Sky News with Kieran Gilbert - 21 April 2026

Melissa McIntosh MP

Federal Member for Lindsay 

Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services

Shadow Minister for the NDIS

Shadow Minister for Women

21 April 2026

Transcript 

Sky News with Kieran Gilbert

Topics: NDIS overhaul

E&EO … 

Kieran Gilbert

Welcome back to the program. Let’s go live to the Shadow Minister for the NDIS, Melissa McIntosh. Melissa, thanks for your time. Were expecting a major overhaul to be announced tomorrow by the Minister Mark Butler, is the Opposition going to be constructive around this knowing that the program is growing at an unsustainable rate?

Melissa McIntosh

Thanks Kieran. We are expecting a big announcement by the Minister, whether that eventuates or not we will just have to wait and see what the government’s been doing over this last couple of weeks, floating ideas in the media and that’s been causing an extreme amount of anxiety amongst people who do have disabilities and we’ve got to remember why this was set up in the first place for our most vulnerable Australians. It’s been overtaken by rorting, a system that is out of control. The Coalition certainly supports what can be done in reducing the expenditure, the out of control budget, strengthening the scheme, but right now there’s not even any quality outcomes that are measured. What constitutes sustainability in a scheme that’s completely subjective? So, yes, work needs to be done, yes the out of control expenditure needs to be reigned in and reduced, but we also have to have a laser sharp focus on ensuring that what was once had vulnerable people at it’s heart now has corruption at it’s core and that needs to be a focus of the government.

Kieran Gilbert

What’s been the feedback you’ve been receiving from those on the scheme?

Melissa McIntosh

People are feeling really, they’re already really vulnerable and anxious. My office has been flooded with correspondence from not only my own community but right across the country and hearing stories, first and foremost they’re saying that’s great get rid of the rorting but right now my plans have been cut and they’ve been cut by the government with no consultation. One woman, and thankfully my office jumped onto this and it’s been resolved, but a woman that had her prosthetic leg gaffer taped to her because she couldn’t get the NDIS to agree to funding and it took us going through the media for something to be done about it. A blind man who can’t get a ramp funded, all these sorts of things are going on and at the other end is the mass rorting and the out of control expenditure. So, the scheme itself, and I think there is public sentiment now to support this, needs a complete overhaul, almost like a redesign that outcomes that can be measured, put quality right at the centre of it, and ensure that those people, those 94% of people that aren’t registered, there are some controls in place because these people are looking after our most vulnerable and there’s no checks and balances.

Kieran Gilbert

Indeed, so how do you go from a situation which is clearly mired by so many problems and that corruption that you spoke about, to a more registered, cohesive program? Because the idea that you could have such a large majority of providers unregistered is incredible.

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, that’s right and they don’t even need to have a working with vulnerable people check so its not only the registration process, it’s around the quality of care and the quality of outcomes. So, what is success within the program? A person gets a certain amount of activities over a number of years, they get their plan reassessed, has that improved their quality of life? Has that enabled them to be more connected to a community, which many people want. There’s just no measurement of outcomes and this is why this keeps rolling over and rolling over, there’s a lot of churns. So, yes registration but having the foundations of ensuring that their people that are in there doing this work are doing the right thing by the people that should be being looked after.

Kieran Gilbert

And get it back to that original intent of the program and we’ll be watching closely tomorrow, Mark Butler. Melissa McIntosh thankyou for that, we’ll talk to you soon.