Radio interview with Minister McAllister, ABC Sydney Mornings – 30 July 2026

Media event date: 30 July 2026 Date published: 30 July 2026 Media type: General public HAMISH MACDONALD: Jenny McAllister is the NDIS Minister. She's here this morning. Very good morning to you.

JENNY MCALLISTER: Good morning, Hamish. HAMISH MACDONALD: Why this particular part of the market? Why is it problematic?

JENNY MCALLISTER: Well, we want the NDIS to operate safely with high-quality services and to operate with integrity, but we are concerned that this part of the market isn't operating as we intended. As you indicated, plan managers play a really important role, and in other parts of life, people will often hire an accountant or someone to assist them with their administration.

Too often in this part of the market, we see plan managers who are providing low-quality services, who are operating with significant conflicts of interest, and in the worst case, are facilitating fraudulent behavior. Sometimes claiming against a participant's plan without that person knowing about it and without the services having been delivered, we can't let that continue.

We are going to steward the market so that the services offered in this area are of the high quality that participants should be able to expect. HAMISH MACDONALD: So you want people to work basically with the larger operators. Why?

Why would they not be subject to the same sorts of problems. I'm not quite clear on why the larger operators are, as it were, a safer bet. JENNY MCALLISTER: It's not particularly about scale, but we do have data that shows that the smaller scale operators have very high risks for fraud, and the reason is this: it's paid on a flat rate.

You get a fixed amount per month. What that means is that the larger operators, who've got a larger number of clients, invest in the systems and processes that let them deliver a quality service and also yield the rewards of running a sustainable business. HAMISH MACDONALD: As part of this, these changes, obviously, it has gone to an inquiry.

You're familiar with the huge number of complaints there's been about the speed at which this has occurred. There's also the assertion being made that you're essentially dressing up the cracking down of fraud to cover basically large cuts to the system itself, do you acknowledge that? JENNY MCALLISTER: The NDIS is an incredible human rights achievement, but more than a decade into its operation, there are three big problems that we're trying to address through these reforms.

The first is that it's not sustainable; it's growing too quickly, and it costs more than it ever expected. The second is that the quality of services delivered to people is not always what we'd hoped for, and the third is that there's too much fraud. All of those problems are problems we're seeking to address through these reforms.

All of them require a response, and all of them are dealt with in the bill that's before the Parliament at the moment. HAMISH MACDONALD: But you'd also be giving yourselves enormous powers to cut people's budgets for things like social activities, therapy hours, tightening the scheme's eligibility criteria as part of that package. JENNY MCALLISTER: We do need to make sure that the scheme is sustainable, and at the moment it is growing at around 11% per year.

That's more than we should reasonably expect for a scheme of this importance and this size, and more than other social programs. And so we do need to take steps to make sure it's sustainable. HAMISH MACDONALD: Jenny McAllister, I'm less talking about the politicians in the system and their views of it, but rather the many people that call us here to express their own experiences and views within this system, the enormous stress that seems to be being placed on families right now to return to the process, go through the process again.

People that are receiving particular services that feel that their entire lives are now going to be scrutinized once again as you bring in these changes. I'm interested in whether you hear that, whether you see that, whether you acknowledge that pain that's been caused by this. JENNY MCALLISTER: I talk very regularly to people in the disability community, the disability leadership, but also participants in the scheme who use these services.

I know that change is frightening. It always is, and that's particularly so for this group of people whose lives have been genuinely transformed by this scheme. But it must be sustainable and what would be more frightening Hamish would be the collapse of community confidence in the scheme.

HAMISH MACDONALD: Minister, I wonder though whether you acknowledge that it's something quite apart from being frightening, like it is genuinely creating stress and confusion and problems for people that are already in vulnerable situations. JENNY MCALLISTER: My role as the Minister is to make sure that the scheme is sustainable, but also that the disability community understands the nature of the reforms that we're proposing.

I think that within the community, both the disability community and more generally, people expect that a scheme like this will have good social policy boundaries around it. HAMISH MACDONALD: Jenny McAllister, thank you very much for your time this morning. We appreciate it.

JENNY MCALLISTER: It's my pleasure, Hamish. 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