Queensland is the only state or territory that has not signed up to Thriving Kids, the program meant to move young children with developmental delay or autism off the NDIS, a week before its first phase begins in October.
The Commonwealth's own list shows it. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing links to Thriving Kids pages for the ACT, New South Wales, the Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. There is no entry for Queensland.
Thriving Kids is for children aged eight and under with low to moderate support needs, and no diagnosis is required. All governments will spend $4 billion on it over five years, with the Commonwealth and the states each putting in $2 billion. The first phase covers general supports such as parenting courses. Targeted supports, including therapy in schools, are due to be in place by 1 January 2028, when changes to NDIS access begin.
Health Minister Mark Butler said on Wednesday the Crisafulli government was holding up services for Queensland families. "All other states and territories, Liberal and Labor alike, [are] just getting on with the business of developing their programs," he told the ABC. "We're losing time, frankly, for Queensland parents and children."
His argument is that Queensland has already been paid. Earlier this year every premier and chief minister, Queensland's included, agreed to set up foundational supports outside the NDIS in exchange for $25 billion in Commonwealth hospital funding. "[Queensland] signed the grand bargain. They're receiving substantial additional hospital funding," Butler said.
Queensland's LNP government says the Commonwealth is shifting costs to the states and has not defined what counts as low to moderate support needs. Acting Disability Minister Ros Bates said the state was "not being belligerent" but doing its due diligence. "We want to see the detail. We want to know what it means for kids who are under nine years of age, what happens after?"
Her question has no published answer yet. The program stops at eight. Butler has said officials have begun talks with the states about foundational supports for older children and for adults, but nothing has been agreed.
Autism Association of Australia chief executive Nicole Rogerson was blunt about the stand-off. "The sheer audacity of Queensland just saying 'I'm not prepared to be involved' is sort of shocking," she told the ABC. Disability advocates have separately warned that children with moderate needs may fall through the gap, and that parents will carry more of the load.
The money behind the dispute is large. The NDIS costs about $51 billion a year, and Thriving Kids is the first phase of $10 billion in joint foundational supports spending. On the same day, NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister said integrity measures had delivered $2.1 billion in savings and benefits between November 2022 and June 2026, and forecast another $2 billion by mid-2029.
The first phase begins in the other seven jurisdictions next week. Unless Queensland signs, families there will reach 2028's NDIS access changes without the state-run supports that are meant to replace them.
