Submission to the

Parliamentary inquiry into

Thriving Kids

Regional Autistic Engagement Network (RAEN)

2025

Publishing Information

Regional Autistic Engagement Network (2024). ‘Submission to the Parliamentary inquiry into Thriving Kids.’ October 2025. Written by Heidi La Paglia, Hannah Reeve and Nicole Moran on behalf of RAEN: Tasmania.

Acknowledgement of Country

RAEN acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on Lutruwita/Tasmania, in which this submission was written. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Tasmanian Aboriginal Communities, all of whom have survived invasion and dispossession, and continue to practice and maintain their identity and culture across Tasmania. Sovereignty never ceded.

Acknowledgement of Community

RAEN acknowledges the Autistic and neurodivergent in Tasmania. We acknowledge the ongoing systemic disadvantage our community faces and celebrate the voices of their lived experience, affirming that neurodivergent culture, communication and community is valid and valuable.

Contact

E: info@raentasmania.com.au
W: www.raentasmania.com.au

Executive Summary

The Regional Autistic Engagement Network (RAEN) rejects the proposed Thriving Kids program and the medicalised framing of this inquiry. While presented as reform, Thriving Kids represents a cost-cutting exercise that will strip Autistic children and families of individualised supports under the NDIS and replace them with an untested, one-size-fits-all system.

A central concern is the government’s intention to roll out Inklings as a flagship “early intervention” under Thriving Kids.¹ Inklings is experimental, lacks credible long-term evidence, and is built on the flawed assumption that Autism can be “reduced.”²

The response to the government’s announcement was immediate. RAEN launched the petition “Protect Autistic Kids: Stop the Thriving Kids Behaviour Program” in August 2025.³ Within three weeks, it had attracted thousands of signatures and hundreds of detailed comments from Autistic adults, parents, grandparents, clinicians, and allies. These voices highlight overwhelming community opposition to Thriving Kids. Families know from lived experience that cutting individualised NDIS Early Intervention supports will cause regression, distress, and long-term harm.

Economically, the reforms represent false savings. Independent modelling shows that every $1 invested in the NDIS generates more than $2 in returns through increased participation and reduced downstream costs.⁴ Cutting supports for Autistic children will widen the gender pay gap, reduce workforce participation among mothers, and increase long-term costs across health, education, and welfare.

Legally and ethically, Thriving Kids undermines Australia’s obligations under the **UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)**⁵ and the National Autism Strategy,⁶ all of which require co-design, non-discrimination, and self-determination. To date, there has been no genuine consultation with Autistic people or our representative organisations.

For these reasons, RAEN urges this inquiry to reject Thriving Kids in its entirety. Reform efforts should focus instead on strengthening the NDIS Early Intervention Childhood approach,

1 Australian Government. (2025, August 20). Speech from Minister Butler, National Press Club – 20 August 2025. 2 Amoscare. (2025, August 28). Growing pains: The link between Inklings and Thriving Kids. Amoscare News. Retrieved from https://www.amoscare.com.au/growing-pains-the-link-between-inklings-and-thriving-kids/ 3 Protect Autistic Kids: Stop the Thriving Kids Behaviour Program [Change.org Petition]. (2025). Retrieved from https://www.change.org/p/protect-autistic-kids-stop-the-thriving-kids-behaviour-program/feed 4 Per Capita & National Disability Services. (2021). False Economy: The Economic Benefits of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the Consequences of Government Cost-Cutting. 5 United Nations. (2006). United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 6 Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. (2025). National Autism Strategy.

investing in neurodiversity-affirming supports, and working with Autistic people and families to co-design services that genuinely help children thrive as themselves.

Petition and Community Mobilisation

The announcement of Thriving Kids on 21 August 2025 was made without prior consultation with Autistic people, families, or Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs).⁷ The backlash that followed reflects not only disagreement with the program itself, but the deeper issue of exclusion from genuine co-design. Autistic people and families have long been promised that reforms would be developed in “co-design” - with us, not for us. The immediate, widespread rejection of Thriving Kids demonstrates how far the Federal government has strayed from this principle.

In response to Minister Butler’s Thriving Kids announcement at the National Press Club, RAEN launched the national petition “Protect Autistic Kids: Stop the Thriving Kids Behaviour Program.” Within three weeks, it had attracted over 15,000 signatures and hundreds of detailed personal comments. The signatories included Autistic adults, parents of Autistic children, grandparents, educators, and clinicians. This mobilisation is one of the strongest grassroots rejections of an Autism policy initiative in recent years.

