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Policy call, Think Autism Sydney 2025
A Think Autism Sydney panellist asked why Australia has no autism procurement policy
In short
At Think Autism Sydney in 2025, a panellist proposed adding autistic led businesses to the targets in government purchasing rules. An audience member argued for a wider disability category, and another panellist pointed to the UK.
Read it instead, 5 minutesThe transcript
The story
“Why don’t we have an autism procurement policy?” A panellist put the question on the opening panel of Think Autism Sydney in May 2025, with a model in mind. Governments already write targets into their purchasing rules, the panellist said, for small and medium enterprises and for Indigenous businesses. The proposal was to add autistic led businesses as one of the target areas.
The effect, the panellist argued, would be that funding went to autistic people and autistic led businesses from the outset. The case was made in the context of the National Autism Strategy, whose first action plan was then under way, with the question of why the opportunities the strategy created were not going to autistic people. In the panellist’s view they should not be going to the businesses that had been around for 20 or 30 years, or however many years, and clearly had not solved any problems. “Why not take some risks on autistic people,” the panellist asked, and really listen to them.
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Sources the story draws on
- Indigenous Procurement Policy overview (opens in a new tab), National Indigenous Australians Agency
- Victorians with disability: Social procurement guide (opens in a new tab), State Government of Victoria (Buying for Victoria)
- The Lilac Review: Final Report (opens in a new tab), Business Wales (Welsh Government)
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