  Obscuration of quasars by accreted gas and dust, or dusty intervening
galaxies, can cause active galactic nuclei (AGN) to be missed in
optically-selected surveys. Radio observations can overcome this dust bias. In
particular, radio surveys searching for HI absorption inform us on how the AGN
can impact on the cold neutral gas medium within the host galaxy, or the
population of intervening galaxies through the observed line of sight gas
kinematics. We present the results of a HI absorption line survey at $0.4 < z <
1$ towards 34 obscured quasars with the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP)
commissioning array. We detect three HI absorption lines, with one of these
systems previously unknown. Through optical follow-up for two sources, we find
that in all detections the HI gas is associated with the AGN, and hence that
these AGN are obscured by material within their host galaxies. Most of our
sample are compact, and in addition, are either gigahertz peaked spectrum
(GPS), or steep spectrum (CSS) sources, both thought to represent young or
recently re-triggered radio AGN. The radio spectral energy distribution
classifications for our sample agree with galaxy evolution models in which the
obscured AGN has only recently become active. Our associated HI detection rate
for GPS and compact SS sources matches those of other surveys towards such
sources. We also find shallow and asymmetric HI absorption features, which
agrees with previous findings that the cold neutral medium in compact radio
galaxies is typically kinematically disturbed by the AGN.
