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Autism support as an election issue? Really? Oddly enough, that appears to be what’s happening in Australia.

On the same day that Labor leader Kevin Rudd used his campaign site (yes, there’s no election date, but you can bet there’s a campaign) to announce plans to introduce specialised child care and early intervention services for autistic children — focused initially on six new centres — the Howard government announced a massive funding package

Tellingly, as has been the case elsewhere, policy — on the government side at least — has been driven by personal experience:

The prime minister said the package was partly motivated by talks with Judy Fischer, the wife of former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer, whose teenage son is autistic.

Amid the bickering about who was cribbing from whom, Rudd made a sensible suggestion: whichever party won the election, both should unite on policy. I think the job for those of us who want to see greater attention to autism and education support here should be look for such a political consensus.

A similarly cross-party approach has underpinned the Make School Make Sense campaign run by Britain’s National Autism Society, which has gradually picked up the backing of MPs from both sides of the House.

Not that the Australian system is perfect: we do some things better here. And even the new proposals focus almost entirely on early education: Asperger teenagers and their parents, who face enormous challenges in the present system, might be wondering where they would fit in.

But in terms of getting our children’s rights on the political agenda, last week in Australia looks like a raging success.

PS: The Rudd camp followed up its announcement with a lively personal account from “Cassandra”,  the mother of an autistic child.