NDIS reforms raise questions over support for 160,000 Australians

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About 160,000 will be removed from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) by 2030 under reforms aimed at curbing rising costs.

Health Minister Mark Butler said the reforms would save Australian taxpayers $35 billion over the next four years, bringing the projected $70 billion price tag down to $55 billion.

“Unless we take action to make it sustainable, it simply will not be there in the future for the Australians who need it most,” Butler said.

“The NDIS was originally intended to support around 410,000 people with a disability. Today there are 760,000 people on the scheme,” he said.

Acting CEO of People with Disability Australia, Megan Spindler-Smith, agreed that the NDIS should be sustainable, but had concerns about the reforms. 

“The only guarantee we got was 160,000 fewer people will be on the NDIS,” Spindler-Smith said.

“So the question is simple. Where do those people go?”

The Protect Our NDIS Alliance has called rallies across Australia to protest cuts to the NDIS on May 9.

Butler said the NDIS was the “only port in a storm for many Australians”.

He announced a $200 million Inclusive Communities Fund to expand community support services.

He said the government had previously committed $6 billion to developing support services such as Thriving Kids as alternatives to the NDIS.

Thriving Kids, due to launch in January 2028, is a support model for children under eight with low to moderate needs.

Director of Monash’s neurodevelopment program, Professor Nicole Rinehart, said she did not believe that kids would be left in “no-man’s-land” after the reforms.

She said the NDIS had focused on clinical services without enough investment in community-based support.

“[Children] don’t like being taken out of school and they don’t like going to endless clinical appointments.”

She said children naturally make friends and learn skills in the community.

“Thriving kids is part of that plan to create an opportunity outside of the NDIS that’s built into the community and existing services.”

Rinehart said the proposed reforms were an opportunity to open community-based support services in rural and remote areas where there were “thin markets”.

Rinehart is also the founder of the AllPlay program, which researches and provides access to community activities such as sport and dancing for children with disabilities. 

AllPlay Dance is a free program that pairs children with autism with older dancing buddies. 

She said the program did not rely on highly qualified staff, making it cheaper to deliver.

“If we put all of the skills to help kids in the hands of specialists, that means it’s always going to be a postcode lottery.”

“If we create interventions and task shift them into dance schools and footy and primary schools, then we’re going to be able to reach more kids.”

Butler said the NDIS reforms would be tabled at the federal budget sitting next month.

Average individual plan spending would fall about 16 per cent, returning to 2023 levels over the next four years under the government’s plan.

Eligibility based on a person’s diagnosis, such as autism, would be replaced by needs-based assessments.

“Access will be based upon a significant reduction in a person’s functional capacity that impacts their day-to-day living,” Butler said.