ABC Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas - 15 April 2026

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

 

15 April 2026

 

Transcript

 

ABC Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas

 

Topics: Coalition immigration policy ; NDIS

 

E&EO …

 

Patricia Karvelas

Well, let's go to a sitting member of the Coalition, Shadow Social Services and NDIS Minister Melissa McIntosh joins me now. Welcome to the program.

 

Melissa McIntosh

Thanks, PK.

 

Patricia Karvelas

The Home Affairs Minister today said your immigration policy would leave us with fewer homes, a health system that would collapse and an aged care system that could not meet needs, given so many immigrants work in all of those sectors. It's a pretty powerful point, isn't it?

 

Melissa McIntosh

Well, I think it's going to be up to the Minister himself to explain what he means by that point because here in Western Sydney, we are struggling under the current numbers. I put a survey out into my community and 80% of people think that immigration is too high. It's having a negative effect on our hospital, I have one in my community, on our roads, on our infrastructure, on our schools. Everything is under pressure because of a high proportion of those issues around immigration.

 

Patricia Karvelas

Yeah, but we equally don't have enough workers to work in some of these key areas. So, there is a contradiction there, isn't there?

 

Melissa McIntosh

Well, it's not a contradiction. What we're talking about in this policy is having people that respect our country and our values. It's not saying, let's get rid of everyone that's a migrant. Our country is built on migration; my family, your family, most of us have a migrant story behind us of people working really hard. So that is not what this is about. It's about ensuring that the people that are here do share our values and are adhering to our values and if they're not, well they should go.

 

Patricia Karvelas

The critique today was that you are chasing votes and voters who are wanting to vote for One Nation. Is that the reason for this policy?

 

Melissa McIntosh

Well do you want me to tell you something that probably hasn't been talked about yet? And it comes under my shadow Women's portfolio. About one in five women have experienced domestic violence in the migrant cohort, and particularly amongst women who are here on temporary visas, it is one in three women - domestic violence, child brides, female genital mutilation. This is what is happening in these communities, and we are not putting up with that. Equality for men and women is one of the values that people should adhere to and must adhere to under our immigration policy. Respect for women. When one in three women in these communities is experiencing really vile forms of domestic violence, the man that is doing that should not be in this country.

 

Patricia Karvelas

But the woman should. Right?

 

Melissa McIntosh

This should not be happening in any country across the globe. But in some countries, it's more accepted and that should not be a reason to keep the men here because the woman that he may be abusing is his partner. So that is a deeper conversation but I'm talking about the values, equality for men and women. One third of migrant women are experiencing domestic violence, and these are the ones that are coming forward. We know that in these migrant communities, many women who are experiencing violence from their partner just don't come forward.

 

Patricia Karvelas

Well, that's already, I mean, some people would hear that and think, yeah, that's outrageous. Of course it is, but it's already against the law, right? I mean, that is not meant to happen whether you are migrant or not a migrant, whatever, that domestic violence is illegal in this country. Isn't that the right way to deal with it?

 

Melissa McIntosh

Of course, and you've got to be following our rule of law. So, you're breaking the law there's strike one and we're not even getting to strike three, strike two is that you don't believe in equality for men and women so, okay, you're gone. Why is this a bad thing? I don't understand how the government and the Minister that you had on previously, Anne Aly, is shaping all of this as being bad. All that we're asking for here is that people coming to our country respect our values and one of those values is equality for men and women. Right now, that is not happening.

 

Patricia Karvelas

So, is that the sort of behaviour that would be put in legislation, that you need to articulate and stick to the idea of gender equality?

 

Melissa McIntosh

Well, this is above just being about gender equality and thinking women should have a seat at the table. This is around severe abuse that's going on, and the facts speak for themselves when a third of women that are here and women that are on temporary visas are experiencing that abuse at the hands of their partner, they're breaking the law, they're not believing in equality for men and women because they're abusing their partner. So yes, absolutely.

 

Patricia Karvelas

So, many non-migrant men also abuse women, though, in this country. So, they're not adhering to Australian values either.

 

Melissa McIntosh

We know that, yes, but this is what I'm saying. We are bringing in people from other countries that do not share our values. If they're here in Australia, of course, they can be locked up, put in jail, this is part of our justice system. If they are not Australians, they're here on temporary visas and they're doing, PK, do you want to know that there's men doing this that aren't Australians and they're here living freely in our country while abusing women, genital mutilation, child brides, this is abhorrent stuff. They should not be allowed to be in our country if they're conducting this behaviour.

 

Patricia Karvelas

I want to go to your portfolio, if we can. The Prime Minister appeared to rule out means testing the NDIS this week. Do you think that might be a good way of trying to deal with the growth of the scheme?

 

Melissa McIntosh

I think the NDIS, it's now just coming to this bucket of talking about it from budget terms, and I think every time the government rules something in or out or floats an idea it's having a real negative impact on people with disabilities across the country. I know that because they've been contacting me, it’s causing a huge amount of anxiety when Mark Butler opened the door to means testing and the Prime Minister closed the door. The reality is that people who need the NDIS, the people with most severe disabilities, are getting their plans cut without any consultation so they're actually getting really hurt right now and, in the meantime, we've got this mass rorting going on. The quality in the system is totally being wiped out. The reason why it was set up in the first place, to protect vulnerable people, that is just not happening. $5 billion a year being spent on rorts, $60 million a year the government is spending, fighting people in the Administrative Review Tribunal and then they're losing the cases 75% of the time. That's a lot of money, a lot of waste in a system that should be looking after people who need it. So, it's gone beyond just tweaks to a budget to make the government reach a growth target, minimising the growth targets, way beyond that. We're now needing a whole overhaul of the NDIS. We're committed on our side to returning quality to the scheme and we're willing to work with the government to do that.

 

Patricia Karvelas

Thank you so much for joining us.

 

Melissa McIntosh

Thanks PK.