ABC Afternoon Briefing - 19 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

19 June 2026

Transcript

ABC Afternoon Briefing

Topics: Bird flu, Senate NDIS report delay, Pauline Hanson NPC speech

E&EO

Patricia Karvelas 

And the NDIS parliamentary report has been delayed again. I'm joined this afternoon by Melissa McIntosh, who's the Shadow Minister for the NDIS. Welcome to the program.

Melissa McIntosh 

Thank you.

Patricia Karvelas 

I have to ask you, before we talk about the NDIS, about this suspected case of bird flu found in WA. The Federal Government has said and confirmed that that's the case. The CSIRO will now test and we'll find out tomorrow if it's confirmed. How concerned are you by this development?

Melissa McIntosh 

Well, this is reported to be a very deadly case of bird flu in this bird. I saw a bit of the Minister's press conference, so the Coalition is concerned about this, particularly for our agricultural industry, and we have asked the Government for a briefing. Right now, we hear it is in just one bird, but if this is going to be more widespread, of course, that's going to be cause for alarm across the country. So, it's a bit of a wait and see thing right now, but a very worrying development, that's for sure.

Patricia Karvelas 

Yeah, especially in regional areas, of course, we're so - for all bird life in Australia, but for the consequences, potentially to industry, we are going to keep watching it. I want to move to the NDIS inquiry. You have, of course, been very close to this. This is delayed again now. What's the chances that this legislation will pass in the next fortnight of the Parliament?

Melissa McIntosh 

Well, I pushed hard for this inquiry, and the Greens seem to take ownership over caring for people, but what they're doing right now is just carrying on with the Labor Party, and the people that will be suffering are the people that they claim to represent, the people with disabilities. So, no one knew that this report would be delayed. We had an inquiry; it was over three days. The report was meant to be handed down from this inquiry on Tuesday, it was delayed by the government until today. We were all waiting for 1:30 in the afternoon, and I'm sure the disability community across Australia was waiting. It got to that time, and we heard that the government delayed it again. And the thing is, my phone's been ringing off the hook in my office, because people are now really concerned about what's going on. They didn't find out about it. The disability community, everyday Australians who rely on the NDIS, until they heard about it in the media, and that's just not right. So, there's obviously some politics and playing games behind the scenes between the Greens and Labor, but it is really quite distasteful that Labor and the Greens are doing this, and it seems like the Greens are doing it because they want big corporations to pay more tax, but yet they're happy to trade off the NDIS.

Patricia Karvelas 

So, what's the current view that you have, and the wider Opposition? Do you think now that there should be a longer NDIS inquiry?

Melissa McIntosh 

The Coalition put an inquiry of six months on the table a while back now, and I would be very pleased for there to be a six-month inquiry, absolutely. We heard those devastating stories at the inquiry where participants with profound disability said they were scared people were going to die, and that's certainly not a message that I'm closing my ears off to. I'm really worried about that, and the other part of this, and I've said this for a long time - this particular Bill does not do anything to address the fraud and the rorting, the corruption, all the things that Australians are fed up with within the NDIS, and the over-bloated bureaucracy of the NDIS. It seems to be that the Government's just going after participants first and foremost, but not cleaning up the system. And we heard the Minister declare that the states are not playing ball right now, and around 300,000 Australians are going to be pushed off the NDIS, and where are they going to go? So, absolutely, we should have a longer inquiry to get to the bottom of this. This is the biggest reform to such an important scheme. We want the expenditure to be reduced, it is out of control, but right now all we're hearing is that it's the participants that are at the other end of the cuts.

Patricia Karvelas 

So, you think it's okay to delay till the end of the year before any of the sort of pulling back of some of the spending even starts happening?

Melissa McIntosh 

Well, this spending is on Labor's head, on the Minister's head. So it seems that - it was reported that the Government's already spent its savings from the NDIS, and that's why it's in such a rush to push this through the Parliament. Why would it be so bad to have a six-month inquiry to get this right, to make sure the rampant fraud is addressed, the over-bloated bureaucracy is addressed, and the overcharging that we hear about? There's so much that could be done within the scheme, within the structural parts of the scheme to reduce the expenditure without having to hurt Australians that rely on the NDIS so much for their lives. We're not just talking about mild disabilities, we're talking about people with really profound disabilities, and they're scared right now, and the fact that the Government and the Greens are playing games and extending a report, not dropping a report when they were all waiting for it, they were promised they would get it. Well, what's going on behind the scenes with the Greens and the Labor Party? That's the big question now. Why are they playing politics with people's lives?

Patricia Karvelas 

So, just to be clear, are the Greens negotiating with you anymore? I mean, it's been reported that that's likely to be dead about, you know, doing a deal that they, you support a longer NDIS inquiry, they support a longer tax inquiry. Is that now gone?

Melissa McIntosh 

Well, I tried to stay out of that sort of aspect of it and focus foremost on this particular Bill and getting it right for Australia and Australian tax payers, but it's very clear that the Greens are just doing deals with Labor and Labor wants their vote, and the Greens are happy to negotiate on the NDIS to get something they want out of the tax bills. So, it's up to the Government and the Greens to come clean with the Australian people about what's going on right now, and why the Greens are happy to delay this very important report. That's what I was saying all along. We should be, you know, making our decisions based on what comes out of the inquiry, yet nobody knows what that report is going to say, because the Government won't release it.

Patricia Karvelas 

Okay, I just want to change the topic. You know this week, of course, that Pauline Hanson addressed the National Press Club and made lots of different comments, including that Australia should be monocultural. Your seat of Lindsay has kind of got lots of diverse elements. Do you think we should be monocultural?

Melissa McIntosh 

I love my community. I've got some beautiful different cultures, and I go to various cultural events, and I wouldn't like to see our country change in that way. And I think when those words are used, it actually scares Australians more than benefits Australians, and I've certainly been reassuring my community that that's not my view. I think everything gets muddled up when we start going down this track. Of course, I've long held the view that the immigration rates are way too high. My community bears the brunt of that when it comes to pressures on infrastructure, schools, housing, all those sorts of things, but it should never be about race, and I absolutely think having different cultures is part of the beautiful fabric of this country.

Patricia Karvelas 

Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon.

Melissa McIntosh 

Thank you.