Government to cut more than 150,000 people from NDIS scheme as budget blows out
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-22/federal-politics-live-blog-ndis-aged-care-butler-fuel-iran/106590940?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link
45 Comments
“Eligibility changes will be worked through in the coming months”
Fuck me you can’t announce a planned reduction that would be based on modelling with certain assumptions (changes) and then not announce the actual changes.
Building a model means nothing, either announce the proposal or don’t announce anything you muppet.
Hopefully the cuts are directed at the middle business that are ripping off the system. But I doubt it…
Anything but targeting the abusive corrupt providers who are the real rorters
they are cutting people who receive it, aka the people who doctors have assessed as needing the support.
they are not cutting the dodgy providers who are scamming it.
They are then creating programs that do the same job, so that the exact same costs are around, but it can be pointed at that NDIS was ‘fixed’
Moey is not going to like this
Absolutely disgraceful. Instead of regulating the businesses rorting the NDIS system they’re going after the people who need it. Who decided the NDIS should be run like a for profit business?
Had to happen – this scheme is thoroughly broken and unsustainable.
That being said – I hope they go after the middlemen skimming fees and the obvious efficiency gains, and try to do this in a way that protects the disabled.
I’ve heard of several people who need funding getting their funding cut this year.
If the government truly wanted to provide help for those that needed it, they would be more proactive against businesses and individuals who are defrauding the system. They would find the funding somewhere else. They don’t give a fuck the about the vulnerable. They treat this like a business. It’s losing money? Make cuts anywhere where it’s not going to hurt the CEO or the shareholders.
Honestly, the growth just wasn’t sustainable the way it was going. Swapping medical labels for a focus on how people actually live and function is a way more practical move since it helps make sure the scheme helps people who really need it long-term.
This is part of a suite of changes that DOES also target “shonkers, rorters and lowlifes”. I haven’t read up enough about everything that is proposed but it’s not just people losing their NDIS access.
This is going to be a social disaster, and all Aussies are going to be paying more in the long run because of this decision.
Getting people with disabilities active in communities and participating in life contributes to the economy.
https://humanrights.gov.au/resource-hub/resources-for-organisations-businesses/disability-resources-employers/the-benefits-of-employing-people-with-disability
> The findings were clear: companies that embraced best practice for employing and supporting more people with disability in their workforce outperformed their peers.[2]
> Employing people with disability has many direct business benefits. It also helps to build a diverse workplace. Employees in diverse teams are consistently happier, more engaged, innovative, and productive.
> Increasing the employment of people with disability by 10% would increase national economic output by $16 billion per year, according to the Bankwest Economic Centre in its 2024 report Employment and Disability in Australia.[13]
this will kill people
I’d love for Albo to finally just do a national address telling all disabled Australians to kill themselves, it’s much less evil than dismantling all of our supports for years while lying to us and saying we’re getting more supports.
I know a guy who’s on it. Literally the only disability he has is that he is very overweight. He gets assistance that costs a lot of money that I just don’t see that he needs. Treats support workers like servants. It’s led to him becoming fatter and lazier.
Bloody hell.
Centre right voter here. Genuinely impressed by Butler and Albanese on this. These are long overdue reforms. They could see that radical change was the only option. If we kept going like this a future government would simply have to scrap the entire thing. This is at least a chance to fix it for good.
Honestly, this is about time. It was totally unsustainable. I have become increasingly cynical about the NDIS after working in mental health and am cautiously optimistic about these changes.
I was required to speak to a support worker about how they spent a particular day with their client who in reality is drug using criminal (just as an aside. Take that how you will). I was floored with what this “care taking” involved. Shopping trips and site seeing and bullshit. She was completely unprofessional and I was amazed by it all. So concerning that I had to flag it with NDIS.
What came next made me mad. For the financial year, their scheme paid just over $200k!!! This was straight from NDIS. Unbelievable.
It sucks that some people who may deserve NDIS are going to get fucked now because so many have sorted the system
Here is a reality check as someone who spent years working in the system:
While the calculation is complex, general estimates are we are spending a fkton of money on disability support per capita that exceeds many other european/developed countries.
Peole living with disability in Australia are receiving more support than more than 95% of all other countries around the world.
And this does not even take into account disability pension or healthcare through medicare/centrelink. other countries often have an integrated support system (thinking centrelink, medicare, ndis) all in one.
Here we have the states health systems refusing to go anywhere near ndis because they know full well they won’t meet all the things that the ndis overpromised their participants it would deliver, and they know it’s a mess. Supposedly same welfare system, entirely different standards and criteria AND EXPECTATIONS(I blame the crappy and sloppy principles set by Gillard government for this)
No the government is not treating people with disability as terribly as people here would like to think. Yes there are rooms for improvements. Yes we can tax mining corps more to pour more money into it.
However the fact is the end of the day this scheme is NOT sustainable and the principles set out originally are not good measures and extremely prone to abuse.
Let it fester for another year or two and see how spectacularly it will collapse.
Cut NDIS and move spending to Medicare, Childcare and Education
Anything to not have to cut the snouts of their fossil fuel donors out of getting free gas given away eh?
