Labor is manufacturing an NDIS crisis to justify cuts - the savings will be spent on war
By Hannah Thomas
The Labor party has form in destroying its flagship reforms. Just as Hawke was the demise of Whitlam’s free university, the architects of the NDIS have become its greatest threat, writes Hannah Thomas.
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The common perception of the Albanese Labor government as weak, timid or do-nothing has always grated me. In my view, it obscures how ruthless and cunning this government is - and nowhere is that more evident than in its sustained, calculated campaign to discredit and sabotage the NDIS.
The Labor party has form in destroying its flagship reforms. Just as Hawke was the demise of Whitlam’s free university, the architects of the NDIS have become its greatest threat.
Labor turned on the NDIS shortly after assuming power. In October 2022, then Minister for the NDIS Bill Shorten announced a review into the scheme’s sustainability.
In 2023, he hired political strategy experts RedBridge to conduct focus groups and “narrative” tests about how to sell changes (cuts) to the NDIS. Redbridge advised that focusing on rorts, fraud, and spiralling costs was the way to go.
Ever since, the Government has religiously used that messaging, starting with the 2024 budget in which they stripped $14.4 billion from the NDIS with reforms which disabled Australians described as called “the most dangerous piece of legislation since the changes to the [Disability Support Pension] and Robodebt”.
The Saturday Paper revealed that despite claims these reforms were focused on fraud, a third of the savings came from pushing children off the scheme. According to Rick Morton, the crackdown on fraud & rorting accounted for just 1.05% of the $19 billion forecast savings over the next four years.
Much of the reforms were reheated Morrison-era proposals, which Shorten fought in opposition, or went even further. When the reforms became law in August 2024, People with Disability Australia called the outcome “devastating”.
Over the following year, NDIS reassessments surged. Thousands of participants were removed or had their funding cut—often incorrectly, sometimes reversed only after lengthy appeals. Participants were given weeks to justify their eligibility or risk losing support entirely. The system became more punitive and more difficult to navigate. At a structural level, power shifted away from disabled people.
Recently, Labor’s campaign has shifted to include the vilification of autistic children and their parents.
In August 2025, new Minister for the NDIS Mark Butler announced a plan to curb NDIS spending, expressing concern at the number of autistic children on the scheme. The plan involved moving children with “mild to moderate autism” - a misleading political term which has no clinical basis- off the NDIS.
As the May 2026 budget approaches, the campaign to sell more cuts is ramping up.
Albanese has begun spruiking grossly misleading stats to suggest kids and parents are rorting the system- “It’s undermined if four out of 10 kids in a class are on the NDIS”.
In March, Labor took the unusual move of setting up a parliamentary inquiry to hear fresh evidence of NDIS fraud. Then, on April 6th, Labor rolled out two backbenchers, both doctors, to warn that the social licence of the NDIS was at risk due to cost blowouts. Much of the story focused on the number of autistic people on the scheme. Another Labor backbencher floated the idea of means-testing the NDIS.
Albanese’s MPs are incredibly obedient. These backbenchers were not acting out of turn. They were laying the groundwork as part of a coordinated campaign to build the case for another hatchet job.
Meanwhile, sensationalist headlines about the NDIS keep popping up, along with stories of fraud and rorting. As Dr Clem Bastow put it recently, “NDIS headlines are turning autistic people into the new dole bludgers”. The timing is no coincidence.
As of April 2024, Albanese’s office had 11 media advisors- thrice the number that Morrison had. Part of their job, and those of media advisors who work for the NDIS Minister, is to pitch stories which serve the Government’s agenda.
Governments drive media narratives as much as they respond to them- particularly where a Government is as powerful, experienced and well-staffed as the Albanese Government and where the media market is so concentrated. It’s very probable that some of the sensationalist headlines and stories of fraud, waste and criminal activity in the NDIS are coming from Labor to build support for the upcoming cuts.
As I write this, the War Minister Richard Marles is making a speech at the National Press Club calling for billions more in military spending. He’ll boast that we’ve exceeded our forecasted budget spend on weapons- fiscal responsibility is not important when it comes to our ability to kill people for our allies.
Less than a week later, Mark Butler will get up at the same venue in front of the same audience to announce billions in cuts to the NDIS, and lament that we are exceeding the forecasted budget spend on ensuring disabled people can live empowered, dignified lives.
It will be the culmination of a years-long campaign by Labor, aided by the media, to destroy the social licence of the NDIS, at a devastating cost to disabled people, particularly disabled children. The purpose? To ensure there is enough money to pay for AUKUS, more weapons, tax breaks for wealthy property investors and fossil fuel subsidies.
About the author
Hannah Thomas
Hannah Thomas is a lawyer, activist and policy advisor. She was the Greens candidate for Grayndler at the 2025 federal election.
Sigh. I'm so mad. I wrote a huge comment and accidentally deleted it somehow. So... The shorter version:
I'm a healthcare worker and this is horrifying and so disappointing. The number of reports I write that I'm told I must do, that don't get read... The clients who have to take their cases to tribunal (that's if they have the resources to do so) and end up having time and money wasted just to have it in their favour - wasting more taxpayer money than if it had just been adequately funded in the first place
The cuts last year only punished the participants and providers doing the right thing, meanwhile those taking advantage were able to continue to do so
We'll all be disabled one day, if we don't already have a disability. I do - not funded by the NDIS - and I don't think many able bodied people (at least, not the ones making decisions) stop to think how expensive it is just to have any health problem. Sure, we're very privileged here in Australia to have some things covered by Medicare and PBS, but it still adds up - not only in cost of the appointments and medications themselves, but in lost time. I can't just teleport to an appointment, I have to set out time before and after... And I'm more likely to get sick but my sick leave is used up on appts and follow up. I'm pretty privileged in my conditions, in that I'm still fairly independent and can work and drive, and I have a good support system... What about someone with more significant physical impairments? What about someone with more significant cognitive impairments? What about someone more isolated than me?
We know every $1 spent on the NDIS generates $2.25 for the economy. Better support means more people able to contribute to that capitalist wheel - not just the participants if they're able, but those who were needing to be on government funded support themselves and unable to work full time if at all because they are providing gratuitous care to their loved ones, burning themselves out and ultimately developing health conditions and/or disabilities that lead to them needing increased government funded support.... It's an endless cycle.
Why do so many look down their noses and judge the spending decisions of those more disadvantaged than them, and yet so few question the taxpayer funded tax cuts and subsidies for the billionaire class and the big corporations that only use it to generate more profit, at the cost of the general public? Why are we questioning the humanity and whether someone is 'worthy' of support to get a haircut or go to a movie (because you still have to pay for the ticket/appointment, it's just about needing support to attend), and yet there's little questioning of increasing funding in a greedy genocidal war?
It's horrifying. Not surprised they would do this, but I was hoping for better.