23/04/2026
I watched and kept notes during this week's speech by Mark Butler MP. Here is my summary of what I understood was announced and discussed if you would like a version through my eyes and ears as I tried to translate the announcements to real world speak. This of course is heard through my own personal filter as a person with disability, professional, carer, father and policy lover.
Hon Mark Butler – National Press Club Address on the NDIS
Opening Context
The Minister used the National Press Club address this week to outline the Australian Government’s approach to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, alongside broader commentary on aged care and social policy.
While the need for sustainability was emphasised, the address raised serious questions about transparency, consultation, and the future direction of the NDIS.
Key Observations
1. Strong Focus on Cost Control and Fraud
• The Minister repeatedly highlighted fraud, rorting, and provider misconduct as key drivers of NDIS cost pressures which is not in fact the source of the billions of dollars of overspend and cost increase
• However, there was limited acknowledgment of well-documented systemic and design failures within the NDIS planning and administration processes, which is widely evidenced broadly to be the main contributing factor to the budget increase
2. Silence on the Disability Royal Commission
• There was no reference to the Disability Royal Commission or how its findings are informing current reforms.
• This omission is concerning given the Commission’s clear recommendations on safeguards, participant rights, and system accountability which would address causes for budget increases
3. Increased Reassessments and Reduced Rights
• The Minister confirmed plans to restrict the right to unscheduled reassessments, with around one in five participant plans reviewed annually.
• At the same time, proposals to limit unscheduled reassessments risk restricting participants’ ability and right to challenge incorrect or inadequate plans, with the poor and often grossly lacking planning due diligence sited as a leading cause of budget issues with the agency’s own CEO previously stating their planners are not reading reports and documents submitted.
• The Minister said that unscheduled reassessments benefit plan managers not participants because it often resulted in an increase in funding for the participant. This was an alarming statement made by the Minister and it was unclear if he was suggesting plan managers as a whole were behaving poorly who do not typically submit these requests for reassessment. This was either a mis-worded statement or demonstrated a lack of basic knowledge of process.
4. Community Participation Funding to Be Capped
• The Minister flagged constraints on social and community participation funding, potentially moving away from needs based planning toward capped or target-based models mentioned that an average of $30 000 per participant would be capped, mentioned targets of $16 000 in previous years would be looked at
• This raises concerns about reduced choice, control, and social inclusion for people with disability.
• While a cap and standardisation of funding was announced there was then further comment that funding and support would be based on functional assessment and need versus standardised lists and diagnosis.
Children, Assessments, and “Thriving Kids"
5. New Assessment Tools Replacing Clinical Evidence
• The proposed “Thriving Kids” initiative includes the development of a standardised functional assessment tool.
• There is currently no clarity on why established, clinically validated functional assessments are considered insufficient, or how the new tool will be evidence-based.
6. Lack of Detail and Limited Transparency
• Key initiatives, including “Thriving Kids” and “Foundational Supports,” were discussed in principle but without operational detail.
• Families and service providers remain unclear about eligibility, access pathways, and implementation timelines.
Safeguards, Planning, and Accountability
7. No Commitment to Restore Safeguards
The address did not include plans to restore safeguards removed since the introduction of the NDIS, such as:
o Case management
o Face-to-face planning
o Stronger checks and balances in decision-making
o Community visitors and statutory checks to at least pre-NDIS levels
o Removal of safeguards that correspond directly with increase fraud and budget blow outs
8. Essential Supports Narrowly Defined
• The Minister described a renewed focus on “essential supports,” framed around basic care needs.
• This signals a potential shift away from the NDIS’s original goals of independence, participation, and community inclusion.
Choice, Control, and Consultation
9. Tension Between Rhetoric and Reality
• While affirming support for “nothing about us without us,” the reforms outlined were not presented as co-designed with people with disability.
• Measures limiting flexibility, reassessment rights, and funding discretion appear inconsistent with the promise of choice and control.
10. State-Level Concerns
• Queensland has not provided the final sign off and agreed to participate in the “Thriving Kids” initiative.
• This highlights ongoing intergovernmental and implementation challenges.
Closing Message from River J Night
• Sustainability of the NDIS is important, but it must not come at the cost of fairness, dignity, and participant rights.
• Any reform must address system design, planning quality, and accountability — not place responsibility primarily on participants or frontline providers.
• People with disability expect genuine consultation, transparency, and evidence-based policy, not reforms developed without them.
• Mr Butler confirmed every participant would be reassessed. Previous reassessment of children was done without notice by some parents reporting they were given 30 days to produce evidence and assessment reports when the public health system takes far longer than 30 days to secure appointments or get reports produced, creating chaos and wide spread panic.
• Suggesting the cost blow out has anything to do with too many unregistered providers is like a husband trying to convince their wife the reason they spend too much on fishing gear is because there are too many good fishing shops. It will never pass the pub test. The government is risking insulting the intelligence of all Australian’s and losing confidence
Amanda Camm MP Children and Young People with Disability Australia Zeb Hourigan People with Disability Australia Queenslanders with Disability Network Queensland Alliance for Mental Health Disability Law Queensland People With disabilities WA Jenny McAllister DCA Mentoring Supports
