Queensland will be ‘answerable’ in first major NDIS test, Minister warns

Health Minister Mark Butler has warned the Queensland government will be “accountable to its community” after refusing to sign off on a key pillar of NDIS reforms in the first major test of the Albanian government’s plan to overturn the beleaguered programme.

New legislation targeting NDIS “program inflation”, tightening eligibility conditions and ending allegations of corruption in the program is expected to be put before parliament when it restarts later this year.

The changes will see taxpayers spend around $55bn in 2030, according to forward estimates, rather than the NDIS costing more than $70bn in 2030, as current forecasts suggest.

However, it is also expected that approximately 160,000 people will be removed from the program as a result.

Some of them may become dependent on so-called essential supports, a jointly funded scheme agreed by state, territory and federal governments in 2023.

About $4 billion of the federal government’s $10 billion investment in these supports has already been allocated to Thriving Kids, a program that aims to exclude children with autism or mild intellectual disabilities from the program and get support from the state government.

This agreement was made in exchange for $25 billion in hospital financing.

“Argy bargy in politics”

Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, Mr Butler said Queensland was the only state yet to sign a bilateral agreement.

“Last week I tried to make it clear again that this was part of the agreement that they would receive additional hospital funding and, frankly, they would be accountable to their communities if they did not put in place the additional supports that all governments recognize as important,” he said.

“They signed the national cabinet agreement. We said most of the $2 billion we allocated to Thriving Kids would be paid to state and territory governments who told me they wanted to implement the programme.

“They didn’t want the Commonwealth to deliver it. They want to deliver it locally.”

“So, you know, I understand that there are back-and-forth arguments in politics between state governments and the federal government, particularly when it comes to the dollar, but I think really society just wants us to do it, and I think state governments that delay this or make Australians with disabilities feel like those supports won’t be available when these necessary reforms are implemented are not doing great credit to their communities.”

Mr Butler said it was open to states to tell states from 2023 that they did not want to be part of NDIS reform but would give up hospital funding.

He denied that the reforms “shifted costs” from the federal government to the state government.

“We fund all of these programs: hospitals, NDIS, Developing Children. These are not a cost shift,” he said.

Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor met later in the week to discuss NDIS reform, with a briefing to be prepared.

NDIS shadow deputy spokesman Henry Pike later told the same program that “there’s a lot we can work on with the proposed changes”.

“Most of what the Government is actually proposing are changes that the Coalition has been pushing for for a long time,” he said.

Mr Pike claimed 80 per cent of work in the electoral office was “now NDIS related matters”.