Thriving Kids used as political 'bargaining chip', expert claims

The first phase of Thriving Kids is slated to start in October this year. (ABC News: Billy Cooper) A member of the Thriving Kids advisory panel says the state-based model being adopted is a departure from the original intention of the program. Tim Jones says he fears the program has been used to gain leverage during negotiations over public hospital funding. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler says the government is working constructively with the states and territories on the changes. Link copiedShareShare articleA member of the Thriving Kids advisory panel has voiced concern about how the program is being rolled out, saying a state-based model is a departure from the panel's original intention. Tim Jones said when the Thriving Kids Advisory Group handed its report to the government, it did not expect the states to take on as much responsibility for services on the ground. He said he feared the program was used to gain leverage during negotiations over hospital funding. "We were all still very much under the understanding that we were delivering the federal government something that it was really keen to implement," Dr Jones said. "I think that ultimately this may have acted as one of the bargaining chips in securing the National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA)." The NHRA was agreed after a long-running stand-off between the states and the Commonwealth over who should pick up the extra cost of funding hospitals as Australia's population grew older and sicker. Under the deal, the Commonwealth agreed to chip in an extra $25 billion over five years to public hospitals. For their part, the states agreed to restart what are now known as "foundational supports" — state-based disability services which closed when the NDIS began. Parents and experts are warning that a particular cohort of children is at risk of falling through the cracks. The Thriving Kids advisory panel completed its report in December 2025, a month before the states agreed to deliver the bulk of the program. But in August 2025, the government said the "final program design will be settled between the Australian government and the state and territory governments". Thriving Kids forms a major plank of the government's plan to rein in the cost of the now $50 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) by handing over responsibility for some disability services to the states. Queensland is the only state not to have signed on to the deal. When it is fully operational, the $4 billion program will provide support to children under nine with autism and developmental delay who have "mild to moderate" support needs. The states and territories have agreed to deliver most of the program's services on the ground, such as support for parents, access to allied health services and capacity building for families with complex needs. "I'm worried about any family that moves states because the problem with complex models is they don't transfer across state and territory lines." Thriving Kids is slated to start in October and the program is planned to be completely rolled out by January 2028. The disability minister from the last remaining state to sign up to Thriving Kids says it is "an outright lie" to suggest people with disabilities will not fall through the cracks as the NDIS undergoes major changes. Queensland Disability Minister Amanda Camm said the federal government had not consulted effectively with the states and therefore did not know where participants would go to have their needs met. "They're making commitments to families without any of the detail," she said. Ms Camm said Queensland had not signed a bilateral agreement with the Commonwealth because it had not been provided enough information about what it would be responsible for. She said states were being asked to create services without agreement on how different levels of autism were defined and without a definition of developmental delay. "It's a cost-shifting exercise from the federal government to the states and territories with little detail," Ms Camm said. Amanda Camm has slammed the federal government over its approach to Thriving Kids. (ABC News: Glenn Mullane) A spokesperson for NDIS Minister Mark Butler said the states and territories had been provided with a definition of low to moderate support needs and consultation had begun on that in early May. In an address to the Press Club in April, Mr Butler announced sweeping changes to the NDIS that would significantly limit who had access to the scheme and how much support they would receive. Mr Butler detailed plans that would cut $38 billion from the NDIS's spending over the next four years and remove about 240,000 people from the scheme. State and territory disability ministers were briefed on the proposed changes by the Commonwealth on the same day as the speech, a move Ms Camm said displayed "arrogance and disrespect". Mark Butler is confident the government's plan remains the "right" one for the

Thriving Kids used as political 'bargaining chip', expert claims

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