The Disability Sector Brief, May 2026
- ARC Disability Services inc.
- May 8
- 2 min read
Minister Butler's National Press Club Address
The Health Ageing and Disability Minister, Mark Butler announced at a National Press Club address on April the 22nd a range of measures that he said were designed as NDIS cost saving measures.
These announcements included:
The introduction of standardized assessments of functional capacity to determine eligibility rather than diagnosis alone. These assessments will be implemented from earl 2028 for new participants and introduced when current participants are reassessed.
Reducing the numbers on the NDIS from the current 760,000 participants to 600,000 participants by 2030.
Redirecting others to foundational support programs, such as Thriving Kids which will be funded by States and Territories.
Social and community participation supports will be reduced to 2023 levels.
Establish a $200m fund to improve the capacity of community organisations to provide new service options for people not on the NDIS.
Increase the number of registered providers to a level such that 90% of all NDIS funding is paid to registered providers.
Introducing the commissioning of services such as Supported Independent Living, Support Coordination and Plan Management to create a more selective provider market.
The soon to be announced Federal budget should give us some more information as the legislation to bring about these changes will be introduced into parliament later in May.
There has been a significant response from within the disability community to Minister’s Butler’s announcement, you can find some of that in the links below. There continues to be quite a lot of media attention, and many advocacy organisations have been sharing their concerns with media releases and public messaging.
As always ARC is here to support you, so should you require further information or you have concerns please let us know.
Further information can be found at the following Australian Government website:
People with Disability Australia has released a joint statement here:
And an easy read version of the potential changes has been released by Inclusion Australia here: Changes to the NDIS – Easy Read information – Inclusion Australia
Image credit: <a href="https://storyset.com/work">Work illustrations by Storyset</a>
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