Wednesday, 8 June 2022

Economy and Infrastructure Committee

Inquiry into Access to TAFE for Learners with Disability

Ms CUPPER (Mildura) (10:33:163:): I rise to speak on the inquiry and report into access to TAFE for learners with a disability. This inquiry and report considered all disabilities but makes some specific reference to autism, and it is autism that will be the focus of my comments today. It is a timely opportunity for me, given over the last few weeks my team and I have been planning a listening tour of the electorate to meet with families, educators and support providers of children and adults with autism.

Our autism rate Mildura is above the national average, though specific figures are hard to come by. Services are notoriously difficult to access. It is hard enough in Mildura, but in the Southern Mallee it is even worse. As usual the geographical isolation of our region compounds the problem. Services that might only be an hour away for smaller towns in more central parts of Victoria are up to 6 hours away for us, and public transport options between Mildura and Melbourne are ordinary, to say the least.

The recommendations made in this report are important. It is critical to the retention and success of these learners that they feel welcomed, valued and understood at TAFE. I hope that all of the recommendations are adopted, because every single improvement matters—they could be the difference between a meaningful employment pathway, hope and independence and permanent disengagement from education and work.

When I was a city councillor, one of my proudest achievements was working with the Dandelion program to bring together a formal partnership between Specialisterne and Mildura Rural City Council. The purpose of the project was to provide a specialised employment service to young jobseekers with autism, and it involved creative ways of assessing each person’s strengths, matching them with a suitable employer and working with the employer, the staff and the person with autism in a thorough and ongoing way to help everyone in the workplace understand the unique styles of thinking and the interactions they could expect from their colleague with autism. The program was a great success, and I understand it continues to this day.

But as vital as this report and its recommendations are, any efforts to improve access to TAFE or job placements will be undermined without an equal focus on the younger years of a child’s life, because the quality and availability of early intervention services will often determine whether that child will be a candidate for TAFE or mainstream employment at all—and it is in those earlier years where you will still find significant service gaps in the Mallee. Recently I was approached by a young professional family with four kids who had come to the Mallee for work opportunities and were happily settled in with satisfying careers and a great network of friends. But when one of their children was diagnosed with autism they realised that, compared with other regional centres, the Mallee did not have what they needed and wanted for their little boy, so they reluctantly made the decision to relocate to another regional area 8 hours away. It was a terrible loss to our region and would have been completely unnecessary had more services been available.

As I have previously said in this place, I come from an autism family. My brother has classic autism, and when he was very little, sessions with specialists might have occurred once a week or month, whereas for children in better serviced areas those sessions would have been occurring every single day. Over time, the level of regularity and repetition in service provision makes a big difference, and once that window is closed it is closed. It is the quality of early intervention and support through primary school and secondary school that will determine whether some families can even have a conversation about TAFE or mainstream employment when their child turns 17 or 18.

I was approached recently in the Birchip bakery by a father of a child with autism. He told me his story and I told him mine, and I told him that I would be making autism support a major focus of my work between now and November. He shook my hand and said thank you, and I could tell that he meant it. I want to thank the Victorian government for its focus on TAFE participation for learners with a disability, including people with autism, and I would encourage the Victorian government to take a closer look at the needs and service gaps for children with autism in our region—from early intervention to secondary schooling. Over the next few months, as I mentioned, I will be compiling stories and information about the autism experiences of families, educators and service providers in the Mallee. I would be very keen to share these findings with the government with a view to improving the lives of these children and the families that love them.