First Nations disability peak says if culturally safe supports cannot be proven ready in a region, NDIS access arrangements should not change there.
First Peoples Disability Network Australia (FPDN) has welcomed important progress in the Australian Government’s response to the No child left behind inquiry and the wider Thriving Kids framework, while warning that the strongest commitments made to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have not yet been converted into enforceable protections.
FPDN is calling for a Thriving Kids Readiness Guarantee requiring governments to prove, region by region, that culturally safe supports are operating before NDIS access arrangements change for affected children. The Government has committed $4 billion over five years, with rollout from 1 October 2026 and full scale intended by 1 January 2028.
FPDN Interim CEO Tennille Lamb said there was genuine and positive progress, including phased implementation, workforce and regional investment, Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles, and continuing NDIS access where a child meets eligibility requirements.
“The parliamentary inquiry heard First Nations families and organisations clearly. The Government has accepted some important principles and made significant investment, but principles are not protections,” Ms Lamb said.
“Policy is not a service, and a date on a calendar is not a readiness test.
“If a First Nations family reaches January 2028 and there is no culturally safe service in their community, no navigator to help them through the system, or a six-month wait for the support their child needs, then that community is not ready.
“No child should lose access to one system simply because the timetable says another system should be ready.”
FPDN gave evidence to the parliamentary inquiry, which recognised cultural safety, family leadership and community control as foundations of Thriving Kids. The Government response is less specific about how those principles will be guaranteed. Stronger commitments sit in the National Agreement on Foundational Supports, including partnership with First Nations organisations and prioritisation of ACCOs, Aboriginal Medical Services and ACCHOs as providers where appropriate and available.
The need is urgent. In 2024, just 33.9 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children starting school were developmentally on track across all five Australian Early Development Census domains, against a Closing the Gap target of 55 per cent by 2031. Families also face service shortages, culturally unsafe assessment and severe workforce gaps, particularly in regional and remote communities.
“Community control means trusted First Nations organisations having authority, long-term funding and the workforce to deliver. Health and children’s expertise are essential, but they cannot substitute for First Nations disability expertise in the decisions that shape this system,” Ms Lamb said.
Under FPDN’s proposed Thriving Kids Readiness Guarantee, governments would commit to demonstrating four things before NDIS access arrangements change in any region:
- Services are actually there: Culturally safe supports are operating locally, with community-controlled organisations properly commissioned and funded, including appropriate remote and very remote loadings.
- People and pathways are ready: There is sufficient local workforce and First Nations navigation, culturally validated identification and assessment, and a clear NDIS pathway where eligibility is met.
- First Nations people share the decisions: First Nations people with disability have formal roles in implementation, commissioning and governance.
- Readiness is transparent and public: Governments publish a pre-transition, region-by-region assessment of service coverage, workforce, navigation and waiting times for First Nations children, including by remoteness.
“A future plan is not a safeguard. The safeguard is evidence. If governments cannot show that culturally safe support actually exists in a community, NDIS access should not change there,” Ms Lamb said.
FPDN also warned that the proposed review after the January 2028 transition cannot substitute for a readiness test before it.
“The inquiry gave governments a strong foundation. The task now is to turn it into services families can actually reach, trust and use. Success should be simple, wherever a First Nations child lives, their family knows where to go, they are welcomed when they get there, the support is culturally safe, and no child is left between systems,” Ms Lamb said.
