Doorstop with Minister Butler, Canberra - 23 April 2026

JOURNALIST: Let me start with the opposition Anne Ruston sounding a bit more conciliatory, open to change on this this morning than perhaps we heard from them yesterday. Have you started talking to them yet?
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: I haven’t had the opportunity yet to do that, but I know across the Parliament, across levels of government there’s a recognition that the NDIS is off track and needs a substantial reset. I do look forward to engaging with the opposition particularly as we lead into the resumption of parliament in a couple of weeks’ time because I think there is a shared purpose in making sure the NDIS is secured for the future.
 
JOURNALIST: And what's actually going to be in that legislation that you introduced? That was a bit unclear yesterday.
 
BUTLER: As I said yesterday, this legislation is designed to put in place urgent financial controls. It's not about scheme design or the reform that we'll have to engage with the disability community about over the coming months. This is about just good management and the urgent financial controls that are necessary to get some of the spending growth, the out-of-control spending growth, back under control. I was only told a few weeks ago by the NDIS actuary that even since the December mid-year budget update, spending had blown out by $13 billion. This simply can't continue. We've got to put the systems in place, into federal legislation, to stop that continuing to happen.
 
JOURNALIST: Just on eligibility, I know that there's going to be an advisory group set up to determine that, but can you give people a bit of a sense of who will be determining eligibility? Will it be an occupational therapist? Will that be someone chosen by the NDIS? Just a bit of a better sense of that.
 
BUTLER: That detail is obviously something we want to work through. I don't want to pre-empt some of those really important questions of detail that will be the subject of co-design with the disability community, but also states and territories will have a strong view about. The agency of the independent agency established to run the NDIS will obviously have oversight about that and they currently determine the plans of individual participants, so you'd expect the agency to play the key role there. But I don't want to pre-empt some of that finer detail because I am genuinely committed to this being a process of co-design.
 
JOURNALIST: In terms of the numbers that you laid out yesterday getting the scheme down to around 600,000 participants, what is the modelling that you're, like, you must have done modelling, and does that mean that you do have a sense actually of how those assessment, or what the shape of that assessment might be in order to work out where those numbers would land?
 
BUTLER: I tried to be clear with people that this was initial modelling. I don't want to say anything beyond that, but we do have a reasonable sense obviously about the different cohorts who are currently on the scheme. I don't pretend that is the precise number we will end up at, but it is our best estimate based on our understanding of participants right now. There's a lot of work to do and I'm committed to doing that, as I said, in partnership with the community and with other jurisdictions. But I tried yesterday to be as open and honest as I could be with people about where this plan that I outlined yesterday is likely to take us.
 
JOURNALIST: Obviously waded in now to a funding stash with the states and territories. People who are worried about being shifted off the scheme are concerned that there actually will be nothing to go onto because of this kind of responsibility shifting. So what is your message to people and to the states who say, well, our budget simply can't support the number of people being proposed here?
 
BUTLER: A couple of things. I think all governments recognise the scheme has expanded well beyond its original purpose, and needs to be brought back to that purpose, which was to support people with significant and permanent disability. I think all governments have recognised that, frankly, since that point was made by the NDIS review back in 2023, which all governments accepted through the National Cabinet process.
 
The second thing I'd say is back then, all governments allocated $10 billion in funding to build those local community supports that would be there instead of the NDIS for people with more mild to moderate needs. Now, people can just look at what we're doing with Thriving Kids, $4 billion of that $10 billion has already been allocated, the scheme is in the process of design. It will start to be rolled out from October this year. And we have to replicate that work with money already allocated by all governments for the rest of the population.
 
I don't pretend I've been around politics long enough to know that there won't be some stoush, some continuing arm-wrestle. Of course, we're not going to change eligibility and move people off the scheme before we're confident and we know the community is confident there are other systems of support in place. I think though, given that governments have been talking about this since 2023, that like Thriving Kids, the community just expects governments to get on with it. Yes, there might be an arm wrestle about funding. We've put billions of dollars the table to support those foundational support systems, but governments just have to get on with this. This thing has been hanging around for too long.
 
JOURNALIST: That thing that you just said about we're not going to change eligibility until we're confident, doesn't that give the states an out?
 
BUTLER: This is the commitment I gave with Thriving Kids, and yes there was an arm wrestle about that, yes, there was a bit of a standoff about that, but ultimately I think governments all recognise we've just got to do this work for the sake of the community, and so all governments are getting on with it, they're building it. I'm confident Queensland will come on board as well. The Premier signed onto that only a couple of months ago with the PM and other premiers.
 
Thanks very much.