A rare political alliance has emerged in opposition to the federal government’s proposed National Disability Insurance Scheme reforms, with disability ministers from every state and territory, crossing both Labor and Coalition governments, uniting to warn the changes risk leaving hundreds of thousands of Australians without support.
The joint pushback came as a three-day Senate inquiry wound up this week, during which almost every witness who appeared called for the legislation to be amended or abandoned in its current form.
At the heart of the dispute is the federal government’s plan to remove or divert an estimated 350,000 people from the NDIS by 2031, as part of a drive to cut $38 billion from projected scheme spending. Officials have also confirmed a separate 110,000 Australians who had expected to enter the scheme would be redirected to other programs, bringing the total affected to roughly 460,000 people.
But state and territory disability ministers have delivered a blunt message to federal Health Minister Mark Butler: they are not ready, and they have made no agreement, to absorb those people into their own services.
In a joint submission to the Senate inquiry, the ministers warned of a “significant risk” that people with disability would end up in hospitals or other inappropriate settings, or have no access to services at all, if the federal legislation passed in its current form. They argued the pace of reform, focused heavily on cutting spending without a clearly defined support ecosystem, risked fragmenting service delivery and undermining the original intent of the NDIS.
Victoria’s disability minister Lizzie Blandthorn said the legislation had gone further than any agreed position between governments. “The Victorian government pays $3 billion a year to the NDIS,” she said, “and all states and territories should remain co-governors of the scheme.”
The cross-partisan nature of the revolt is notable. Labor governs in New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and the ACT, while Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory sit under Coalition governments. All signed the joint submission.
Independent Senator David Pocock pressed departmental officials at the inquiry over how states and the senators who represent them could be expected to endorse legislation when the government had not calculated how many people in each jurisdiction would be affected. Officials acknowledged the more detailed modelling had yet to be done.
Opposition NDIS spokesperson Melissa McIntosh stopped short of committing the Coalition’s support, but said the concerns raised throughout the hearings could not be ignored. “People have been telling the committee that people will die as a result of these changes,” she said. “It is our responsibility to listen.”
The inquiry also heard evidence about a planned cut of up to 50 per cent to participants’ social and community participation budgets. Government officials sought to reassure the hearing that funding would not be eliminated entirely, but advocates pushed back hard on the framing.
Sunshine Coast Paralympian Marayke Jonkers, a triple-medallist who swam for Australia at three Paralympic Games, told the inquiry the government was misrepresenting the impact of those cuts. Support for leaving the house, she argued, was not a luxury. It enabled people with disability to work, pay taxes, build skills and maintain independence.
“If people must choose between hands-on treatment to maintain their body and trialling a wheelchair or prosthetic leg that could make them more independent, that is not saving money,” she said. “It is creating future costs.”
Jonkers also criticised the Senate inquiry process itself, noting she was the only witness on her panel unable to attend in person due to flight limitations for her powered wheelchair.
She joined by teleconference, only to find it had been downgraded to a phone call, with no Auslan interpretation or captions available. “The entire process was not disability friendly,” she said, “and demonstrated why a government who can’t put together an accessible inquiry into the NDIS might not be best qualified to make decisions about its future.”
The government has said all jurisdictions share the goal of a sustainable NDIS and that National Cabinet agreed in January to work toward reducing cost growth. A government spokesman said the legislation proposed “pathways to progress that work.”
The Senate inquiry’s findings are expected next week. The government is pushing to pass the bill before parliament rises for the winter break on July 2, with the Coalition’s support likely to be decisive. Whether that support is forthcoming remains an open question.
