The Rebuttal

Australia likes to call itself the land of the “fair go,” where no one is left behind. You would assume that includes people with disability. Sadly, the reality tells a very different story.

Take the recent announcement by Disability Minister Mark Butler. He plans to remove children with developmental delays and mild autism from the NDIS, replacing their supports with a new state-based Thriving Kids Program. On paper, it’s framed as reform. In practice, it feels like a step backwards.

The name itself is telling. “Thriving Kids” sounds positive, but it feels like yet another attempt to avoid the word disability—just like “special needs” or “differently abled.” Language gymnastics don’t create inclusion; they obscure reality.

Even more troubling was Minister Butler’s language around autism and developmental delay. He spoke of “mild” disability and even hinted that some autism might not be permanent. He may not have meant it, but the effect was deeply offensive. By singling out autism in this way, he alienated both the autistic and broader disability communities.

The Minister insists that there are too many children with autism and developmental delay on the NDIS. But here’s the catch: when I worked in the NDIS, every child under seven—whether deaf, blind, autistic, living with Down syndrome and so on – was categorised as having a “developmental delay” A formal diagnosis of disability was required by age 7. So when Butler talks about “developmental delay,” he may in fact be referring to all children under seven with disability on the NDIS. That’s an enormous clean-out, dressed up as reform. (If the use of developmental delay in young children on the NDIS has changed since, I am happy to be corrected.)

Could this new model lead to better supports? Perhaps. But that depends on whether states engage constructively. So far, they’ve refused—complaining about matched funding requirements and threatening to walk away. The Federal Government is retaliating with threats to strip hospital funding. Disability, once again, is reduced to a bargaining chip in a political game.

Meanwhile, people with disability continue to face daily barriers. Recently I attended a workshop where a wheelchair user gains employment, only to find that their heritage listed workplace has no accessible toilet. Because the building is “heritage,” no changes can be made. So instead they wheel themselves 30 minutes each way to the nearest accessible toilet – rain, hail, or heatwave—just to use the bathroom. The time taken to complete the toileting along with the distance meant it was ninety minutes a day lost. This to meet a basic human need.

Another person I met recently at an employment forum acquires a disability, returns to work, and realises that their office is not accessible. They leave and start their own business. At the forum they asked Disability Employment Providers about funding that might be available. Not one suggested Work Assist, JobAccess, or the Employment Assistance Fund. These are some of the most basic tools of disability employment—and the providers didn’t mention a single one. I sure hope the new Inclusive Employment Australia model with its Meaningful Engagement plans and requirements of lived experience and disability training does a better job than this, it has to!

This is Australia. This is disability today.

We are told we are a burden. We are reduced to numbers in budget debates. We are shunted between state and federal governments like pawns. And we have people supporting us that seemingly don’t even understand the programs that they are employed in. All we want is equality—an equal footing in the society we contribute to. Instead, we are reminded daily that we are the burden treated and a problem.

Disability today. How lucky are we???