Powerd NewsWrap 11th February 2026

Vision Australia ID  0:00  
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Pam Green  0:21  
on the Vision Australia and reading radio networks. This is the Powerd news, rap, G'day.

Sam Rickard  0:27  
I'm Sam Rickard. It's the 11th of February, 2026 we're reading articles from the Powerd dot media website. And of course, joining me, as per usual, is the writer of these articles, Emma Myers. G'day, Emma, hello. So we've got a through line for this week's episode. It is thriving, kids, basically, or foundational supports, which ever rocks your boat or spins your dial or wastes your time? Basically all of the above, really, indeed, one of the articles we have haven't read described it as a debacle, and it's more and more seeming like that, isn't it?

Emma Myers  1:04  
It really is a debacle, so much so that there's so much information out there you don't know what to trust or what to believe.

Sam Rickard  1:13  
Yeah, and I'm still really scratching my head as to what it's all about, because some of it is contradictory as well. I mean, this is the thing that amazed me, and no wonder it's being pushed back each time, is because I don't think the stakeholders themselves often know what's going on.

Emma Myers  1:28  
Hopefully with this new report that's just been released, it should improve what we expect thriving kids to entail, because they claim that they've tested a few solutions or proposals on key focus groups, including people who will be using thriving kids and as well as, Obviously, experts from multiple disciplines and states and territories who were going to be funding the program, but overall, it seems like a better outline of what we expect the other kids to entail.

Sam Rickard  2:16  
So you were actually at the press conference. Did I get that right?

Emma Myers  2:20  
You know Sam, I wasn't, and you know why? Because we were recording a podcast. Oh, okay, all right, that's right. I had to, I had to entrust the recording of this to my esteemed colleague. But I did. I did get my colleague to ask what's coming up for foundational supports for the broader disability community, because all we've heard over the past few months is thriving kids and foundational supports is thriving kids. And that's just not accurate. Foundational supports were toted as being multiple programs to address the gap in support for people who weren't on the NDIS.

Sam Rickard  3:15  
So we did actually get some more information from the minister also regarding this. And good news, hopefully for people with the mental health issues.

Emma Myers  3:26  
Yeah, we did. It's surprisingly. The government did answer our question, who knew? So the next cohort that the government will be focusing on under the foundational supports umbrella, will be adults living with severe and chronic mental illness who don't receive support through the NDIS or other psychosocial programs. And there's at least 230,000 people living with their condition, so they really need more support than they're given at

Sam Rickard  4:09  
the moment, and we've been covering this to some degree, because not all of them are eligible for NDIS support. So if we can find a way of helping them out as well, that would come in handy without necessarily spending more money, as a lot of people are saying, is the NDIS is getting very, very expensive, apart from thriving kids. And now this little tidbit, I mean, is there anything else coming out of the government, really, about people with less severe disabilities who may not need a full plan, but might need some degree of support, for example,

Emma Myers  4:41  
not at the moment, Sam, that's all we have from the government at this stage. But they did mention that foundational supports as a whole was given $10 billion 4 billion is tied up in thriving kids. So that's still. Quite a lot of money to invest. So we'll just have to keep an eye on the future of what foundation or supports can well support,

Sam Rickard  5:13  
indeed, and who is eligible as a work. All right, we're going to do something slightly different this week. We are heading to the news with the incomparable Pam green, and then we'll be back to say what's up next week. We've sort of had to roll things in together because the two articles are very, very similar to each other. So over to you, Pam.

