TV interview with Minister Butler, Sunrise – 19 August 2026

NATALIE BARR, HOST: More than 240,000 Australians are set to be kicked off the NDIS after the government sealed a deal with the Coalition to pass through the controversial reforms. Opposition leader Angus Taylor agreed to support the bill in return for fast-tracking plans to abandon the budget's so-called widow's tax. For more, we're joined by Mark Butler, the Health Minister. Good morning to you. What happens to those 240,000 people being kicked off the NDIS?
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: What we're doing here, Nat, is returning the scheme to its original purpose, which was to support people with significant and permanent disability. It had gone well beyond that. Instead of supporting maybe 550,000 Australians, it was on track to get to a million Australians almost by the end of this decade. So getting it back to its original intent is a really important part of the plan we had to get the NDIS back on track and secure its future for the long term. And that plan passed the Senate last night, as you know. What we also now have to do is to ensure that there are supports in place for people whose needs aren't going to be served by a scheme for permanent disability, but instead those foundational supports, as they were described in the NDIS review, will now be the subject of negotiation between the states and the Commonwealth Government to ensure that they're in place by 2028 when this new scheme arrangement kicks in.
 
BARR: So what do you make of the criticism that you're simply shifting the pressures and the costs to the states, it's up to them now?
 
BUTLER: This was an agreement between the Prime Minister and the premiers way back in 2023. It was a recommendation of an independent review of the NDIS that said there should be this second tier of supports for people with more low to moderate support needs. And we'll share the cost of that 50-50. We're already rolling that out for thriving kids, for children under the age of nine. That's been a really productive process between the Commonwealth and states and territories. That will be in place before the 1st of January 2028. We now have to do that for other population groups, kids over the age of nine, some adults who will be better supported in schemes like this rather than the NDIS.
 
BARR: Okay, Mark Butler, thank you very much.
 
BUTLER: Thanks, Nat.