00:00After a wait of almost two years, today some clarity on disability support for children.
00:08Children with mild to moderate developmental delay or autism need a robust system of supports to help them thrive.
00:16A program for thriving kids, and that's the program that I intend to deliver.
00:21Two billion dollars will be put towards its Thriving Kids program, a system to provide support to children outside the NDIS.
00:29I think most Australians would be alarmed to know that now one out of every ten six-year-olds are on the NDIS.
00:37Before they had access to the right support, Angelique Mae Bennett and her eldest child often had to deal with exclusion from school.
00:44My daughter packed her bag for a month wondering why she wasn't being sent to school.
00:50The NDIS provided the therapy her daughter needed.
00:54The NDIS was, like, just life-saving.
00:57But the scheme's growth is a concern.
01:00In 2022, its budget was expanding by 22% a year.
01:04The government is on track to bring that down to 8%, but the Minister says he wants to see that reduced to around 5 or 6%.
01:12He said half of new NDIS entrants are under nine, most of whom have developmental delay or autism.
01:19Diverting this group of kids over time from the NDIS is an important element of making the scheme sustainable and returning it to its original intent.
01:30Minister Butler says he wants the program to start in July next year.
01:34Disability advocates worry that doesn't leave enough time for consultation.
01:38Let alone a really thorough and rigorous procurement process to make sure that only supports that are evidence-based and will truly meet the needs of the community will actually be the ones that are funded.
01:50Those with more moderate and profound types of autism will need to remain in the NDIS because they do have a significant and lifelong disability.
01:58The disability community is optimistic about today's announcement, but says the devil will be in the detail.
02:04They agree the NDIS needs to be financially sustainable, but that consultation over coming months will be vital.
02:10Medical
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02:28Health
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