The comments themselves tell the story of a community that feels ignored and dismissed. Parents spoke of the risk of regression and trauma. Autistic adults warned against programs like Inklings that force masking and erasure. Families and service providers raised alarm about the practical consequences for already overstretched families.

The backlash also highlights the flow-on costs of poor policy design. Families know that removing children from NDIS supports will not reduce costs but simply shift them into crisis-driven systems. Without early, individualised support, children are more likely to disengage from school, experience poor mental health, enter child protection systems, or come into contact with youth justice.

To ensure privacy and accessibility, the quotes included throughout this submission have been de-identified and drawn directly from the petition. They illustrate key themes raised consistently in the community response: Autism is lifelong, Inklings is unsafe, the NDIS Early Childhood approach must be protected, equity is at risk, and rights and obligations under the CRPD are being disregarded.

7 Australian Government. (2025, August 21). Radio interview with Minister Butler, ABC Adelaide Drive - 214 August 2025.

Together, this backlash and the stories behind it highlight not just a rejection of Thriving Kids but the urgent need for government to stop, listen, and engage in genuine co-design with Autistic people and their families.

Key Concerns

1. Autism is Lifelong, Not “Mild” or “Moderate”

In announcing Thriving Kids,⁸ Minister Mark Butler publicly framed Autism as being “mild” or “moderate in severity,” implying that children in these categories do not need ongoing, individualised supports and should instead be diverted from the purpose of the NDIS. This language is not only stigmatising, it is clinically inaccurate.⁹ Autism is not temporary, nor can children ‘grow out of’ autism, it is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition and neurotype.

Autism is a form of neurodivergence — a natural variation in how people think, communicate, sense, and experience the world. Autism is not a disease to be cured or a problem to be fixed.¹⁰ But, in a world that is often built without Autistic people in mind, it does become a disability: not simply because of Autism itself, but because of the barriers, discrimination, and inaccessible systems around us. This is the core logic of the Social Model of Disability¹¹: people are disabled not by who they are, but by the way society is structured.

This understanding is reflected in Australia’s new National Autism Strategy (NAS),¹² released in January 2025. The NAS recognises Autism as both a disability and a valued part of human diversity. It commits to neuro-affirming practice, rights-based systems, inclusive design, and a lifelong perspective so that Autistic people are accepted, valued, and supported to thrive.

By contrast, Thriving Kids undermines these commitments. By categorising Autism in terms of ‘severity,’ the government is reverting to outdated and discriminatory hierarchies that imply some Autistic people are “less disabled” and therefore “less deserving” of support. In reality, what determines whether an Autistic child thrives is not the so-called “severity” of their Autism, but whether they have access to appropriate, affirming supports.

8 Australian Government. (2025, August 20). Speech from Minister Butler, National Press Club – 20 August 2025. 9 American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR). 10 Reframing Autism. (2025). Introduction to Autism, Part 5: Neurodiversity (What is it and Why Do We Care?). 11 People With Disability Australia. (2025). Social model of disability. 12 Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. (2025). National Autism Strategy.

“It was shocking to hear our Federal Health Minister imply that Autism is neither
lifelong nor worthy of support through individualised approaches facilitated by a
national disability support network. #ActuallyAutistic advocates MUST be
consulted before any changes are made.”

“Shame on you for labelling Autism as mild or moderate. What matters is whether
kids are supported, not how you categorise them.”

“Autism does NOT have a lower functional impact than other cognitive or physical
disabilities. This is an exercise in discrimination by the government.”

By framing Autism in this way, the government is not only ignoring established evidence but also undermining hard-won recognition that Autistic children deserve equal access to disability supports. This rhetoric reverts policy to a time when Autism was trivialised or dismissed as “parenting failure,” something families have fought for decades to move beyond.

2. Risks of Behavioural/Compliance-Based Programs (Inklings)

Inklings has been positioned as an early intervention program to be expanded under Thriving Kids.13 However, it is experimental, lacks credible long-term evaluation, and has raised significant concerns among families and clinicians.

The program’s publicly stated focus on reducing diagnoses14 is also deeply troubling. Noting that Autism is permanent, this claim suggests that Inklings is more likely to be teaching children to suppress who they are, rather than reducing Autism itself.

“ABA by any name is still abuse. Thriving Kids must mean thriving as Autistic —
with communication supports, sensory access and respect for who we are.”

