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Argument, Think Autism Melbourne 2026
Think Autism Melbourne heard that negative messaging about autism was no accident
In short
Opening Think Autism Melbourne in 2026, Dr Sharon Zivkovic used the iceberg model from systems thinking to explain how public mindsets flow through into structures, and argued that negative messaging was preparing the ground for NDIS change.
Read it instead, 5 minutesThe transcript
The story
Autism was trending, and Dr Sharon Zivkovic thought the reason had changed for the worse. Opening Think Autism Melbourne with a fireside chat at the Australian Catholic University in Fitzroy on 30 May 2026, she located the damage at the deepest level of the system, in what the public believes about autistic people. Later in the same chat she made a sharper claim, that the negative messages were not happening by accident.
Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the fireside chat, asked Zivkovic, of Community Capacity Builders, what “autism is trending” meant to her. She began with the preparation of the National Autism Strategy. That period, she said, had been all about strength based and neurodiversity affirming approaches and the need to put lived experience at the centre of everything. “And now we’re trending again, but it’s not quite so positive, is it?” Her summary of the new mood, that the whole economy collapsing was now apparently due to autistic people, drew laughter from the room.
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Sources the story draws on
- Q&A from Minister Butler, National Press Club, 20 August 2025 (opens in a new tab), health.gov.au (ministerial media page of the Hon Mark Butler MP)
- Thriving Kids (opens in a new tab), National Disability Insurance Agency
- Thriving Kids launches today. Here's what parents should know (opens in a new tab), SBS News (republished from The Conversation; Helen Dickinson and Catherine Smith)
More from Think Autism Melbourne 2026
All 48-
5 minutes 35 seconds, captioned How the 2026 Autistic Pride Day campaign was built from community responses Kyriakos Gold At Think Autism Melbourne, Kyriakos Gold explained how the six month ‘Autism is trending’ campaign came out of the previous year’s conference conversations, a survey and expressions of interest, processed with AI and tested with an advisory group. - 5 minutes 40 seconds, captioned Services do not change systems, Sharon Zivkovic told Think Autism Melbourne Dr Sharon Zivkovic, Kyriakos Gold At Think Autism Melbourne in 2026, Dr Sharon Zivkovic argued that organisations chasing government contracts cannot deliver systems change, and that autistic people would have to build it as disruptors and innovators.
- 2 minutes 59 seconds, captioned Indigenous business as a model for autistic enterprise, and why it scaled Dr Sharon Zivkovic At Think Autism Melbourne in 2026, Dr Sharon Zivkovic held up Indigenous business as a model for autistic founders. From the audience, Kath Alexander, formerly in social procurement, said its growth rested on government priority and procurement targets.
- 2 minutes 53 seconds, captioned Running Think Autism without state or federal funding Kyriakos Gold At Think Autism Melbourne in 2026, Kyriakos Gold set out how the conference was paid for without government money. The conversation then turned to philanthropy and how little of it reaches disability.
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2 minutes 21 seconds, captioned The case that every autistic owned business is a social enterprise Roo Harris At Think Autism Melbourne in 2026, a panellist defined autistic enterprise by its social mission, and Roo Harris called entrepreneurship the ultimate accommodation. Both were questioning a model that leaves autistic people waiting on employers. -
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