By Achieve Australia CEO, Jo-Anne Hewitt
24 April 2026
When NDIS Minister Mark Butler laid out his plan to reset the NDIS this week, it was easy to focus on the eyewatering proposed savings that have dominated headlines. However, the case for reform is far deeper than cost. It is about protecting the mandate for the NDIS with the Australian community, won through generations of advocacy by people with disabilities for a universal support program that put their needs first.
The NDIS is failing on its key objectives
It’s clear that the current system is not working, particularly for people with complex needs and the not-for-profit providers who support them. Despite some improvements, the NDIS is not easy to navigate for people with complex disability, health and behavioural support needs. Quality providers are also regularly leaving the disability sector due to unsustainable funding over many years.
Hard reform lessons mean this minister is not for turning
Mark Butler himself said "These reforms are about much more than Budget savings. This is about saving the NDIS itself." He is right. Even if the fiscal outlook were more favourable, the structural flaws identified - eight major design failures, and none of the seven building blocks of a high integrity program - would still demand urgent action.
We have reason to trust Mark Butler with this monumental task, based on his track record leading complex reforms in health and aged care. He also remembers what it’s like to lose the social licence for a major reform via repeal of the carbon price in 2014.
Pass NDIS legislation in May then do the deep work together
The ongoing structural failings and uncertainty about funding are incredibly wearing on people with disabilities, their families and our sector – this is unacceptable and can’t continue.
That’s why Federal Parliament must pass the first tranche of NDIS reforms in May including tighter reassessment rules, evidence-based functional assessments, mandatory registration for higher-risk supports, and a digital payments system. This opens the path for deeper work on how the NDIS and a broader system of supports can be designed based on what people with disabilities need.
I welcome a focus on reforms that will support people with complex needs and help keep quality providers in the NDIS starting with:
1. investing in temporary graduated pricing, a financial sustainability fund and a structural adjustment fund to prevent market failure of quality providers, while supporting the transition to a more sustainable and equitable pricing framework
2. improving market oversight on financial performance, service delivery and service costs
3. accelerating implementation of the NDIA three year pricing reform workplan to deliver independent pricing mechanisms and tiered pricing structures.
The Federal Government should also prioritise support for people with significant and complex needs to maximise their choice and control including:
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ensuring new functional capacity assessments provide reasonable and necessary supports for participants with intellectual disability and complex needs
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using a ‘whole of life’ model to underpin NDIS plans, based on expert advice and clinical assessments of their current needs including disability related health supports
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access to targeted early and ongoing intervention to improve their quality of life
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ensure the decision making practices and responsibilities delegated by the NDIA to disability support workers are consistent with the scope of practice.
This is the basis for a system that is easy for participants with complex needs, sustainable for quality providers and defensible for governments.