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Argument, Think Autism Melbourne 2026
Five provocations at Think Autism Melbourne put the problem in the system
In short
Five autistic speakers opened the 2026 conference with short provocations on wellbeing, enterprise, schools, identity and practice. Each one moved the burden from autistic people to the structures around them.
Read it instead, 5 minutesThe transcript
The story
“We don’t need to fix our kids. We don’t need to fix our teachers. We need to fix the system.” The line came from one of five autistic speakers who opened Think Autism Melbourne on 30 May 2026 with short provocations meant to set the tone for the day, three of them previewing panels later in the program. Each of the five took a problem usually located in autistic people, whether their wellbeing, their employability, their behaviour at school, their identity or what counts as success in the support they receive, and placed it in the structures around them.
The speakers were not introduced on camera, so they are described here by what they argued.
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Sources the story draws on
- National Autism Strategy (opens in a new tab), Department of Social Services
- National Autism Strategy 2025 to 2031, First Action Plan 2025 to 2026 (opens in a new tab), Commonwealth of Australia (Department of Social Services)
- Thriving Kids (opens in a new tab), National Disability Insurance Agency
More from Think Autism Melbourne 2026
All 48-
5 minutes 40 seconds, captioned Awareness asks very little of anyone, Judy Tang told Think Autism Melbourne Dr Judy Tang Opening the conference in 2026, Dr Judy Tang set awareness, acceptance and pride against each other, then showed how a narrow clinical picture leaves autistic people from other cultures unseen. -
9 minutes 13 seconds, captioned Kyriakos Gold on a series of missed cues, and why he quit every community board Kyriakos Gold In the keynote at Think Autism Melbourne in 2026, Kyriakos Gold traced a diagnosis that came only six or seven years earlier back through decades of misread signals, and explained why he had stepped away from community leadership. - 4 minutes 4 seconds, captioned Autism is not a dish that is more or less spicy Kyriakos Gold Closing the keynote at Think Autism Melbourne in 2026, Kyriakos Gold rejected the language of mild and profound autism and answered claims that autistic people lead unremarkable lives.
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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. -
3 minutes 7 seconds, captioned Autistic burnout is different from tiredness, and a holiday does not fix it Anita Aherne, Hannah Badenhop and 1 more Opening a Think Autism Melbourne panel in 2026, Anita Aherne said workplaces still had no clear definition of autistic burnout. The panellists described what it is and why rest alone does not end it. - 1 minute 52 seconds, captioned Think Autism Melbourne heard that negative messaging about autism was no accident Dr Sharon Zivkovic, Kyriakos Gold 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.