2CC Breakfast with Stephen Cenatiempo - 9 June 2026

Melissa McIntosh MP
Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services
Shadow Minister for the NDIS
Shadow Minister for Women
Federal Member for Lindsay

9 June 2026

Transcript

2CC Breakfast with Stephen Cenatiempo

Topics: NDIS Senate inquiry

E&EO

Stephen Cenatiempo 

Now I'm the first to say that the NDIS legislation needs to be revamped, whether or not the Government's proposed legislation is going to do the trick. I don't know. I think it's more about cost shifting rather than actual cost savings. But public hearings are beginning today for the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee's inquiry into what's being called the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill. Now, the key elements here are transitioning to a new framework planning model to restrict the long-term cost growth to the NDIS to 5 to 6% per year, and expanding delegated and ministerial powers over planning, funding allocations, pricing, automated decision making, and market operations, and it will shift towards a universal enrolment or mandatory registration for NDIS providers to increase market regulatory oversight. To talk to us about this, we're joined by the Shadow Minister for the NDIS and Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services, Melissa McIntosh. Melissa, good morning.

Melissa McIntosh 

Good morning.

Stephen Cenatiempo 

This, I guess, at least we're going through the right processes here, unlike the budget, which we pass the legislation and then do the consultation on, but this is a fairly rapid-fire inquiry, from what I can understand.

Melissa McIntosh 

It is, and we really had to push to have this consultation, because we know that the Government, and before Mark Butler made the announcement a few weeks back now, there was zero consultation, that's what's caused high anxiety across the country. And no one's coming to me as the Shadow Minister, saying no, let's spend more, let's spend more on the NDIS, everyone knows that we need to reduce the spending, but I'm concerned about this being a tick and flick exercise, and there's no way that I'm going to allow that to happen. So these three days are really important to get some questions answered, and for advocates and organisations and participants to be able to air their concerns, and potentially, if there needs to be amendments, those amendments be made, because I am concerned about the framing, first and foremost, that this was about dealing with fraud and wrongdoing in this scheme, and there's very little in this legislation that addresses that very issue, which is why people have gotten really fed up with the NDIS because of this particular issue. So, if we're not dealing with that, well, it's all about the participants, and that's why we’re really, really cautious.

Stephen Cenatiempo 

So we've got to be careful here not to throw the baby out with the bath water with the reforms here, because as Senator Jordan Steele-John, the Greens senator, who is disabled himself, is accusing the government of disguising funding cuts to individual participant packages under the pretext of an anti-fraud crackdown. Both things can be true at once, can't they?

Melissa McIntosh 

I agree, both can be true, but this particular piece of legislation does very little to deal with the fraud. I think tightening up the registration process is good, because that was out of control. Anyone could be an NDIS provider, you don't even need a first aid certificate or a working with vulnerable people check. None of that was going on, but it is true in that people are getting their plans cut already before this legislation has been put into practice, so we just have to be really cautious, and that's why transparency is going to be really important here, and the Government is not great at transparency, even though it claims to be. And one key element of a transparency question is around the sweeping powers that the Minister is granting to himself, and then around what that will mean, but one of the things he can do is cut plans with the powers that he will have.

Stephen Cenatiempo 

Maybe we could get Comcars to ferry all these disabled people around, they seem to be using those willy nilly at the moment. The biggest concern that a lot of the peak bodies have here, like Disability Australia and Inclusion Australia, is the rushed consultation. They've only had seven days to put their submissions together and to read through the materials.

Melissa McIntosh 

Yeah, and even with those seven days, the government has received over 4000 submissions to this particular inquiry, yet today we've got that inquiry starting, and only 437 at last count were published publicly on the website, so there's a big scramble to even get the submissions up online, because that's a clear example of people being hoodwinked a bit by the Government on these changes, and you have to, and I think you do this as well, is around that balance around being compassionate towards people, and the reason why this thing was set up. Yet, let's make sure with our cuts, that they're happening in the right place, and it does reduce the spending, it's not just cuts to people's plans who really need the Scheme.

Stephen Cenatiempo 

My argument here has always been this, is that nobody, and when I say nobody, I mean I'm sure there's heartless people out there that don't care, but I can't imagine there's too many Australians that actually begrudge our most profoundly disabled people getting the support they need, but and I've said this to you before, to me, it's like the wedding industry, you know, you book a venue at $100 a head, but then you tell them it's a wedding and it goes up to $200 a head. Surely, a scale of fees is a simple way to fix that in the NDIS, to say that if you need a wheelchair, it costs this, if you need a, you know, a walking stick, it costs this, if you need a person to come in and do whatever service it is in your home, this is what it costs, but that doesn't seem to be what's happening.

Melissa McIntosh 

No, and once again, this legislation is not really addressing the pricing structures. I think at best it's putting it into a panel where there's going to be less providers and more scrutiny over the providers, but it's not really addressing what you're saying there, the overcharge, which we hear so much about. People will even contact me and say, "I've asked for a cleaner, and they quadrupled the price, when I said I'll use my NDIS plan." So that should be, that and the $5 billion in misuse and fraud should be really top of the list, but then we've got this social and community sport element of it, which probably gets tied up a bit in the misuse, because we heard all about the, you know, the holidays and the surfing lessons being used, whereas it really should be about enabling people to maintain social contact with the world and not be going back to the dark days of people not being  able to leave their home. So I think that's where we have to be careful. That's where people are saying that they're really concerned about losing that social community connection to society, basically.

Stephen Cenatiempo 

So, Melissa, why is this inquiry taking place today, particularly given that the Senate has risen for two weeks, and shouldn't we have done this last week while estimates were sitting?

Melissa McIntosh 

Well, with the Government's choosing around the timing, unfortunately, we don't have the numbers in the Senate, we've done a big push to get this done, but yeah, they did have the Senate estimates, which is a different purpose, and this is an inquiry particularly set up for the purpose of scrutinising the legislation, and the Government has a timeline, they want to get the reporting done by mid this month for them to be able to have the legislation go through the Senate, and then it can start. You know, the Government's arguing any delays means less savings in the budget, and according to reports, they've already spent all the savings on other measures.

Stephen Cenatiempo 

Well, and I'm still disputing whether there's actually any saving there, it's been shifted to the states, but who actually is sitting on this inquiry?

Melissa McIntosh 

We have a couple of senators, so it's purely senators and it's a mix. It's the Community Affairs Senate Committee, and there's a mix of senators from the Greens, from the Government, cross bench, and the Liberal Party, and the Coalition. So the numbers, though, definitely do sit with the Government on this. Any findings that come out of this inquiry, if we want an extension, it would require more than just the Coalition.

Stephen Cenatiempo 

Correct me if I'm wrong. Any of the senators on the inquiry can put forward a dissenting voice if indeed this is railroaded in the in the Government's direction, can't they?

Melissa McIntosh 

Yeah, that's correct. It's just whether the Government does anything about it. If they've got the numbers in the Senate or an inquiry in the committee, which they do, then there's very little that can be done, and the changes need to be made when the Bill goes back through the Senate itself, and any amendments occurring then.

Stephen Cenatiempo 

And in the meantime, some of our most vulnerable Australians are left in limbo. Melissa, good to talk to you this morning. I appreciate your time.

Melissa McIntosh 

Pleasure. Thank you.