NDIS Professionals Union - Professionals Australia

15/04/2026

We whole heartedly agree with Every Australian Counts on this issue of registration. People with disability want choice and control over providers. Mobile sole trader, medium sized clinic, big NGO- that should be their choice.

Many of our members are registered with NDIS but a lot are not. Many were registered but let that registration lapse due to the administration costs of maintaining registration and audits. Providers have no problem being registered. Most of us are already registered with AHPRA and Medicare- a process that is much cheaper and easier than NDIS registration.

Being compliant shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg and only be accessible to larger organisations.

Thank you EAC for speaking up on this issue!

There are growing calls from providers to force NDIS participants to use only providers who are registered.
This is being framed as improving quality and reducing costs.
But many people with disability know from experience that registration does not guarantee quality.
The NDIS works because people have choice and control. It allows individuals and families to build supports that are flexible, trusted, and right for them.
Removing that flexibility risks pushing people into more rigid, higher-cost systems - and undoing the progress the NDIS has made.
If the government is serious about safeguarding participants, it must also move forward with self-directed registration, as recommended - not leave it behind.
We need reforms that protect people, and protect choice and control.
Read the article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-08/ndis-unregistered-providers-weed-out-labor-budget-savings/106539842

Mark Butler MP
Jenny McAllister
Senator Jordon Steele-John
Senator Anne Ruston
Melissa McIntosh MP

[Image description: A red graphic with an open book at the bottom. Above it, a white panel reads: “Read: NDIS provider registrations in spotlight as Labor eyes options to make budget savings from ABC News.” The Every Australian Counts logo appears below the text.]

13/04/2026

Federal Budget rhetoric foreshadows Disabled people, regional communities, children and women workers will bear the brunt of Government’s spreadsheet-balancing NDIS reform.

The NDIS is not a Government budget nuisance. It is the mark of a fundamentally decent society. The NDIS is one of our proudest achievements as a nation, but the Government seems fixated instead on spreadsheets and short-sighted cost-cutting measures. We support meaningful, positive reform. We do not support targeting vulnerable Australians to make a budget look better on paper.

All we have is rhetoric that focuses on damaging the reputations of NDIS Providers, discrediting NDIS participants, and not a single plan to improve the known problems in the NDIS.
We all know that you can call the Agency 5 times in a day and receiving 5 different answers.
We know you can email them the same questions and they'll give you a different response each time.
We know that urgent reviews for people who need different or new supports due to changes in their circumstances take months.
We know that the NDIS spent $60M last year fighting NDIS Participants at the ART and lost more than 75% of cases.
So many problems that impact disabled participants and providers every single day, but not a single policy to fix them?
Nope. Labor is focused on spreadsheets, ready to cut funding to fix their own poor management of the scheme.

We're not interested in that narrative. We don't accept that narrative.

PA is fighting for providers and participants because we are proud of the NDIS and believe that every Aussie deserves a fair go. It shouldn't depend on whether you have a disability or not.

12/04/2026

We've put together a summary to demystify the grant that was released last week.

It's a big read, but we hope you take the time to have a look - there are opportunities here for all of us.

Don't forget - this is just a very brief take of the grants process by someone who is not part of the grants team. It's important that if you decide to go further, you read the grants documents for yourself. The team will also answer any questions (Grant.ATM@health.gov.au)

Grant applications close: 2pm (Canberra time) 2nd July 2026

08/04/2026

The NDIS was designed by the Labour government. They didn’t put enough safeguards in place to protect vulnerable people with disabilities from criminals who have taken advantage, they didn’t accurately plan and budget for Australians who have life long disabilities. Now they are paying the price.

But instead of admitting they haven’t managed the agency well they are scapegoating providers and blaming a rise in autism diagnosis as the cause of ‘blow outs’ and cutting supports from the most vulnerable people in our country.

Thank you AAPI for speaking up. Many of our professional peak bodies have been complicit in the narrative of ‘over servicing’ and ‘over diagnosis’ So we applaud you for calling it out for what it is.

AAPi Vice President Dr Katrina Norris discussed her concerns about proposed NDIS reforms in an opinion piece which was published in both the Courier Mail and Daily Telegraph this week.

"Too often, rising participation in the NDIS is being framed as evidence of misuse," she writes. "A key example is the repeated focus on the proportion of participants with autism, now sitting at around 40 per cent. This figure is being frequently presented as proof that the scheme is being overrun by people who do not “really” need it.

"What is missing from this narrative is context. The NDIS itself reports that 73 per cent of participants with a primary diagnosis of autism experience severe or profound disability. This means they may have limited or no verbal communication and require physical support for everyday activities. These are not marginal cases. They are individuals with significant functional impairment, the very cohort the NDIS was designed to support."

"It’s clear the NDIS requires reform. Costs are rising, and the system must be sustainable. But focusing on specific groups, particularly children and people with autism, as the source of the problem, risks oversimplifying a far more complex issue.

"We have seen this pattern before across Australia’s social support systems: demand exceeds expectations, and rather than interrogating system design, funding models or broader service gaps, the response becomes one of tightening access and assigning blame.

"The critical question is this: if people are pushed out of the NDIS, where do they go?"

Read the article: https://ow.ly/Con050YFjVO

01/04/2026

🚨Hot off the Press!

The numbers are in, the data tells a story, and honestly, it's a bit grim. But at least we're in it together. And when we have the data behind us, we can push forward together to enact change.

We've had a great response to our survey looking at the impacts of cuts to NDIS travel rates, frozen and cut hourly caps, and the smear campaign waged by the media. We are still collecting data though, so if you haven't already completed the survey, please do so! We want to hear from as many people in the sector as we can to make sure that we are representing your voice when we advocate and campaign.
https://forms.gle/z2PbTgGrjUDMVddt9

We know that the Financial Review has been slamming providers this month. Taking the lead from the Redbridge Report, a report commissioned by Bill Shorten when he was NDIS Minister that tested how to sell cuts to the NDIS. The narrative that was most successful was painting providers as greedy rorters, when the actual case couldn't be further from the truth. Who would have thought a marketing strategy could do so much harm?

We've heard from providers who are remortgaging their homes to keep providing services, businesses who have lost staff or had to let staff go because they can't make payroll, providers who have closed their businesses, and clinicians who are feeling the downwards pressure on their salaries, career progression, and expectations in their roles. Providers are telling us that they are working for free, slashing or stopping their own wages to pay staff, taking pay cuts to keep providing services, and doing it with their heads held high and all the professional integrity and determination that they have, because they care about their clients.

We've also heard from providers who have tried everything, and are making plans to exit the NDIS. The numbers are staggering and show a real snapshot of how our sector is coping right now.

We know that providers are doing their best. It's news outlets, like the AFR, who pander to politicians and only seek to sow division. But we won't let them get the best of us. We know the truth, and we're going to keep screaming it from the rooftops.

Please share this data with your friends, your colleagues, your business pages. It's important that the public see the human element behind the amazing work that we do as NDIS Providers. We change the narrative by showing up and continuing to provide high quality services, and by being LOUD about what we deserve.

The best time to get organised was yesterday, the second best time is today. Reach out to have a chat today about how we can support you. We're in the together, and we're not going anywhere.

25/03/2026

Jordan Steele-John giving the facts. Perhaps the Australian Financial Review would like to actually fact check their next article before attacking participants and providers of NDIS.