Submission to the House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability

Inquiry into the Thriving Kids Initiative

Submitted by Hope in Colour Advocacy

Date: October 2025

1. About Hope in Colour Advocacy

Hope in Colour Advocacy is a national child safety and disability advocacy organisation founded by parents with lived experience. Our work focuses on systemic reform in schools, sport, and community services to ensure that children are safe, included, and supported to thrive. We represent families of children with disability, neurodivergence, and complex support needs who have been failed by existing systems. Hope in Colour Advocacy speaks with a collective voice to Parliament, media, and service providers to demand accountability and reform.

2. Position Statement

Hope in Colour Advocacy opposes the Thriving Kids initiative in its current form. While presented as a supportive framework, the initiative functions as a cost-cutting mechanism to remove children with “mild to moderate” developmental delay, autism, or disability from the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

This would:

• Strip children of legally enforceable rights to individualised support.
• Force families into a cheaper, block-funded program with limited choice and no accountability.
• Create a two-tier system that entrenches inequality and pits children with disabilities against each other.
• Directly contradict the recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission.

3. Response to the Terms of Reference

(a) Evidence-based information and resources

Families already struggle to have developmental delays and autism recognised and supported. The initiative risks making early identification meaningless if children are identified only to be shifted out of National Disability Insurance Scheme supports.

(b) Effectiveness of current and previous programs

Previous initiatives have repeatedly failed because they were underfunded, discretionary, and lacked enforcement mechanisms. Evidence shows children remain excluded, restrained, bullied, and denied adjustments despite decades of programs.

(c) Equity and intersectional issues

The initiative will disproportionately harm First Nations, culturally and linguistically diverse, and low-income families who cannot afford to top up private supports once National Disability Insurance Scheme access is stripped. It entrenches systemic racism and disadvantage by shifting responsibility back onto families without resources.

(d) Workforce gaps

Workforce shortages are real — but shifting children into the initiative does not solve this. