership has been able to assist them and their families.