Anything also to not have to cut greedy landlords off from their sweet sweet 50% capital gains discounts and negative gearing eh?
Finally, putting a stop to all those people claiming disability bc they have “anxiety”. Literally 9/10 people experience anxiety. It’s a normal part of life
Good. Also audit the providers. Some of those are just rorters.
What an absolute joke. It’s on days like today when I hate this fucking country. It is already difficult to get onto NDIS for most disabled people, let alone stay on it, and now they have done this.
Shall we take a look at what the government would prefer to spend money on, rather than deliver adequate services to a tiny proportion of the total 5.5 million Australians who live with a disability?
* $16.3 billion in annual subsidies to fossil fuel producers and major users
* Allowing over 1,100 large corporate entities, 28% of all the firms operating in Australia, to pay ZERO tax in 23/24.
* $22 billion recently announced for drone warfare (we aren’t at war).
* $268-368 BILLION dollars to the fucking United States of Trump for nuclear submarines (again, we aren’t at war).
It’s a fucking joke. I’m pissed off. I’m disabled and am not eligible for NDIS. I am a disability support worker and I know that clients are stressed out. Mark Butler and the Federal Government are a bunch of cheap, ableist cunts. Makes me wonder if they are different to all the other horrific conservative parties we have. Fuck them all. Vote Greens and vote Socialist Alliance next election.
Good. Abusers have been rorting the system for years. Clean it up.
Mabel Execs that were planning their IPO no doubt in a crisis meeting right now.
curious where they get that number from. Who do you cut?
Imagine the letter. “Sorry, you’re technically no longer disabled. Even though we are not a doctor and your doctor has written several recommendations that we haven’t read”
Many would have no other option but to opt for aged care. Sorry boomers.
Many would have to rely more on family and friends. If they are kind enough, they will drop their job to care for them.
And then there’s all the support workers it employs. Cut transport for those willing to work. More on Centrelink I guess.
This country is not safe for our vulnerable people
Cutting kids into a so far undefined state program is absolutely ridiculous. I’m currently trying to get my son into ed support classes and there isn’t a space available. These same state governments are supposed to provide occupational therapy and speech pathology services as part of schools. Good luck to everyone who needs it, this is going to be an absolute failure.
This is just going to cost a shit ton more when our hospitals are full of disabled people instead of having the right early intervention supports which would improve their lives. All this does is shifting the costs from federal to state, and the states are notoriously incompetent and cash poor. This is going to make it worse.
I can already see all the labor supporters pushing your agenda. You will learn how much a bunch of cunts you are when you need these services.
What really gets me about this is that they’re not telling us who is being removed, so every participant is going to be shitting bricks until they get around to releasing the policy details. Seems cruel.
Fuck me, people whinge that the NDIS is bloated (which it is) and expensive to operate (which it is) and is being rorted (which it definitely is) then have the hide to whinge when there’s a shake up?
Which one is it?
Make your fucking minds up.
Letting private companies run riot on government money, who could’ve expected it?
It was kinda crazy that it was allowed to go on like this.
Definitely a choice by the LNP to let this happen when they practically took over it before Gillard truly had the chance to make it work properly.
If Medicare works to keep prices down for medical costs then it should’ve worked for the NDIS.
Can they just start auditing these ‘businesses’ instead. I thought g wagons was a meme joke til I swear I saw more out west than in Mosman
Disabled people don’t stop being disabled because it’s inconvenient for the economy.
The discussion should **only** be about NDIS providers exploiting both the system and the people they claim to support.
Let’s also cut anything more than a 150k salary in the NDIS
Also tax the gas, get rid of negative gearing and we should be sweet
Providers I hope not NDIS clients if they are legit.
> A sweeping crackdown on cost blowouts, unregistered providers and fraud in the NDIS, as well as new eligibility requirements for adults and children already on the books, will drop the forecast annual cost of the scheme by $15 billion at the end of the decade and reduce the number of participants by 160,000, sparing the scheme from collapse, says Health Minister Mark Butler.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/ndis-overhaul-to-save-15b-a-year-by-end-of-decade-20260422-p5zpy6
Imagine getting a more balanced summary of the changes from the AFR than from the ABC. What a fucking shitshow our “public service” broadcaster has become.
I have a high earning middle aged colleague whose wife is on NDIS. One of the things they get is a house cleaner. He is able bodied. He can clean his own dang house imo.
I guess 11% of kids developmentally delayed/disabled isn’t realistic to average OECD standards
As a disabled person not on the NDIS this is still awful. I appriciate the government trying to improve inclusive communities but you don’t offer 200m to improve society by removing support for people to get out and about.
It feels like more group art programs for people rather than actually being a part of their genuine community.
Im disabled and was working towards NDIS support but ive had to stop cause ive got no clue what is going to happen. Its a cluster fuck at the worst of times im not trying it right now.
Once again, Labor is cleaning up the Liberal mess that took place over the last 10 years.
Simply extraordinary that 80% of providers are unregistered. Incredibly bad policy-making, clearly captive to providers during consultation.
In theory this should target waste… in reality, yeah right
Yeah fuck this disabled people /s