New Commonwealth Government funding announced

Published
18 Sep 2023

The Australian Government has announced that Autism CRC has been awarded funding from two streams within the Commonwealth Government’s Department of Social Services:

  • $1.35M to extend our activities under the National Autism Strategy and National Best-Practice Resources Grant
  • $2.65M to continue activities under the ILC Grant Program, which will support the development and dissemination of new and updated evidence-based resources for mainstream services capacity-building in health, education and employment.

The funding was announced in a joint statement by The Hon Amanda Rishworth MP, Minister for Social Services, and The Hon Bill Shorten MP, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

“For the past 10 years, Autism CRC has helped inform national practice and the policy landscape, and built the capacity of individuals, service providers, and community settings in the process,” said Minister Shorten.

Commenting on the National Autism Strategy, Minister Rishworth noted that, “Public consultation is now open, marking the commencement of phase two of the strategy’s development. We will work with Autism CRC to make sure that our engagement is inclusive and autistic people’s lived experiences are considered alongside evidence-based understanding and best practice.”

Autism CRC looks forward to working together with all stakeholders in the next stage of the National Autism Strategy development, while continuing to provide our national evidence-based best practice platforms and capacity-building resources relating to assessment and diagnosis, early childhood supports, inclusive education, employment, and health and wellbeing.

This funding will facilitate our ongoing work as the independent national source of evidence for best practice related to autism, with related activities funded through to the end of 2024. We will be providing news of such activities in the coming weeks.

We thank the Commonwealth Government, in particular Minister Rishworth and Minister Shorten, for the ongoing support of Autism CRC. Through our successful collaborative stakeholder model, we look forward to continuing to deliver better outcomes for autistic people and those with other neurodevelopmental conditions, their families, and those individuals and organisations who work to support them.

Read the Media Release Boosting support for Australians with autism | Department of Social Services Ministers (dss.gov.au)