National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026

Mr BUTLER (Hindmarsh—Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Minister for Health and Ageing and Deputy Leader of the House) (12:49): I thank the member for her amendment. I thank the member for the advice that she gave as part of the committee inquiry that the member for Macarthur chaired, of which she was deputy chair, in relation to Thriving Kids.

It was valuable advice. I value her deep understanding of some of these areas of need, particularly for children, but more broadly than that. I don't think I did say to the member for Ryan that this was the responsibility of states.

It is a responsibility that we share with states. It's a joint responsibility of the Commonwealth and all state and territory governments. Let me make this point.

When we built the NDIS, out of the Productivity Commission report and all of the debate that preceded it and was around it, it was intended effectively to be a tier 1 system of supports for people with disability, particularly those with permanent and significant disability. It was never intended to cover the field, as the member rightly knows. There are a range of other, different systems of support that people with disability rely upon every single day—in health, in education—and the idea of foundational supports as a central recommendation of the NDIS review was essentially a recognition that that second tier of supports, which was a fundamental recommendation of the Productivity Commission, had never been actioned.

All governments are accountable for fixing that and for redressing what is, I think, that missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle that didn't happen over the last decade or so. All governments, Commonwealth and states and territories, are accountable for that, but it's not appropriate that we be accountable through an act that is set up to provide NDIS supports. These are not NDIS supports, so we will not be supporting these amendments.

I look forward very much to continuing to engage with the crossbench about the development of foundational supports. Thriving Kids is effectively the first cab off the rank, but we've got a lot of work to do for kids over nine, which the member would understand better than most in this House. We have a ton of work to do for people with psychosocial disability, who are not receiving, really, any support.

The unmet needs analysis that was put together as part of the bilateral agreements that we have on mental health and suicide prevention, which the assistant minister at the table has been an important part of, found that 230,000 or so Australians right now, today, with severe and chronic mental illness are effectively getting no support whatsoever. This is a complex area.

The member understands that. This is not an area that I seek to duckshove to states, as the member suggested in her remarks. I see this very much as a joint responsibility between the Commonwealth and the states, but not one that will be discharged through this particular piece of legislation.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Chesters ): The question is that the amendment moved by the member for Kooyong be agreed to.