Hon. Mark Butler MP and Senator the Hon. Jenny McAllister - Press Conference
18 August 2026
Speaker dots
- Speakers in the chapter
- Colour: political group
- Grey: no group
Tap or click a chapter's dots to see names and groups.
Contents updated on 18 Aug 2026
Legend
Transcript markers
- text Sentence being played
- text Search result
- text Intervention cited by the link you opened
Click a sentence to play the video from that moment. Select text to quote it with the speaker, timestamp and link.
More options
Press Conferences Australian Parliament
10:12 - 12:19
Speaker 7
Thanks for coming out this afternoon. I know it's been a busy day and a busy week. The NDIS is truly one of Australia's great modern reforms. In just 15 years really, it has transformed the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of people living with a disability and their families and their carers and their loved ones. A scheme that was dreamed about literally for generations is now a deeply cherished institution and something that we should all be deeply proud of.
There's nothing really like it anywhere else in the world. It's the centerpiece of the most comprehensive suite of supports you'll find, particularly within the OECD, for people with disability. But as Jenny and I and other members of the government have said for some time, it's grown too big. It covers people who were not envisaged to be covered by a scheme that was set up for people with permanent and significant disability. The costs have grown far too quickly.
And frankly, it has become a soft target for shonks and for fraudsters and for sharp practice, something that Minister McAllister has been particularly focused on. So we as a government have been very focused for all of our four years on getting costs under control, improving the sorts of measures that that constrain fraud and integrity, and and generally making sure that this is a scheme that will last for decades.
Over the last several months, though, it's become clear that more work needs to be done. When Jenny and I went to the Press Club back in April, we laid out a plan with four major pillars that would secure the future of the NDIS and get it back on track. Even just in April, we had to report that since December, so only in four months, costs in the NDIS had blown out by a further $13 billion. It was clear that the measures, good as they were, that we had put in place in the first few years of our government simply weren't delivering the results that we needed. So we are pursuing more fundamental reform to ensure that we return it to its original purpose, that we get those sorts of controls on fraud and integrity that Minister McAllister has talked about.
The rest of the transcript is for Pro customers
Unlock the full transcript, chat, and every analysis feature with Polyfact Pro.
The video itself stays free to watch, in full, no account needed.
Start a free trial