2CC with Stephen Cenatiempo - 4 March 2026

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

4 March 2026

Transcript

2CC with Stephen Cenatiempo

Topics: New Shadow Ministry Portfolio; NDIS; ISIS cohort; Liberal Party election review

E&EO …

Stephen Cenatiempo

Last time we spoke to Melissa McIntosh, she was the Shadow Minister for Communications, she joins us this morning as Shadow Minister for the NDIS and Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services. Melissa, good morning.

Melissa McIntosh

Good morning.

Stephen Cenatiempo

Let's talk about your new portfolios. You and I have discussed in the past that you've got a son with Type 1 diabetes. So, whilst it's not a disability I guess you have an understanding of having to deal with governments on complex issues. Does that give you a little bit of a leg up when it comes to the NDIS?

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, I feel it would. Even last night I got woken up at 2am by Byron's alarms going off back home because he had a sugar low down to two and as you know, we've discussed before, if you get really low, often overnight, it can kill you. So, I'm always switched on to that. Prior to politics, I worked in a community housing organisation where people were experiencing homelessness and Centrelink and the NDIS are the two biggest issues coming through my electorate office in Penrith in Western Sydney. So, I think it's a good fit for me. It's very big. It's a huge responsibility. We've got over 7 million families in Australia and around a quarter of Australians have some contact with the social services system and more than 800,000 Australians are supported through the NDIS.

Stephen Cenatiempo

Is it fit for purpose? Because, I mean, the exponential growth of the NDIS and the cost of it is extraordinary. Initially, it was designed to service the most profoundly disabled members of our community. It has now been expanded up way before that. How do you come up with an alternate policy here? I mean, this is a political minefield, but also an economic one.

Melissa McIntosh

You're right and it's a delicate balance as well and I always fear when we start talking about rorts in the system, that they're real people out there and that hurts them because they do need it, the NDIS is important. It's there to support people with a disability to live with dignity and independently but it has to be sustainable. We know that it's increasing beyond what was ever imagined with the establishment of the NDIS and with the government's current plan to pull back funding, I'm finding through my office, the biggest issue with the NDIS is people with severe disability are having their plans cut. So, we want to make sure, and I personally do that, of course, we do need to bring that growth down but it needs to be brought down in the right way. We're still hearing these stories around, I want a different word than rorts but I guess that's what it is, a constituent called the other day and said they needed to have a cleaner come, they were quoted $40 an hour and when they said, great, I'll put it on my NDIS plan, the contractor for the cleaner said that's going to be $140. So that's just out of control.

Stephen Cenatiempo

So, if Families and Social Services obviously tie into this as well, I mean, we're talking about effectively similar departments here. Again, one of the biggest costs to government and given how the budget is at the moment, you're going to be charged with coming up with a policy that is actually is somehow going to have to save us some money.

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, the easy job, right?

Stephen Cenatiempo

Yeah, exactly.

Melissa McIntosh

We're putting a bit of a different lens on this portfolio and I am in particular. It doesn't always have Families before it, but families are the foundation of our country's future and right now people are working so hard to get ahead and they're not getting anywhere and we're seeing double income families lining up at food banks. So I'm going to be looking at the priorities of Australian families, a tax and payment system that reflects how people do live today where you've got families who have to work, organise their care and work around their lives but the tax system doesn't support them. So, two households earning the same combined income could pay very different amounts of tax simply because one parent works and the other parent doesn't. So, we're treating families like individuals and that's something I really want to look at and then there's childcare and we know that we need to have more choice in childcare. Not everyone can just drop their kid off at a childcare centre, go to work and come home at a reasonable hour. So, we need more choice and flexibility and then we need more jobs close to home and we need housing that gives families a foundation. So, moving it away, like lifting it up just above the social services system, it's time that we put families back, core, front and centre of our nation.

Stephen Cenatiempo

Let's talk about the politics of this week. This is the first sitting week with Angus Taylor as leader; there seems to be a renewed sense of purpose in the Coalition. David Littleproud and Angus Taylor moving in the one direction and there's plenty to hold this government to account on. Do you feel like you're landing a few more punches than you have been in the last nine or 10 months.

Melissa McIntosh

It's certainly been a difficult time for us, and we've been talking about ourselves so much and people are getting cranky at us for doing so. So, this week, and since Angus took the leadership, we have had focus and we know we need to. We're bleeding votes to One Nation, people are angry at the two major parties and they're suffering in their lives and no one seems to be listening to them. So, it's time for us to focus on our jobs and the reasons why we're here and certainly this week, I feel like it's been a good start for us.

