ABC Hobart Breakfast with Ryk Goddard - 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

ABC Hobart Breakfast with Ryk Goddard

Topics: NDIS Senate inquiry, One Nation polling

E&EO

Ryk Goddard 

Melissa McIntosh is Opposition spokesperson for the NDIS. Melissa, good morning.

Melissa McIntosh 

Good morning.

Ryk Goddard 

Is this the problem in the system, that providers are overcharging and it needs to be better audited rather than cut?

Melissa McIntosh 

The NDIS is, no doubt, out of control, for spending $50 billion a year, and part of that is what people say is a wedding tax. So, you call up and say you want a cleaner, and they charge one price, and they go, okay, I'll use my NDIS plan, and then it quadruples, and that is out of control. But the question is whether this legislation is going to address that, and one of the big issues I think in the system is the fraud, the rorting, you know, in the criminals that have infiltrated the NDIS, and the Government has framed this whole reform of the NDIS around fraud, yet there's not much in it to tackle fraud and to bring the blowouts to do with fraud under control, which is about $5 billion a year.

Ryk Goddard 

As a Coalition spokesperson, I imagine, though, that you would welcome the government's efforts to be fiscally responsible and to contain spending.

Melissa McIntosh 

Yeah, I think I'd like to frame myself as compassionate. I think someone that's compassionate and has values of being conservative as well. The issues that I have is that there's been very little consultation with the disability community. Mark Butler announced this a couple of weeks ago, and they're consulting after the fact. My questions are around whether they can achieve their growth target of 2% when they haven't achieved bringing down their growth targets to 8% and 5% and whether the participants that are at the heart of this Scheme, those with profound disability, are going to be protected with all of these changes. And I'm getting so many inquiries through my office non-stop about their concerns, the high levels of anxiety, so yes, we do want to bring the Scheme under control. I very much support that, but not to the detriment of the people who need it most, and that's why I pushed so hard for us to have this inquiry through the Senate, so questions can be asked of the Government, and people can have the opportunity to have their say.

Ryk Goddard 

Five to 8, 936 ABC Hobart, I'm Ryk Goddard. This is Melissa McIntosh, Opposition spokesperson for the NDIS, as a committee is about to sit and give people a chance to speak back to proposed changes that the Government have put forward. They, in attempting to rein in spending, whilst they say, Melissa, that they want to tackle fraud, they've actually really focused on support for parents and people with autism and ADHD plans. Is that misguided?

Melissa McIntosh 

I don't know if it's misguided, it's just the fact that there's very little detail on how that's going to work out, and that's what's causing so much issue. I would like the Government to commit to no one coming off the NDIS until there's somewhere for them to go, otherwise they'll fall through the cracks, and we'll end up with even bigger issues. So, your point around kids with low levels autism. Well, there's meant to be this program called Thriving Kids, but I can't find a single person in the country who knows what Thriving Kids actually is, and how in practical terms it's going to work, and when you have the states not really wanting to come on board with this program, because they will have to, well, that puts question marks around, well, okay, you want all these hundreds of thousands of people off the NDIS, but where are they going to go?

Ryk Goddard 

It's an interesting challenge, I guess, for the Liberal Party to oppose cost savings. The Greens have said that they're not going to support it. One of the other aspects is extraordinary ministerial powers. For you, as Opposition spokesperson for the NDIS, that could be you having all that power. Why would you want less of it?

Melissa McIntosh 

Well, it's not about having power, or my question around power, and the government's doing this in multiple pieces of legislation, not just the NDIS right now. There's very little, even though there's a lot of information, there's very little detail on how this is going to work in the legislation. So the Ministers granted themselves power to make decisions. It's like making decisions on the run, and one of those powers, which I have concerns about, is the ability to cut people's plans, so what does this mean for people? I'm hearing right now that people's plans are getting cut with zero consultation, so that's something that I would like to be looked into deeper during this process in the Senate. If we can get to the bottom of that, so I don't - a Minister having more power does not necessarily mean that's a good thing, and questions need to be asked of the Minister.

Ryk Goddard 

What about nationalising it, so the services are provided by government, and you take out the middleman?

Melissa McIntosh 

Well, that's what you're talking about, the Coalition being fiscally responsible, but we also don't want to hand over everything to government, because we believe that there's a role for the market, and I've met some really great little businesses who do fantastic work in the NDIS and supporting participants, so that's not necessarily the answer either. My big concerns are around ensuring that people don't fall through the cracks and that people with profound disability are looked after.

Ryk Goddard 

Couple of minutes to eight. News stops for no one. Melissa McIntosh, Opposition spokesperson for the NDIS, as this committee prepares to sit to get your feedback and you can have your say. Finally, we're hearing today stories in the media about women flocking to One Nation, Pauline Hanson being their voice. The wealthy ladies of Noosa, one article said, love her. Do you think that she is taking support from the Liberal Party and from conservative women? And how do you win it back?

Melissa McIntosh 

Well, I'm certainly not a wealthy lady from Noosa, my seat's in Western Sydney. But the point to that is that people are feeling like she's speaking for them. I'm very much a community MP. I think all members of Parliament need to get back to their local people. It doesn't matter how far up the chain you go, they're the ones that vote you in and their voices need to be heard, so I think first and foremost it's around being a community MP, and that's what I'm certainly focused on. There's a lot of noise out there at the moment, but we also can't dismiss how people feel, and it's clear this is across the board, because you can see it in the polls.

Ryk Goddard 

Great to speak with you this morning.

Melissa McIntosh 

Thank you.