Masking has been shown to contribute to exhaustion, burnout, poor mental health, and suicidality. Embedding it as a policy outcome is unsafe and unethical.15

Research consistently demonstrates that Autistic people who engage in camouflaging or masking their traits — suppressing stimming, forcing eye contact, copying neurotypical behaviours — experience higher levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and suicidality. Masking

13 Australian Government. (2025, August 20). Speech from Minister Butler, National Press Club – 20 August 2025. 14 Amoscare. (2025, August 28). Growing pains: The link between Inklings and Thriving Kids. Amoscare News. Retrieved from https://www.amoscare.com.au/growing-pains-the-link-between-inklings-and-thriving-kids/ amoscare.com.au 15 Livingston, L. A., Shah, P., & Happé, F. (2020). Compensation in autism is not consistent with social camouflaging. Autism Research, 13(6), 978–987. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2306.

may help avoid stigma in the short term, but in the long term, it is associated with autistic burnout, identity loss, and reduced well-being, particularly for Autistic girls and women.16

Another significant risk of Inklings relates to its impact on parents, particularly mothers. Program protocols require parents to engage in exercises such as imitating their child’s voice or being videotaped while interacting, with their performance critiqued by professionals or even the other parent. For neurodivergent parents, or those with trauma histories, these practices can be distressing and destabilising.

For mothers experiencing anxiety, OCD, or postnatal depression, the expectation to perform and be assessed can amplify stress rather than build confidence. In the context of domestic and family violence, requiring one parent to critique the other risks reinforcing coercive or abusive dynamics.

These risks are not theoretical; they are foreseeable consequences of embedding behavioural compliance programs that disregard parent wellbeing, lived experience, and safety. Instead of empowering families, Inklings risks retraumatising parents, destabilising family relationships, and ultimately undermining child outcomes.

3. Undermining the NDIS Early Childhood Approach

Minister Butler argued that the NDIS is overstretched and that children with “mild to moderate” Developmental Delay and Autism should be redirected into mainstream supports under Thriving Kids.17 This framing dismisses the proven benefits of the NDIS Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) approach, which provides individualised and flexible support in children’s critical developmental years.

Families know from experience that removing children from the NDIS will cause regression and harm:

“The NDIS Early Childhood Intervention program provides life-changing support…
Removing this proven system risks leaving vulnerable children without what they
need.”

16 Cassidy, S., et al. (2018). Camouflaging in autism: Associations with mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Molecular Autism, 9(46). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-018-0226-4; Hull, L., Petrides, K. V., & Mandy, W. (2020). The female autism phenotype and camouflaging: A narrative review. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 7(4), 306–317. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-020-00197-9 17 Australian Government. (2025, August 20). Speech from Minister Butler, National Press Club – 20 August 2025.

“My son was told he’d never read, write, or speak clearly. After years of
NDIS-funded therapy he is now thriving. Without those supports, he will regress.”

By implying that NDIS is being ‘misused’ by families of Autistic children, the government has further stigmatised parents and reinforced harmful narratives of ‘undeserving’ disability.

4. Equity and Access Failures

In promoting Thriving Kids, Minister Butler suggested that children could be supported through mainstream systems such as family and child health centres, schools, and day care hubs.18 While this may sound practical, it disregards the realities faced by Autistic children and families, particularly in regional and rural areas.

Many Autistic children cannot access or cope in these environments due to sensory, safety, or trauma-related needs. Families already report being excluded or discriminated against in schools and community programs.

“If appointments are at school, it will be harder, not easier. My child needs
recovery time afterwards and cannot cope in that environment.”

“Families in rural and remote areas will be left behind again. We fought for years to
get support — don’t take it away now.”

Medicare Gap Fees and Cost Barriers

Mainstream health systems, such as Medicare-funded allied health or GP services, do not meet the scale or complexity of support required by Autistic children. Even where services exist, families face substantial out-of-pocket costs due to Medicare gap fees.19 Under Thriving Kids, many children will be redirected into block-funded programs that undermine choice and control and do not meet their needs; or, alternatively, required to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars per year in ‘gap’ fees to access individualised supports that the NDIS currently pays for.

These costs will disproportionately harm low-income families, single parents, and those already under financial stress and create a two-tiered system, where only the wealthiest families can access quality supports for their children.

18 Australian Government. (2025, August 20). Speech from Minister Butler, National Press Club – 20 August 2025. 19 Arnold SR, Bruce G, Weise J, Mills CJ, Trollor JN, Coxon K. Barriers to healthcare for Australian autistic adults. Autism. 2024 Feb;28(2):301-315. doi: 10.1177/13623613231168444. Epub 2023 May 10. PMID: 37161777; PMCID: PMC10851652.

