ABC Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas - 22 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

22 April 2026

Transcript

ABC Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas

Topics: NDIS changes

E&EO …

Patricia Karvelas

For the opposition's view on these changes to the NDIS, let's bring in the Shadow NDIS spokesperson, Melissa McIntosh. Welcome to the program.

Melissa McIntosh

Thank you.

Patricia Karvelas

This is a big change to the NDIS that really pulls back its growth to just two per cent. Given your side of politics has been so critical of government spending, isn't it the right approach?

Melissa McIntosh

It's a decent question. I just want to reflect on Bill's commentary then. It seems like being out of politics has completely changed, or perhaps warped his perspective, because you'll remember how much he attacked the Coalition when he was in opposition, around the way participants were perceived to be treated. And this is going leading into my point, yes, it's all well and good to want to reduce the spending of the NDIS. I think everyone agrees that $50 billion a year in growing is too much, but what a shock today. My heart was breaking listening to that news, because I'm hearing from these very people that will be impacted, people with the most profound - and I will also take a note here that you had a discussion with the Minister for the NDIS, Jenny McAllister, and she couldn't really define what profound or severe would be. So that, in itself, raises alarms about where we're going to head with this, but people with severe disability will be severely impacted. I have a woman who's contacted me, who I think I may have even mentioned her before, who's missing legs, and she's had to confirm the fact that she has no legs many times, means that she needs prosthetics. Does she need to go back and get reassessed and go through that trauma again to let the assessors know that she still does not have any legs, they didn't grow back?

Patricia Karvelas

Well, there's a lot of reassessments that will happen, because they will all be reassessed. Are you opposed to people being reassessed?

Melissa McIntosh

760 odd thousand. Well, Mark Butler said today, and Bill Shorten said he didn't see that, which is really curious. He actually said today every single participant on the NDIS needs to be reassessed. So, does that mean somebody that's on a breathing tube or has needs to have a feeding tube? I think that's pretty unfair, if that's the way we're going here. But the big concern is that the way the Government's going about it, which is the biggest surprise, is that they're not, there’s no information around targeting the rorting and the criminal activity in the NDIS, how they're going to deal with that. No talk about the over pricing that's going on for services and products but just focusing on participants. So, it's very vulnerable Australians that this scheme was set up in the first place to protect, and I know this is causing mass anxiety, because the phones in my office have not stopped ringing since Mark Butler's announcement today.

Patricia Karvelas

Well, ultimately, if the Government wants to get this through the parliament. They say they want to introduce this legislation. They'll need you, because the Greens don't sound at all open to supporting this. Are you willing to help the government get these changes through?

Melissa McIntosh

Well, they're not acting like we are someone they need right now. We've had zero consultation on this, and I've said many times, and Angus Taylor has as well, that we are willing to work with the government, but, you know, willing to work with the government in the right way. Shoving legislation through the parliament in budget week, which is a couple of weeks time, and we know this is very complex legislation, isn't really the way you go about changing things for the better and working with the Opposition. So that, in itself, is pretty disrespectful behaviour on behalf of the Government. But more disrespectful is the attitude towards people with severe disability. Yes, we do want to reduce the spending in the NDIS, but the government itself has had, what, three different positions now? They said that they're going to reduce the growth by eight per cent, by five per cent and now two per cent yet they haven't achieved reducing it by their initial claim of eight per cent yet, so high scepticism about the ability.

Patricia Karvelas

But now they want to get a lot more dramatic to get it to two per cent. Broadly do you think two per cent growth is too low?

Melissa McIntosh

Well, it's always a bit of a surprise. it's not the question of too low I don't think, ultimately bringing down the cost. But how are you without the detail PK, how are you going to get there? And all I'm seeing right now is the targeting of participants. So, if we have these hundred, potentially hundreds of thousands of people coming off the NDIS, where are they going to go? Right now, you rightly asked the question around whether the states are willing, in reality, to pick up some of these people and provide the services and there doesn't seem to be a strong indication that they are. I'm super concerned about the psychosocial services for those people with severe mental health issues, because even today, Mark Butler said, well it's not going to be about the whole cohort. We're not going to treat it just about psychosocial or just about autism - It is a level of disability. So, how do you measure that? How do some people get captured by the NDIS who need psychosocial support, and others captured by perhaps a state scheme? And what happens with our hospital system? It's really, I'm so sceptical. I want it to work because we need to bring down the spending, but I don't see, you know, the government's plan…

Patricia Karvelas

So you're not going to help them rush it through. Is it your view that you shouldn't help them rush it through?

Melissa McIntosh

Well, that's a bit of a tough question right now, because I’ve not seen any detail. I have not received a call from Mark Butler or Jenny McAllister to say we've got some draft legislation we'd like you to have a look at. I don't think it's very reasonable to put that under our noses a day before they want us to put it through Parliament. But who knows, with this government. They've got the control of the House, they could be doing anything they like right now, but I think it'd be more reasonable for them, because we do genuinely want to have a better NDIS quality, return to the systems our most profound, I'll say it people with disabilities looked after and rorting and corruption, and all the criminality ripped out of it.

Patricia Karvelas

Thank you so much for joining us.

Melissa McIntosh

Thank you.

• ENDS