{"id":163054,"date":"2025-08-21T05:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T05:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/163054\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T05:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T05:59:09","slug":"health-minister-expects-blindsided-states-to-match-2-billion-funding-pledge-for-thriving-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/163054\/","title":{"rendered":"Health minister expects blindsided states to match $2 billion funding pledge for Thriving Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

The federal health minister expects the states and territories to match his $2 billion funding pledge aimed at moving children with mild to moderate developmental delays and autism off the National Disability Insurance Scheme, despite blindsiding them with the new program.<\/p>\n

Mark Butler on Wednesday used his first major speech since taking over the NDIS portfolio to outline the next stage of the scheme, including a tighter growth target of 5 or 6 per cent and a new Thriving Kids program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The program is the latest iteration of the federal government’s efforts to establish so-called “foundational supports”, a separate tier of services provided by the states through schools, childcare and health services for people with less profound disabilities.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, federal, state and territory leaders agreed to split $10 billion in funding for the program, imagined as a way to return the NDIS to its original purpose of supporting Australians with profound and lifelong disabilities.<\/p>\n

The government just made some big NDIS announcements<\/a><\/p>\n

The NDIS has transformed the lives of its participants, but hard questions about the scheme’s future are again being asked. Here’s what you need to know.<\/p>\n

Mr Butler on Wednesday made clear he expected the agreement would extend to the new children-focused program, as it covered one part of the original foundational supports plan and the funding is part of the initial $10 billion agreement.<\/p>\n

“I committed $2 billion on behalf of the Commonwealth yesterday over four years. The commitment by National Cabinet was that states would match that,” he told 2GB.<\/p>\n

“Obviously not each of the states would do that, but collectively the states would put in $2 billion to that as well.”<\/p>\n

But state and territory leaders stopped short of committing to a dollar figure a day after Mr Butler’s speech, telling reporters they had not been consulted about the new program until it was announced.<\/p>\n

Victoria Premier Jacinta Allen said she was not told ahead of time, like “many states and territories”, a sentiment echoed by the Western Australian and Queensland disability services ministers Hannah Beazley and Amanda Camm.<\/p>\n

“Today was the first time we’d heard about the minister’s Thriving Kids program,” Ms Camm said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“We look forward to continuing our work supporting the federal government given the NDIS is their responsibility.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told reporters he had been looped in ahead of time but without much warning.<\/p>\n

He said he would not “sign a blank cheque” for a program he didn’t have the details of, but that he “will commit to working with the Commonwealth to have a sustainable disability support program”.<\/p>\n

Ms Beazley said foundational supports was an “equally co-funded model” and she looked forward to continuing discussions, while Ms Allen urged the federal government to provide further details.<\/p>\n

“There are many families, particularly many parents, that have got many questions and I hope the federal government can move quickly to answer the many questions today,” she said.<\/p>\n

Rollout of new system stalled<\/p>\n

Foundational supports was agreed to in 2023 and initially slated to begin by July 2025, but the rollout has been stalled and the services yet to be properly defined.<\/p>\n

The proposal focused on the provision of lower-level supports to be delivered outside the NDIS, in a bid to slow growth on the ballooning $46 billion scheme.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, the federal and state governments would provide $10 billion in funding over five years, to be split equally along with any future costs.<\/p>\n

Productivity summit’s final day turns to tax, budget<\/a><\/p>\n

The productivity roundtable’s final day may prove the trickiest yet, as the conversation shifts from broad ambition to the hard realities of looming budget deficits and tax reform.<\/p>\n

Mr Minns said he understood the need for an “updated plan”.<\/p>\n

“They’ve looked at it and decided that having a different scheme in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria is really uneven, particularly lumpy and probably not sustainable,” he said.<\/p>\n

The health minister used a media tour on Wednesday to assure worried parents of children on the scheme that they would not slip through the cracks.<\/p>\n

“I want to reassure them that we’re not going to leave them high and dry,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to make sure that there is a well-designed scheme that gives them confidence that we’re going to do everything we can to support their kids to thrive.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The federal health minister expects the states and territories to match his $2 billion funding pledge aimed at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":163055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,8585,7931,2142,94254,94253,7927,50,80,14982],"class_list":{"0":"post-163054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-butler","10":"tag-disability","11":"tag-federal-government","12":"tag-minns","13":"tag-national-disability-insurance-scheme","14":"tag-ndis","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115065229395679328","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}