Kevin Rudd support for autism

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Not sure if anyone saw this, it was a short story on Ten News about how Aus Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wants to do more for families with Autism.
I can't find a link, but he also said he has a brother with Autism.

Also mentioned was the AEIOU Autism care centre.
http://www.aeiou.org.au/

I just thought it was great how my Prime Minister wants to do more for autistic families.

I didn't know he had an autistic brother.

I hope he does do more for autistic people.

Hooray! My vote wasn't entirely in vain!

yeah i heard about this. i think the story was in the australian.

the kevinator... sorta annoys me but as far as politicians go i think we could do worse

here's the Australian story, seems it's Therese Rein's bro who has autism, not Kevv's bro.

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A SMALL centre for autistic children on Brisbane's northside may have won a visit from Kevin Rudd in a charity auction, but the Prime Minister showed yesterday that he is highly sensitive to autism in the broader community.

Mr Rudd yesterday morning met staff and students during a visit to the AEIOU Centre for Children with Autism at Bray Park, which won the prime ministerial visit as a prize at a charity auction.

After the visit, Mr Rudd said figures presented to him at the centre showed that each year there were about 2000 children born in Australia with an autism disorder. He said the government was providing help in two ways, the first of which was that $190million had been committed in a previous budget to assist families with an autistic member.

He said the second was the construction of half-a-dozen autism-specific early childhood centres around the country.

"One of these is being constructed at Griffith University here in Brisbane, and we're discussing with AEIOU how we can expand those services in the future," he said.

"We haven't reached any conclusions on that but, the truth is 2000 kids a year is a big impact on families. The gap is large. How do we intelligently close it?

"That's why we're talking to experts in the field."

The Prime Minister has a personal but low-key connection with autism, as his wife Therese Rein revealed at a Brisbane lunch earlier this year that her brother had suffered from autism but had been helped a great deal by the sensitivity of her parents to his condition.

She said that his behaviour as a two-year-old was "terrifying for a parent", but because he had been sensitively handled he is now married with children and has a full-time job.

Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper ran a report on Ms Rein's speech but was contacted by the Prime Minister's office, who asked it to drop the story and offered an exclusive interview with the Prime Minister's wife, but the story had already been published in the newspaper's country edition.

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interesting but no funding for adults.

Kevin Rudd wants to help autistics?? We're doomed! !

I have heard ( At 'Autistic EXPo , May 09, NSW Uni ) from an employment agency which had a stand there, that more funding was available for adults with ASD needing advocacy re: employment. I'm currently getting to know about the process.

I've been starting to regret mine...

I hope he doesn't just suddenly decide to give the parents of autistic children a lump sum...

Gawd... stop "Handing out money for nothing" and start spending it on infrastructure.

I'd rather you added 100 "free" speech therapists to the country rather than gave money to parents so they can try chelation (or alcohol) therapy.

Caught another brief snippet about Autism on Radio National yesterday too,
The rate has dropped again, again.



http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2634743.htm

His not all bad he did a few good things like the rise in the pension ( biggest rise in history) and about time to the cost of living here has really got out of hand , especially so when you have family from "expensive" Switzerland that thinks Australia is expensive especially so when it comes to real estate , stupid greedy white shoe brigade

I think Australia has become a little bit Ireland (pre crash ) that is it's developed the rip off culture...

Actually I'd prefer Kevin to the current leaders, we have an uninspiring leader and an unlikable one, I 'll let you put on your aspie thinking cap and decide which is which......


Bring back Pual Keating.