The NDIS is one of Australia’s most important social programs. It supports hundreds of thousands of Australians with permanent and significant disability to live more independent lives. It is also a program that, without reform, was heading toward a trajectory that would have put its long-term future at risk.
This Budget takes serious steps to secure the NDIS for future generations. These are not easy decisions. But I believe they are the right ones — and I want to explain why.
What the Budget does
The Government is implementing reforms across four pillars to return the NDIS to its original intent: supporting people with permanent and significant disability.
1. Better quality services
The Government will commission plan management and support coordination more directly, to ensure participants receive high-quality, appropriate supports. A new commissioning approach for home and living supports for Supported Independent Living participants will also address provider viability challenges.
2. Clearer eligibility
Standardised, evidence-based assessments of functional capacity will be placed at the centre of NDIS access decisions. This brings consistency and fairness to how people enter the scheme — replacing a system that has been applied inconsistently.
3. Slowing cost growth
Criteria around plan reassessments will be tightened
Guidance on what constitutes reasonable and necessary supports will be strengthened
Budgets for social, civic and community participation will be reset
New Framework Planning will deliver more equitable and consistent participant plans from April 2027
4. Fighting fraud and protecting participants
Increased oversight of providers and payments
Strengthened investigative and enforcement powers for the NDIA
New regulatory controls to protect participants from exploitation
The numbers
$37.8 billion in projected savings over four years
$2 billion invested in the new Thriving Kids program — part of the broader $5 billion Foundational Supports commitment to be matched by states and territories
$200 million Inclusive Communities Fund to support community organisations providing group-based social support for NDIS participants
What isn’t changing
The NDIS will continue to grow every year. It remains Australia’s largest social program outside the Age Pension.
These reforms do not cut the NDIS. They restore it to what it was always meant to be — a scheme for people with permanent and significant disability, delivered sustainably so it can still be there for future generations who need it.
What is Thriving Kids?
One of the concerns about NDIS reform is that children who currently rely on the scheme for early intervention supports could be left without help.
The $2 billion Thriving Kids program directly addresses this. It funds community-based supports outside the NDIS for children who need early help but don’t meet the threshold for the scheme. States and territories are matching this investment dollar for dollar, taking total investment to $4 billion.
This is the right approach — rebuilding the broader support system so that the NDIS isn’t the only place families can turn.
My view
I know this is a sensitive area. There are people in Moore who rely on the NDIS, families who have fought hard to get the support their children or loved ones need, and providers who do important work in our community.
I also know that a scheme growing at an unsustainable rate, with inconsistent decision-making and real problems with fraud and exploitation, was not serving participants well. Reform that protects the scheme’s integrity and long-term future is reform that protects the people who depend on it.
These changes are being implemented carefully and with proper transition arrangements. If you have concerns about how the reforms affect your plan or your family member’s plan, contact the NDIA directly or reach out to my office and we’ll help you get the right information.