Thursday, 27 August 2026

 Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (12:33): (1452) My question is for the Minister for Disability. An estimated 85,000-plus Victorians are on national disability insurance scheme plans, with many of those at risk to be removed by the end of the decade. With Thriving Kids being rolled out in stages and not fully operational until 2028, parents of neurodivergent children are worried their children will be left behind without support. Minister, what resourcing are you putting in place to meet this increased demand and to prevent waitlists, particularly for children with complex needs and co-occurring conditions, who are transitioning off the NDIS?

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:34): I thank Ms Gray-Barberio for her question. Indeed many of those questions are the same questions that I asked the Commonwealth in a meeting with them last week, because the national disability insurance scheme is a national scheme. The Commonwealth have given states and territories a commitment that children and others will not be removed from the scheme until such time as there are appropriate services to meet the needs of those children and other people. One of the questions that remains that we have challenged the Commonwealth to answer and that still has not been answered is exactly how they define ‘mild to moderate’. Hopefully, to the point of Ms Gray-Barberio’s question, that means that people with complex needs remain on the NDIS receiving the NDIS services. They are all very good questions that Ms Gray-Barberio raises, but they are questions for the Commonwealth.

 Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (12:35): Minister, it is essential that children with developmental concerns are identified early so they can be supported to thrive and their needs and families can be supported to get the best outcomes for their child. With 23 per cent of NDIS participants being under the age of nine, the increased demand on the Thriving Kids scheme needs to be sustainable. Minister, will your department do any modelling to identify any gaps in workforce support and training to meet this increased demand?

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:35): I thank Ms Gray-Barberio for her supplementary question. Indeed, as is the case with a supplementary question, the first question needs to be answerable first, and those questions remain for the Commonwealth in order for us to be able to continue the planning and modelling to stand up the Thriving Kids service and ensure that we fully understand – as we do not yet have definitions from the Commonwealth – what is mild to moderate, what are complex needs in their view and who exactly they are planning on exiting from the NDIS and for what purpose. What we have said, though, and what the former Premier and I were pleased to announce is that – and I am sure Ms Gray-Barberio, given the nature of her question, will be very pleased to know, if she did not already follow it in the public domain – we also agree that developmental delay and difference need to be detected as early as possible. That is why we did say that we would have two developmental assessments, one before kinder and one before school, rather than the proposal like the opposition have put forward, which is handing out vouchers for autism assessments after a 15-minute glance in a classroom.