E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Topics: Autism; Autistic women; Connections4Women; Strong and Resilient Communities; Disability; Negative gearing; Housing.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: It's been wonderful to visit Autism Queensland today, also with our candidate, Julie-Ann Campbell, the candidate for Moreton. But it's been wonderful to hear about the large array of really important support services that Autism Queensland does offer to autistic people here in Queensland. Particularly, I'm very pleased to announce today that Autism Queensland is receiving a grant of $360,000 to run a program called Connections4Women. And that's particularly designed for autistic women to connect up with other autistic women. This is a really innovative program, and I very shortly will ask Dr Caitlin Taggart to explain the process of, and what this program will offer. But I did want to say that this program very much aligns with the outcomes that we want to see through our Strong and Resilient Community grants. This is all about ensuring the social inclusion of people that may be disconnected or isolated from community. But it's also really in line with the Commonwealth Government's National Autism Strategy. Our National Autism Strategy is a strategy looks at how we make sure Autistic children and Autistic adults are better included in our community, are better supported, that their wellbeing is considered, that their health is considered, and indeed their social and economic inclusion is forefront to that strategy. This program is so important in ensuring that there's social connection. I understand it will be run in three areas: South Brisbane, Toowoomba and Gladstone. And I'm really, really excited to see the outcomes of this program. I might now hand over to Dr Caitlin Taggart to talk more about the program.
DR CAITLIN TAGGART, AUTISM QUEENSLAND: Thanks very much. So the program is called the Connecting4Women group, and the main aim of the group is to enable and empower Autistic women to connect with other Autistic women. We will be in the group exploring topics like Autistic self-identity and connecting to our local community. So connecting into services and support and online spaces. We want the group to be a really safe and supportive space for Autistic women to connect with other women and feel that sense of belonging and connection to others. The ultimate aim of the group would be that Autistic women would be the key drivers to continuing that social ecosystem expanding into their local community. The group is co-designed. So we were really fortunate last year to receive a Supporting Women Queensland Government grant. And in through that grant, we met with 22 Autistic women, where we co-designed the group, and we were exploring topics with these women about what they would like the group to be. How would they like it to be facilitated? The location? How do we maintain that psychological safety within the group? And using that information that we gathered from these 22 Autistic women, this has now informed this connections for women group this SARC grant. So we're really fortunate and really excited to be offering this group to Autistic women across those three locations. So South Brisbane, Gladstone and Toowoomba. The reach and the scope that we have, you know, can be up to 192 Autistic women, which we're really excited to be offering, and particularly since this group, it is co-designed by Autistic women for Autistic women. So this group is meaningful to the needs and the users of this group. So we're really excited and really fortunate to be to be offering this this group.
JOURNALIST: Do you think the additional funding will help the stigma around autism in women, especially since it's so under diagnosed?
DR CAITLIN TAGGART: Great question. There is a gender bias and unfortunately, for a lot of Autistic women, they struggle, really find it challenging to find a diagnosis, because there is that lack of understanding and lack of awareness and in the health professional sector community. So we are hoping that this will increase awareness. And for Autistic women, the group is not just for those who have a formal diagnosis of autism, but those who self-identify as Autistic, because we do recognise that there are the challenges in receiving a formal diagnosis, not just from the lack of awareness, but also financially as well, it can be quite challenging.
JOURNALIST: And what specific programs and services would the funding enhance?
DR CAITLIN TAGGART: We're hoping that the Autistic women will then be able to connect into their local communities or online community spaces and learn about other services and support that have that understanding of autism. It is a small community, and if we can connect together and learn from each other about those services and spaces that do have that awareness of autism, in particular Autistic females, we're hoping that then we can spread awareness and Autistic females will be able to connect into those services and support and receive the right kind of
support.
JOURNALIST: And how would the funding help women, Autistic women who are from different backgrounds. I know there's specific locations around Queensland, but how would that offer them the safe space?
DR CAITLIN TAGGART: Again, really great question. So when we co-designed the group, that was something that we did discuss, because we want this group to be really inclusive and welcoming to a very wide diverse range of people. The group is participant-led. So we want participants to come to the group, and we want to understand from them what they want to get out of the group, and what their needs are to feel safe and welcomed and included in that group. So we're not coming in with our own agenda. It's not prescriptive at all. It was co designed, and it'll continue to be co designed even as we continue to run the group.
JOURNALIST: Minister Rishworth, we were wondering about the negative gearing information that has come out earlier today. If you had any comments on that?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Just to be really clear, we've got a very comprehensive housing policy - $32 billion worth of housing investment to increase supply. Negative gearing is not a proposal that is part of that housing policy. But what I would say is that there are two really important pieces of legislation in the Parliament, both our Build to Rent scheme, and, of course, our Help to Buy scheme. One that helps new homeowners get their foot into the market, the other, which puts more supply of affordable rental into the market. At the moment, we've got the Coalition and the Greens in there, the Coalition blocking this important piece of legislation, and we are focused on getting on the on with the job of actually building those houses. I might also just add one more thing about the autism funding. The funding will actually enable these groups to be facilitated and run for ten weeks, and so that is what the funding goes to. But as Caitlin was saying, it's really important that there's the potential for the ongoing benefit after these groups, of the social connection, bringing people together and feeling like you're not alone. I think listening to the description of the program and listening to some of the comments coming back of what women really wanted, and this is what they told Autism Queensland. That's what was so strong about this application is that this is what they said. They don't want to feel alone, and so the funding to facilitate, to bring people together, to have a facilitator, as well as it be co-led with an Autistic woman, is really critical in ensuring that the ongoing connection continues.