Sky News First Edition with Jaynie Seal - 12 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

12 June 2026

Transcript

Sky News First Edition with Jaynie Seal

Topics: NDIS Senate inquiry

E&EO

Jaynie Seal 

Joining us live is the Shadow NDIS Minister, Melissa McIntosh. Good morning to you, Melissa. So, as we just heard, more than 4000 submissions, barely any support of that Bill, but hearing from Angus Taylor there, more needs to be done. What is your government saying that needs to be done? Tell us what your recommendations are.

Melissa McIntosh 

Thanks, Janie. I have been fighting for this inquiry and I am so glad that it got up, even though it was only three days, and the states put a real spanner in the works yesterday for this Government, saying that they do not have anything in place to catch the people that will be falling off the NDIS, and through that inquiry we heard that there will be around 351,000, so more than 350,000 NDIS participants that will no longer be eligible. That is a lot of Australians, so the Minister needs to be listening to what we heard. I'm listening to all those harrowing stories of people scared that they will have people die if they're pushed off the scheme under this legislation. So I think we need to come together in a bipartisan way, even a tri-partisan way, because the Greens are really interested in this as well, and try to work through some amendments to ensure that people that get pushed off the scheme don't fall through the cracks, that we do not have deaths, because we have a moral obligation to Australians, and we focus on putting people first. This is not just about line items in a budget, so the Minister needs to own up to maybe a not very good piece of legislation and guarantee that he'll work with the Coalition on something better.

Jaynie Seal 

They sound pretty adamant that they want to get that passed through before the winter break, but can you give us an example of what you might like to see changed here?

Melissa McIntosh 

Yeah, one of the big concerns, particularly amongst those who appeared over the last three days at the inquiry, is around the social and community supports, and this is where there's a whole lot of things lumped together in one piece of the legislation that could go from the way people get cared for in their homes to how they even get to work., We heard from people who are representing the Down syndrome community that they use their community and social supports to get to their employment and then to be having some support whilst they're in their employment, so these are people that are trying to participate in in life, in society, being actively engaged in employment. Taking those supports away, means they will no longer be able to do that, so that's one piece of it. The other is that the Minister has granted himself a huge amount of power, the power to cut people's plans without notice, and that's not on either. The Minister himself should not have that much power. So we would like to revisit these things in the legislation to see if we can fix them up, because this is basically about the Government trying to make savings in their terrible budget, so rather than putting people first, they put their bottom line first, and the outcome of that is not going to be in the best interests of Australians that need the NDIS.

Jaynie Seal 

And I spoke to quite a few people yesterday, Melissa, from the disability sector, and the general consensus was that they are aware that funds need to be cut. They're not disputing that, but it is the case that it is being rushed, and there was that lack of consultation, and echoing what you have said as well, from Sam Bennett, the Disability Program Director of the Grattan Institute. He came out a couple of days ago saying that this power is sweeping, and it would allow any future minister to cut supports from people essentially on a whim. That's what you're saying as well, but the Albanese Government is putting that in. How concerning is this, potentially, if that does go through?

Melissa McIntosh 

Well, it's really concerning. We're hearing now that people's plans are being cut without any notice, almost in anticipation of what's to come, and we're not talking about people with mild disability. These are people with profound disability, and that's what's concerning people. And the big concerns I have now, and the revelations from the states yesterday, is that we expected this was around 160,000 people. This is basically what the Minister was saying in his Press Club speech, and it was mild level of autism, and there'd be this Thriving Kids program that the states are already saying they don't support, and they don't have anything in place for, but now we're hearing it's 350,000 plus people, so what forms of disabilities, in addition to mild levels of autism, are going to be pushed off the NDIS, and what's going to catch them on the other side? Right now, there is nothing catching them on the other side. And when the Minister has the powers to cut plans and push people off without anything there, well, certainly, this is why people are concerned that people will actually die, and we can't have that morally. We cannot let this go through as it is.

Jaynie Seal 

And heads of disability organisations also coming out saying that, you know, the Thriving Kids program is sort of not set in stone as much as what they want in terms of if this does get passed and they don't have that fallback for other people in these vulnerable situations. It's certainly an ongoing one. And yeah, thank you so much. We've got to wrap it up, but we are going to certainly see the outcome over the next few days, certainly from the Senate inquiry. Melissa McIntosh, thank you so much.