ABC Melbourne Radio Drive with Ali Moore - 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 Melbourne Radio – Drive with Ali Moore

Topics: NDIS changes

E&EO …

Ali Moore

Melissa McIntosh is The Shadow Minister for the NDIS. Melissa McIntosh, welcome.

Melissa McIntosh

Thank you.

Ali Moore

Is the government doing the right thing?

Melissa McIntosh

Your caller prior to me, seems to know a lot more about the ins and outs than all of us at the other end of the announcement today. The Government certainly needs to focus on reining in the spending within the NDIS, and it is at $50 billion a year and growing. But what was announced today was, it felt like, and I know this because people are calling my office, a direct attack on participant as opposed to the scheme itself and the rorting that's going on in the scheme. 760,000 participants having to go through a reassessment? I know that….

Ali Moore

Can I just, can we stop there? What, why do you – on what grounds do you say that 760,000 people are going to have to be reassessed?

Melissa McIntosh

Because the Minister himself, when he was asked a question at the Press Club today by the media that will everyone on the NDIS have to be a reassessed, his answer was clearly yes.

Ali Moore

But isn't it the way that he explained it, and indeed, when we spoke to the Minister for the NDIS earlier, Jenny McAllister, she said a decision hasn't been made, but the way I thought he'd explained it was that new people coming in, once that standardised, evidence based assessment tool had been finalised, new people coming in would be subjected to that and then other people would once their plan expired and they were doing a new plan, they would be subjected to that. I mean, if you had to go through and reassess immediately, everyone in the NDIS that would not be sustainable, would it?

Melissa McIntosh

Well, he might have to come out and clarify what he actually means, because in his big press club address today to the nation about the future of the NDIS, it was very clear that he is saying that everyone on the NDIS is going to have to go through a reassessment. And this is this has caused mass anxiety. A woman has contacted me who has prosthetic legs, and she's saying, well, now I have to go and prove once again, and I've had to do this multiple times, that my legs are not going to grow back, I am in fact in need of prosthetic legs because I have no legs. So, this is an actual serious part of the Minister's announcement today when he went and he launched straight in. Straight into the participants of the NDIS, but he didn't explain about any of the other features the NDIS that he will be targeting in detail to get to that two per cent growth target.

Ali Moore

So, what would you, what would you do differently?

Melissa McIntosh

I certainly wouldn't have launched my first big press club speech about the future of the NDIS with participants as the target. The Coalition is very willing to work with the Government. We have said this all along, but we've had no consultation and we're about to get hit with new legislation as we go into budget week, and will be expected to work with the Government to pass this legislation. We know there is mass rorting, $5 billion a year through the NDIS for you know bad actors I suppose, and criminal activity. At least 20 convicted criminals have been barred from working in the sector and we want those criminals out of the NDIS. There’s no details around the focus….

Ali Moore

So, the system, the details. The registration system, though, I mean beefing that up, which they have announced today. Will that go some way do you think to addressing that concern?

Melissa McIntosh

There's again, very little detail from the Minister's announcement around registration. Of course, 94% of providers right now are unregistered, and it has allowed the NDIS to get out of control, and sadly, some of that has resulted in abuse of participants, and at the other end of the scale, it has resulted in the rorting of taxpayers money. There's more too that the Government could be looking at, the fact that they're fighting participants at the Administrative Review Tribunal and losing cases 75% of the time and spending $60 million a year is another way that they could look at it. My big concern is that they have promised this reduction in growth of eight per cent, then five per cent, and now two per cent, yet they haven't even achieved the eight per cent reduction yet. So how are they, where is the confidence that they are actually going to get there? And the concern is that they are doing this and targeting participants to cover the big budget black hole that they've got coming down the track at full force.

Ali Moore

Melissa McIntosh, the Minister Mark Butler, was clear today that he wants this legislation passed by the middle of the year. What's the sort of approach that the Coalition will take? Will you pass it? Will you look to make significant changes? I mean, you've acknowledged that there is a real imperative here.

Melissa McIntosh

I think the Minister's been pretty disrespectful so far in the way that he's treated the Coalition on this, and disrespectful to participants, because all of this has come, as you know, and your listeners, without any consultation. Worse that it's without consultation of the disability community, but also bad that he hasn't consulted the Opposition, yet he wants us on board to pass this legislation. So, we're sitting here a couple of weeks out of budget. It's complex legislation, I'm assuming, and he'll want our support to get that through Parliament. So, show the Coalition some respect, perhaps and get us a draft. We'll look at it, and we'll be willing to work through that draft to do the best thing for taxpayers and the best thing for participants. But I can't guarantee that we're just going to sign off on something willy nilly just because Mark Butler wants us to. I'd like him to show some respect for us, and we'll work with him.

Ali Moore

Melissa McIntosh, thanks for joining drive.

Melissa McIntosh

Thank you.