Stephen Cenatiempo

There's been a fairly significant focus on the repatriation of these ISIS affiliates. The government, it would appear, is providing material support to these people. In the backdrop of that or subsequent to that, we now have the war in Iran. Do you think that's put a different complexion on this?

Melissa McIntosh

Absolutely. There's no bigger priority of a government than protecting your citizens and cost of living and the way people are feeling is always number one. But fundamentally we need to make sure people are safe and Australians, I'm sure, don't like the thought of the government supporting these ISIS sympathisers or the fluffy term ISIS brides, because there's nothing fluffy about them. And we're trying to put pressure on the government because Tony Burke's still insisting that he's got nothing to do with it, but we know that he's had those meetings with Save the Children, so he's still not being transparent with the Australian people. I don't want these people on behalf of my community coming to Western Sydney. I asked the Prime Minister in Question Time yesterday, will they be in his electorate or like always, will they be put in places like mine in Western Sydney? And they couldn't answer that. So, there's a lot going on in the world, but first and foremost, we do make to hold the government to account on protecting Australians.

Stephen Cenatiempo

Well, it's interesting because I know your electorate fairly well and I know the neighbouring electorates from my days back in my misspent youth, I guess you'd say, and there are significant communities in those electorates that would be horrified that people associated with ISIS would be living amongst them. Because we're talking about people that escaped from ISIS.

Melissa McIntosh

Absolutely and they left our country on their own free will to a war zone with terrorists. They made this decision and the fact that one of them is now being prevented on a suspension order of coming back in, there's questions around why the others are still potentially able to come and Australians just don't want that here. You need to have our values, you need to live our values. We have so much fragmentation in our social cohesion right now, particularly since Bondi, people need to know that the government's looking after them and the fact that this keeps going on and on and Tony Burke in particular can't answer questions, means that they're not being transparent.

Stephen Cenatiempo

It goes one step further than that. Now we've seen these abhorrent memorials that are being held for the former Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which Chris Minns quite rightly has described as monstrous and atrocious. The Coalition has called for criminal charges to be laid, as has the Executive Council of Australian Jury. The Prime Minister, all he could seem to muster was that it's inappropriate. But we now see that there was a $670,000 government grant paid to one of these organisations that has been running these memorials.

Melissa McIntosh

That's right. It seems to have been an election commitment, and we questioned the government on this yesterday. First it was a question to the Treasurer, and he couldn't answer whether that funding had gone to this organisation that was pretty much, they were mourning the death and they were cheering this leader on. So, there's nothing Australian, Australian values about that and then the Minister, Ann Aly was questioned and she couldn't answer really as to what was going on with that funding. But I think there would be expectation among Australians because you've got to remember this is taxpayers’ money first and foremost is that money would not go to organisations like this and the government should have been all over that before we put the pressure on in Question Time.

Stephen Cenatiempo

The Prime Minister, and to his credit, and I've got to say I was surprised by it, Penny Wong too, coming out in support of the US and Israeli strikes on Iran, whereas most of our other partners around the world have failed to do that. Are you surprised that the government has? Because they seem to have been on the wrong side of history for the last two and a half years.

Melissa McIntosh

Well, I think the government needed to do that. The Iranian regime, no friends to Australia and no freedom loving person you know would be shedding tears over the death of Ayatollah. But I guess Australians might have questioned whether the Prime Minister would have jumped on it so quick based on past experience. So, we can't fault them in that. We stand by our US friends, we always have in these times, and I think it's an important time right now to do so.

Stephen Cenatiempo

Now, I want to touch on one last thing before I let you go. There's been a lot of talk about this review into the Liberal Party's election campaign in the lead up to the last election. There's been, for some reason, a decision to suppress it and not release it. It's been leaked to every media outlet in Australia. In fact, I had it leaked to me by a member of the Labor Party so everybody's already got this. Is there any point in covering it up now?

Melissa McIntosh

Was it good bedtime reading? I don't know.

Stephen Cenatiempo

Well, I mean, it didn't tell me anything I didn't already know.

Melissa McIntosh

I think that's right. I had a quick browse of it yesterday after it was leaked to the media and we did have a really terrible campaign. That's why we're in the depths of opposition right now and I think Angus has made it clear that out of the recommendations, the party will come back and we do need to act on those recommendations to ensure that we strengthen not only our parliamentary party, but the whole party, so we're not losing members. These are volunteers that support us in election campaigns. It's really important that we do have a Liberal Party, a centre right party in this country and I think now that it's out, it's out and hopefully that will fade away and we can get on to rebuilding and holding the government to account, being a strong opposition, and then focusing on hopefully returning to government.

Stephen Cenatiempo

Melissa, good to talk to you this morning.

Melissa McIntosh

Thank you, you too.