“I’m on a disability pension myself. I can’t financially afford to support the therapies my
son needs without NDIS.”

5. Risks for Multiply Marginalised Families

By framing Thriving Kids as a way to reduce pressure on the NDIS, Minister Butler ignored the well-documented fact that removing children from early, individualised supports does not save money — it simply shifts costs into other already overburdened systems. The result will be more crisis-driven interventions that are less effective, more traumatic, and far more expensive.

Health

Without ongoing early intervention, Autistic children are more likely to develop secondary mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and suicidality. Hospitals and child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), which are already stretched to breaking point, will face increased demand.20

Education

Schools are already struggling to meet inclusion obligations under current resources, and Autistic and disabled children are increasingly refusing to attend due to inaccessibility issues.21 Removing NDIS-funded therapy and supports will worsen school refusal (school can’t), disengagement, and exclusion, creating long-term educational disadvantage. Teachers are not trained or resourced to replace specialist therapists.

Child Protection

The Disability Royal Commission identified inadequate support as a significant factor in family breakdown and entry into child protection.22 Without NDIS support, families already under pressure may reach crisis, leading to more interventions and, in some cases, the removal of children. This risk will fall heaviest on multiply marginalised families, including First Nations families, who are already disproportionately represented in child protection systems.23

20 The Lancet. (2025). Advancing health-care equity for autistic people: Mental health as a key area of concern. The Lancet, 405(10345), 787-789. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(25)00667-1 21 Cassidy, C. (2025, June 27). A rising proportion of Australian students aren’t going to school – and there’s not just one way to get them back, report says. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jun/27/school-refusal-absenteeism-australian-students-strategies-tips-report The Guardian 22 Baidawi, S., Ball, R., Newitt, R., Turnbull, L., Kembhavi-Tam, G., Avery, S., & Sheehan, R. (2022). Research Report – Care Criminalisation of Children with Disability in Child Protection Systems. Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Commonwealth of Australia. 23 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). (2024, December 13). Youth Detention Population in Australia 2024. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/youth-detention-population-in-australia-2024/contents/summary/first-nations-young-people-in-detention

This directly undermines the Federal Government’s own Closing the Gap strategy, which in Target 12, includes a commitment to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care by 45% by 2031.24

Justice

When support needs go unmet, behaviours that stem from disability are more likely to be misunderstood, criminalised, and punished. This increases the likelihood of contact with the youth justice system.25 For First Nations children — who already face disproportionate rates of incarceration — cutting supports undermines Closing the Gap Target 11, which commits to reducing the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in detention by 30% by 2031.26

Multiple Marginalisation

First Nations, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD), and refugee families are at particular risk. Redirecting children into mainstream or school-based systems without individualised support will exacerbate barriers such as racism, language access, financial strain, and geographical isolation. These families are more likely to be drawn into crisis-driven systems when preventative supports are withdrawn.

Undermining National Strategies

Beyond the NDIS, Thriving Kids contradicts national priorities such as Closing the Gap and the National Autism Strategy. Both commit to early, individualised, culturally safe supports to reduce long-term harm. Stripping children of these supports undermines progress on multiple targets — especially around incarceration and out-of-home care — and risks worsening outcomes across generations.

“Poorly supported kids become adults who miss opportunities everyone else has.”

“We may save a little money now, but it will massively increase the costs to society later.
Be human and give these children and their families some dignity and hope.”

“Every change that removes support just pushes more pressure onto schools, hospitals,
and families — systems that are already at breaking point.”

24 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). (2024, December 13). Youth Detention Population in Australia 2024. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/youth-detention-population-in-australia-2024/contents/summary/first-nations-young-people-in-detention 25 26 Department of Prime-Minister and Cabinet. (2020). Closing the Gap targets and outcomes. Closing the Gap targets and outcomes, Australian Government. https://www.closingthegap.gov.au/national-agreement/targets

Independent modelling confirms the economic cost of this approach: every $1 invested in the NDIS generates more than $2 in broader economic returns.27 By narrowing access through Thriving Kids, the government is not saving money; it is creating cost-shifting and long-term economic and social damage.

6. Workforce and Gender Impacts

The Thriving Kids program carries serious risks for the disability and allied health workforce, these risks have strong gendered dimensions. The NDIS Early Childhood pathway has supported the growth of a diverse workforce of speech pathologists, occupational therapists, psychologists, peer workers, and sole-trader clinicians — a workforce that is predominantly female, and includes many Autistic and neurodivergent women.28 Removing children from the NDIS will destabilise this workforce and deepen gender inequities.

