2026 – 27 Federal Pre-Budget Submission

The Australian Government is advancing major reforms across disability, early childhood, workforce participation, education and digital government systems to improve sustainability, productivity and service outcomes. For Autistic Australians, these reforms present both opportunity and material fiscal risk. Without autism-specific evidence, participant safeguards, strong market oversight and inclusive education pathways, reform may shift costs into health, education, housing, justice and crisis systems rather than delivering long-term economic and social returns.

This submission presents a five-stream investment framework designed to:

• Improve national productivity, education completion and workforce participation

• Reduce long-term public expenditure through early, evidence-based intervention

• Strengthen market integrity and system governance

• Ensure measurable, cross-portfolio accountability for outcomes

• Protect public investment through validated, autism-specific reform design.

The Alliance recommends targeted, staged investment in system infrastructure rather than fragmented program funding, aligning with Treasury priorities of fiscal discipline, productivity growth and risk management.