Radio interview with Minister McAllister, ABC 612 Brisbane Drive – 30 July 2026

Media event date: 30 July 2026 Date published: 30 July 2026 Media type: General public ELLEN FANNING: Jenny McAllister is the minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. What's happening? Who's going to catch these kids in Queensland?

JENNY MCALLISTER: Look, Thriving Kids offers an incredibly exciting opportunity from my perspective. It's a program that is designed to offer services to children and families where they naturally are. In maternal child health centres, early learning environments, and also to get support to children quickly without the delays that are often accompanied by going through an NDIS access process at the moment.

That's why states and territories agreed to work with us on this. There's $4 billion to be invested. Queensland agreed to the overall arrangements, which would see significant additional money go into Queensland hospitals, more than $5 billion extra, alongside the rollout of these important supports.

And I actually think Queensland families will be looking forward to seeing their government implement this. ELLEN FANNING: So you're saying $5 billion has been handed over to Queensland to take on these responsibilities for young people who are being shifted off the NDIS, but they've taken the money and they haven't provided a service. JENNY MCALLISTER: Well, it's more significant than that.

Actually, there's been $5 billion provided to Queensland as part of the hospital arrangements, and that adds to a very significant existing investment from the Australian government into Queensland hospitals. We want Queensland hospitals to run well, we think the Queensland people deserve that, and we made that investment on that basis. But it was part of an overall package of supports where we also agreed that between the states and the territories and the Commonwealth, we would together invest $4 billion in additional supports for children.

Queensland are getting a share of that, but it is up to them to describe to the Queensland community how they intend to roll that out, and we're waiting for them to do that. ELLEN FANNING : Well, the Minister Amanda Camm, the state minister, said a couple of months ago, the federal government's plan to walk away from their responsibilities to children and families is failing kids, not thriving kids, which is a reference to the name of the scheme that the states are supposed to establish to support these children.

She went on. Serious concerns remain about the long-term care of these children, let alone those who are next in the crosshairs of their NDIS failure to plan. It doesn't sound like Queensland has the intention from that of taking over the responsibility, they may well have taken the money, you say, but they haven't signed up to Thriving Kids, and they say they don't have budget for it.

JENNY MCALLISTER: We'll leave it to Minister Camm to explain her posture. ELLEN FANNING: But are you worried? I mean, this is all coming down the pike in October.

This all starts transitioning kids off over the decade, Senator. There'll be people listening who are going, well, okay, the feds and the state governments sound like they're playing chicken with kids on the autism spectrum. How does this end up?

October is coming fast. JENNY MCALLISTER: A couple of things. Firstly, the supports are expected to start standing up in October.

There won't be any changes to the NDIS access arrangements for children until the 1st of January 2028, and we staged it deliberately so that we would have time to stand up these supports and work with states and territories to do so. But secondly, yes, Premiers and the Prime Minister came together, struck an agreement, and we said we because we know that the community expects a strong NDIS, strong supports for children, and a strong hospital system, that all of these things would be rolled out in a package, and that the Commonwealth will put our money on the table to help with that occurring, ELLEN FANNING: And has Queensland welched on the deal?

Is that what you say? JENNY MCALLISTER: Well, it's up to them to explain their implementation arrangements. ELLEN FANNING: Well it doesn’t sound like they have an implementation arrangement.

JENNY MCALLISTER: We're waiting for them to explain their implementation arrangements, and we expect them to do so. This was a really important national agreement struck between premiers and the prime minister, we do expect them to implement it. And I say this as well: I think the Australian public do as well.

Of course, Queenslanders want these investments. Of course, the people of Queensland should expect that there are good services rolled out for families and kids. They should expect that there's a sustainable NDIS that's here for the long term and available for people with permanent and significant support needs, then they expect that there's a good hospital system.

And those were the negotiating principles that were agreed between premiers and the prime minister, and we do expect people to get on with it. And I think the Queensland government, the Queensland people, would expect that from their government as well. ELLEN FANNING: Senator Jenny McAllister, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, six minutes to four on 612 ABC Brisbane.