Loss of Choice and Control

Under Thriving Kids, families would be redirected away from their chosen providers and into government-run or block-funded mainstream settings. This strips families of the ability to select clinicians who understand their children’s needs, and disadvantages small and sole-trader providers — many of whom are neurodivergent women running practices that prioritise neurodiversity-affirming care.

“By taking choice and control away from families, they will no longer be able to
access highly skilled clinicians — many of whom are Autistic or neurodivergent
themselves.”

Impact on Local Economies and Service Availability

Allied health services funded through NDIS sustain jobs across Australia, especially in rural and regional communities. Replacing this system with Thriving Kids will force many small practices to close, with ripple effects on local economies and on families’ ability to access timely support.

Increased Pressure on Mainstream Workforce

Redirecting thousands of children out of NDIS supports and into mainstream systems will place an impossible strain on child and maternal health services, schools, and GP networks. These

27 Per Capita & National Disability Services. (2021). False Economy: The Economic Benefits of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the Consequences of Government Cost-Cutting. 28 Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (2025). Care and support economy – state of play. Australian Government.

systems are already overstretched and cannot absorb the additional demand without significant new investment.

Carer Burden and Gendered Impacts

Women — particularly mothers — provide the majority of unpaid care for Autistic and disabled children. Removing individualised NDIS supports will force many mothers to reduce or leave paid work to meet their children’s needs, worsening the gender pay and superannuation gap. This undermines national efforts to improve gender equity and workforce participation.29

“Without NDIS funding I can’t afford therapy for my son. As a single mother on a
pension, I would have to give up work to fill the gaps myself.”

7. Breaches of Rights and Lack of Co-Design

The Thriving Kids reforms risk breaching Australia’s obligations under international human rights law, national disability frameworks, and the founding principles of the NDIS itself.

Breaches of International Obligations

Australia is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD),30 which requires governments to ensure non-discrimination, full inclusion, and the right to live independently and be supported to participate in community life. The CRPD also requires genuine consultation with people with disability through their representative organisations.

For First Nations families, the reforms also raise concerns under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP),31 which enshrines the right to self-determination and the principle of free, prior, and informed consent. Redirecting First Nations children into generic mainstream services without culturally safe design or consultation is inconsistent with these obligations and will deepen existing inequities.

Lack of Co-Design

To date, there has been no genuine co-design with Autistic people or families. Policy decisions have been made and announced without meaningful engagement with Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) or families who will be most affected.

29 https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/informal-carers 30 United Nations. (2006). United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 31 United Nations (UN). (2007). United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. (UNDRIP) https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf

“This is not co-design. It isn’t even consultation. It has been decided and thrust
upon us without our consent.”

This exclusion not only undermines trust but also violates Australia’s commitments under the CRPD to involve people with disability in all decisions that affect them.

Undermining the Purpose of the NDIS

The NDIS was created to provide individualised support to Australians with permanent and significant disability so they can live ordinary lives with dignity, autonomy, and opportunity. By removing children with Autism and developmental delay from the Scheme and pushing them into mainstream systems that are underfunded, inaccessible, and inequitable, Thriving Kids undermines the very purpose of the NDIS itself.

RAEN’s Position

RAEN calls for the Thriving Kids program to be scrapped. Instead, the government should:

Strengthen and expand the NDIS Early Intervention pathway with genuine flexibility and transparency, and in genuine consultation with the disabled community.
Invest in neurodiversity-affirming supports, delivered by skilled professionals, including Autistic and neurodivergent clinicians.
Align reforms with the National Autism Strategy and Disability Royal Commission recommendations.
Uphold Australia’s obligations under the CRPD by embedding genuine co-design with Autistic and neurodivergent people, our families, advocates and representative organisations.

Conclusion

The Thriving Kids program is not reform; it is regression. It undermines children’s rights, the key concept of choice and control and risks embedding harmful behavioural approaches, threatening to unravel years of progress under the NDIS.

RAEN urges this inquiry to reject the Thriving Kids proposal in its entirety and instead strengthen rights-based, individualised support systems, in genuine consultation with disability-led organisations and the disabled community, that genuinely enable Autistic children and their families to thrive and realise their rights under the UNCRPD.

The NDIS is a landmark program that Australians are proud of, whose purpose and impact should not be diminished due to cost-shifting exercises disguised as needed, consultative reform.