Now, I have just found this Liberal, not Labor blog,..(Is this the one you found anthrax?).......
http://www.liberal.org.au/Issues/Community/Disabilities/Ideas/2010/03/18/Increase-Autism-Funding-to-50000pa-per-child-for-2-years.aspxand I agree, the individual who commented on this blog could have meant it in an entirely different manner to how my relatives friend said it, though I can assure you, my relatives Labor MP friend meant it in the way I advised, because the question my parents asked was something along the lines of...
"Why don't they create more low-medium level support units for kids like our granddaughter as the majority of the existing support units are for the really sever cases"
Every Australian child should be accommodated irrespective of disability, (our anti-discrimination and equal opportunity laws dictate just that),..though only apply to certain minorities, it would appear...thus mild to moderate assistance requiring kids should not be forced to drown in a mainstream school with minimal support teacher contact hours/intervention .....this or be forced to vegetate behind a fenced enclosure, as this is both educationally and socially disadvantageous and dehumanising for those who are not in need of this high level care.. Think of it as putting someone with a sprained ankle into a palliative care ward...because this was the only bed available, sound familiar?
Sorry, one size does not fit all, ...we need a three tiered support/intervention unit approach, each which develop their own individual programs to give these kids the best possible chance at reaching their own potential not be categorically defined as being one of the support unit vegetables...or that kid that fell through the gaps of a flawed system.
It needs to be done with dignity, would they like their own mild-moderately autistic well-behaved/mannered (though quiet) child sitting next to a severely disordered child masturbating, simply because there wasn't anywhere else to put them for the time being?
And given this is supposed to be a thriving, developed prosperous country, which prides itself on equal opportunity, one of the few developed countries in the world to have escaped the full front of a global crisis, we should be doing better than most, we should be on par with or better than Finland's education, or up there with Switzerland, and would be if our politicians were doing what they are supposed to be doing, (not wasting funds on excessive travel)..exploiting their positions of trust to grow their own investment portfolios. The rate we are going, we need a government, just to regulate our government, we have turned back into a pack of thieving convicts in suits and ties.
We don't mind building detention centres for illegal immigrants, this and keeping them for extended periods while we take our sweet time figuring out what we're going to do with them after the next federal election, so I don't think it's too much to ask that we foster a policy of charity begins at home. And please, don't tell me that key-policy makers are just really really misguided, this and mean well also, BULL SHOOT!
If we cant even look after our own properly, then what's this saying to quality immigrants who might otherwise consider immigrating here to make a worthwhile contribution to our country, economy, when it's clear, we have set the standard exceedingly low, this and even let vermin out on bail on temporary-visas who have already intentionally infected multiple Australians with HIV.
We are busy protecting refugees, and asylum seekers, offering them opportunities, though who is looking out for us?
Time to get real!