TV interview with Minister McAllister, News 24 – 31 July 2026

Media event date: 31 July 2026 Date published: 31 July 2026 Media type: General public TRUDY McINTOSH, HOST: The Albanese Government has moved to close a NDIS loophole that allows providers to charge for golf lessons, decluttering and horse therapy. Joining me live now from Sydney is the Minister for the NDIS Jenny McAllister. Jenny, good to see you.

This is a crackdown on so-called ‘Other Professionals’ as a category in the scheme. Can you explain what you see as the most egregious examples of this that you've found? JENNY McALLISTER, MINISTER FOR THE NDIS: Yes, well, the NDIA examined around 10,000 claims and found that 40% of them were incorrectly claiming against this category.

And that's a pretty big problem to start with. Some of the claims were for therapies or alleged therapies which are not NDIS supports. One business, horses as teachers.

Another business offering golf lessons. These were outlawed as forms of support in the Bill that we put through in 2024. People have looked for ways to get around that on the provider side, often falsely assuring NDIS participants that this would be ok.

It's not ok and we're taking steps to crack down on it. : Is this the tip of the iceberg then, if you said they've been able to find it through looking through a certain batch of cases? Are you concerned that this is much more widespread? : One of the things we have invested in is analytic capability. When we came to government, there were almost no compliance controls at the NDIA, and we are fixing that.

We've invested $1.3 billion in anti-fraud measures since coming to government, and that's principally in people who can do manual payment reviews, but mostly in data and analytics so that we can see electronically the claims before they're processed. And to give you a feel for that, we would review today as many individual claims as the previous government used to do in an entire year.

We've built an analytic capability so we can see these claims coming through before they're paid. And in the end, that is the solution. One more thing, though, Trudy.

I mean, we need greater powers. The Bill that is before the Parliament gives the NDIA a range of investigative powers. It allows the NDIA to require providers to keep good records.

It allows the NDIA to obtain a warrant to be able to search a premises. All of these powers will bring the NDIA up into line with some of the more powerful government agencies and give us some of the tools we need to crack down on poor behaviour in this sector. You pointed to your concerns with how the Coalition managed this scheme, but Labor's been in office since 2022.

There'll be plenty of people looking at this saying, why has it taken so long to find this? And is this an endemic problem throughout the scheme that people are trying to basically take a lend of people with serious and profound disabilities. : Since we first came to government, we have invested heavily in building an investigation capability. We built the Fraud Fusion Taskforce.

We've seen 17, 18 people now convicted and sentenced with jail sentences. We are increasingly issuing banning orders through the commission/ We are moving to mandatory registration for a much wider range of services. We are building the compliance architecture that always should have been here for a scheme of this kind.

Because you know and I know that there are so many people whose lives have been transformed by this. People with disability deserve a scheme that is really safe, that operates with integrity and we're building the tools to make sure that's the case. And that hinges on your overhaul passing the Parliament.

There's been this ongoing inquiry while Parliament's been on its break. And a lot of the NDIS advocacy groups, I'm sure you've seen their evidence, they want this dumped entirely, your changes. They argue that the proposed cuts to essential supports could harm participants' daily lives.

Some have argued it could prove fatal. When you hear that evidence, they're giving it in good faith, I'm sure, does it give you pause for thought or is your message to them that you have to press ahead with this? : We've thought really carefully about the reforms, but of course I listen carefully to the disability community. And while the Parliament's been up, I've been travelling around the country meeting both with disability activists but also with providers to have a sense about how these reforms will be implemented and to learn about any unintended consequences.

But we are really clear that this is a necessary reform. I know it will be challenging and change is frightening, but what would be more frightening would be community collapse in trust in this scheme, because we need this Scheme to be here for the long term. In a decade's time, there'll be a little boy or a little girl that is born that needs the support of this scheme, and I want it to be there for them.

Part of the NDIS overhaul as well is the announcement of the Thriving Kids programme So that is providing helps outside of the NDIS for children with mild to moderate delays. It's slated to start this October, but Queensland is still refusing to sign up. Will you have to delay that if they don't join?

Or are Queensland kids going to miss out because of this political standoff? : This is a staged rollout and we're seeing really great progress in some states. It'll start in October and we don't expect it to be completed until the beginning of 2028. And there won't be any access changes for children in relation to the scheme until that time either.

So we've got time to stand it up. In relation to Queensland... Are you confident that they will get on board? : States and territories, for the most part, are already out there talking to providers, commissioning services.

The Victorian Government's announced some great initiatives. They're digitising their blue book or their green book, depending on what you call it. But what about Queensland?

That seems like the biggest holdout so far. : Queensland are yet to outline how they're going to proceed and what steps they'll take. And I think that's a shame for Queensland communities. The Queensland Government received additional funding for their hospitals.

They signed on to the idea that the NDIS should be sustainable, and they agreed that the way that we would do this, in part, would be to roll out Thriving Kids. There's money on the table for Queensland families and communities, and I think Queensland residents will want to see their state government get on with delivering it. A final one.

The Greens have made it clear that they're not going to back this in the Senate. It leaves the fate of the overhaul in the hands of the Coalition. From your discussions, are you confident this will pass when Parliament returns? : Look, we have had incredibly constructive discussions with the Coalition and we take them at their word when they say that they think this is an important scheme, that they think it needs to be sustainable and they think that the work to do that needs to occur across the parties.

I'm looking forward to them dealing seriously with this legislation when the Committee has reported and the Parliament's returned. Jenny McAllister, Minister for the NDIS, it's a really important issue, and one we've got to get right. Thank you. : Thank you.

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