Pam Green  5:34  
After months of uncertainty, the disability community has finally been given a glimpse of what the future of foundational supports could look like beyond the government's delivery of thriving kids at a recent press conference, the minister of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, NDIS Mark Butler, where he announced the release of the thriving kids advisory group's report. Powerd media posed a question of whether the broader disability community could expect any other support programs to be rolled out under the umbrella of the much debated foundational supports. Mr. Butler responded, explaining that the second cohort to be the focus of foundational support delivery will be adults with severe and chronic mental illness, as identified by the NDIS review release in 2023 we know that there is substantial unmet need in the community. We undertook analysis of unmet need with state and territory governments over the last few years, which quantified that cohort. The Minister began there were as many as 230,000 mainly adults, living with severe and chronic mental illness, not receiving any support, either through the NDIS or other psychosocial programs run by the Commonwealth or state and territory governments. The Minister for the NDIS also touched on the government's commitment to cutting the growth rate of the National Disability Insurance Scheme by the end of the year. Obviously, there's population growth. There's a bit of population aging in the scheme. Growth should be something like health inflation, plus a measure for population growth and population aging, which I quantified as five to 6% we're confident we're on track to do that. We're still engaged in implementing in a range of new messages to get to that. He claims, with the rollout of thriving kids now delayed until October, disability advocacy groups are questioning whether governments are prepared to deliver a functional, nationally consistent, foundational support system that works alongside the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Timelines must be readiness based, not date based, said Jenny caravolus from the Australian autism Alliance. Last Friday, national cabinet committed an overall $10 billion figure to foundational supports with thriving kids, costing $4 billion alone. There remains a substantial commitment to foundational supports in place by governments. Mental health ministers and health ministers will be meeting at the end of next week. Mr. Butler says, I don't have any time frames to announce about the cohort and the existing foundational supports commitments, but that really is the next important piece of work for governments. Several disability representative organizations released a joint statement in the wake of the announcement calling on all governments to commit to a nationally consistent foundational supports framework, underpinned by minimum service standards, transparent inter government agreements and clear public implementation plans. These reforms are required in parallel so people with disability can access support outside the NDIS and avoid growing service gaps and inequity in different jurisdictions, said a DRO statement, without these commitments, people with disability and families risk facing fragmented systems, inconsistent access and widening service gaps. The statement claims Powerd media will keep you updated as this story progresses, many families within the disability community will be interested to know what key components have been included in the thriving kids advisory group's report, which the federal government released yesterday morning, the advisory group, which includes experts from multiple disciplines as well as state and territory government representatives, believes thriving kids will better support children aged under nine with developmental delay and or autism through a more. Appropriate national model of supports outside the NDIS co chair of the thriving kids advisory group, Professor Frank oberklad Am claims the process for developing the revised thriving kids model was very comprehensive. The advisory group has reviewed the evidence for what constitutes best practice, broadly consulted on strategy with professionals across the whole range of disciplines as well as families with lived experience. The recommendations outlined in the thriving kids advisory group's report includes connecting children and families with supports matched to their level of need and offering supports that are child and family, centered informed by evidence and focused on outcomes, ensuring that supports are empowering and connected to service systems families already trust. The group also recommended acknowledging that children's needs are not linear and can change over time. The report has been informed by the large number of submissions and presentations to the house standing committee on health, chaired by two pediatricians, Dr Mike Freelander and Dr Monique Ryan Mr. Oberclaid explains national cabinet has agreed to the final design of thriving kids, according to the Minister for NDIS Mark Butler, the advice of the thriving kids advisory group reinforces the opportunity we have as a nation to deliver better outcomes for children. Thriving kids will empower and support families early in a child's developmental journey with tailored supports in community settings to ensure states and territories have enough time to implement thriving kids. The national rollout will now commence on the first of October 2026 with full implementation expected by the first of January 2028 according to Mr. Butler, governments have agreed to invest $4 billion to deliver thriving kids. The Commonwealth is providing $2 billion with $2 billion matched by states and territories, $1.4 billion of the Commonwealth contribution will go directly to support states and territories. As for the co chair of the thriving kids Advisory Board, Mr. Oberklade believes the recommendations for the proposed national model will provide the youngest members of the disability community with a brighter future. I am confident that the thriving kids model provides a sound framework for how best to support children and their families to achieve the best possible opportunities for children to thrive. Mr. Oberklade says, All

Sam Rickard  12:47  
right, since we've already talked about what needs to be talked about, let's have a bit of a view into what we're doing next week. So you did another article, if anyone has been on the website, you did another article regarding the haywire competition.

Emma Myers  13:01  
I did it. Yes. So haywire is long running competition for young people in regional and rural Australia to really talk about issues that matter to their community. And it's an initiative run by the Australian Government through the ABC, but because we are for the community, it felt right to cover

Sam Rickard  13:28  
it, indeed, and I'm looking forward to that next week also, we are covering a un review into the Australian into Australian Human Rights I believe that is so.

Emma Myers  13:38  
The UN is urging Australia to adopt the Human Rights Act

Sam Rickard  13:43  
again, again, again, something we haven't, haven't, haven't done yet. Anyway, that is a wrap for this rap. Bye. For now, bye.

Pam Green  13:51  
You can find these articles and more by going to Powerd, spelt P, O, W, E, R, D, dot media, along with the podcast of this show, the Powerd news rap was brought to you by disability media Australia. This show was produced by Sam Rickard in the Adelaide studios of Vision Australia radio