You also wanted to talk about a crackdown on should we call it fraud? Is it fraud within the system? Let's say concerns about middle managers in the system.

So for a lot of people, they get an NDIS plan that comes with a budget, and there's a lot of administration that goes along with that payment of invoices and accounting back to the National Disability Insurance Agency. Two thirds of people use plan managers. What's gone wrong with that system?

What's the potential for, if not fraud, then not getting great bang for buck for the Commonwealth. JENNY MCALLISTER: We're really worried about this market. We don't think it's operating as intended, and we don't think it's providing the quality services that people with disability expect.

At its worst, we're concerned that some of the participants in this part of the market are a vector for fraud. ELLEN FANNING: So, the reporting. Sorry, we're short on time.

So let me just let me just get this right. The reporting today says more than 4000 claims from these plan managers were rejected within nine months because they were requesting funding for services that actually wasn't delivered, and so that was 19 million dollars worth of claims that that the agency just said no, that's not appropriate at all. That's a huge hit rate.

JENNY MCALLISTER: It is a huge hit rate, and it reflects the investment that we've made in standing up a compliance system in the NDIA. Because when we came to government, there were no compliance mechanisms of any kind to check payments before they went out, and we fixed that by a very significant investment. But at the end of the day, we can't enforce our way out of this.

What we want is to have a market that's actually delivering services with integrity, and the change that we propose is that from next year we will commission the panel of quality providers who've got strong integrity obligations, strong capacity, and the ability to provide good services to people with disability who should expect nothing less from providers working in this market.

ELLEN FANNING : So, you want to bring more regulation to the market? You can't just choose anyone you want. You're going to have a panel of people who are approved, and they will be the people who can be the plan managers.

JENNY MCALLISTER: That's exactly right. And we'll start that from October next year, and we'll have a six-month transition period from that time to allow people to switch over. We've got plenty of runway to make a change.

We know it's a big change, but we think it will deliver the kind of integrity arrangements that are necessary for a scheme of this size. ELLEN FANNING: This scheme relies on the public understanding and supporting it. Same as Medicare.

Same as any big scheme of its type. Why were people making claims for services that the NDIS recipient wasn't getting? Were they somehow trying to direct funds back to themselves, make a claim that this person needed funding, don't deliver it to the person, and put it in their own pocket?

Is that it? JENNY MCALLISTER: That is a deep concern, and it's why we're intervening. This market demonstrates a couple of shortcomings.

We see too many providers who have a conflict. They are submitting invoices from a provider that they themselves have a financial interest in. Essentially, they're marking their own homework.

That's not okay. We also see claiming that at times moves beyond sharp practice and into fraudulent. And we have examples of plan managers who've been taken before the courts and convicted and found guilty of fraudulent behaviour through submitting claims that are essentially fake and pocketing the money.

ELLEN FANNING: The first hearings of the NDIS reforms were happening today in Canberra. You had a roundtable with NDIS providers in Brisbane today. What are you hearing so far, Minister, in terms of the community reaction, provider reaction to these reforms?

JENNY MCALLISTER: We're listening really carefully to what people with disability have to tell us about the reforms, and we're listening really carefully to what providers have to tell us about implementation arrangements. Both really valuable sources of information. There is a lot of concern, of course.

It's a big change, and we recognize this is a big change for people with disability. I'm using the time while the Parliament is not in session to move around the country, speaking with people with disabilities, speaking with providers to make sure we're having a really deep conversation about our reform intentions over the next couple of years, how people can be involved in shaping those reforms and taking on board the concerns that they may express when some of our policies that they feel may not land as intended.

I want to hear about that, and I am listening to people when they talk to us in those terms. ELLEN FANNING: Thanks for taking the time, Minister. JENNY MCALLISTER: It’s a pleasure.

Thanks for having me on. Senator the Hon Jenny McAllister Disability and carers Accessibility We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia, and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to Elders both past and present. © Commonwealth of Australia