Autistic people are worth the investment

Political commentary blaming people with disability, including Autistic people for budget pressures and an unsustainable NDIS is reductive, short-sighted, and deeply distressing for our community.

Autistic people are worth investing in. The economic evidence on this point is not ambiguous: the right support at the right time brings down costs, including across disability, health, justice and social services, and drives up economic and community participation.

A recent longitudinal study by independent research body, the e61 Institute, found a clear association between NDIS access, higher labour force participation and improved employment and wellbeing outcomes. It found that within 4 years of entering the scheme, participants were working more hours, earning more, and reporting higher levels of energy and overall health.

NDIS reform is necessary to be sustainable in the long term. But it must be evidence-informed and carefully co-designed with people who actually use the scheme. Significant reform cannot be rushed to meet short-term fiscal targets and budget cycles.

We welcome investment in community and mainstream organisations. But meaningful investment that meets the needs of Autistic people will take time and planning. Process matters enormously here; knee-jerk eligibility changes and cuts to social and community participation funding before these organisations are ready to absorb that need will leave Autistic people without support.

That is not responsible reform. That’s cost-shifting. And instead of reducing need, it will shift those unmet needs into already stretched health, education, justice, and crisis systems, increasing costs in the long term.

Done properly, the Thriving Kids program has the potential to deliver valuable early supports outside the NDIS for some Autistic children aged eight years and younger. But it cannot replace the NDIS for Autistic children who need NDIS supports. Significant work remains; designing the program and building an autism-informed workforce that is capable of delivering it can only be done in close collaboration with Autistic people, families, and trusted sector organisations. Implementation will also need to include strong system navigation supports. Without them, the burden falls entirely on families to make sense of a complex, fragmented system. That is not a reasonable ask. And no child should be left worse off during this transition.

Proposed changes to NDIS planning processes − particularly the introduction of Support Needs Assessments that have not been validated for Autistic people − are compounding already high levels of anxiety across the Autistic community. Autism is complex and heterogeneous, and standardised functional assessments regularly fail to capture that complexity. Tools that don’t reflect Autistic lived realities risk underestimating needs and delivering insufficient supports.

Autistic people are a core cohort that the NDIS was designed to support. If sustainability and fairness are the goal, exclusion is not the answer. The answer is smarter investment and careful, collaborative design with lived experience at the centre. A sustainable NDIS must balance fiscal responsibility with long-term vision. Because the real return on investment is not measured in cost savings alone, but in lives lived with dignity, independence and opportunity. 

That is the difference between short-term cuts and long-term reform. And that is the conversation we should be having.