NDIS overhaul must look beyond the balance sheet

June 13, 2026 — 5:00am

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At The Age Schools Summit this week, the Victorian Liberal Party pledged $156 million to help identify neurodiverse students at the start of their schooling and guide families into early intervention through embedded occupational therapists and speech pathologists in the primary school system.

The Allan government immediately upped the ante. Children and Disability Minister Lizzie Blandthorn proposed two new development assessments for every child – one before they enter kindergarten and one before school.

All sides of politics recognise that provision for children diagnosed with autism, ADHD or similar conditions – a group whose numbers have been rising sharply in recent years – is now an inescapable political and budgetary challenge. But that, it would seem, is where the agreement ends.

In April, federal Health Minister Mark Butler fired the starting gun on an overhaul of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), aimed at arresting its spiralling cost to the federal budget. One of the key measures to achieve that was taking neurodiverse children off the scheme and finding them alternative sources of support, such as the Thriving Kids........

© Brisbane Times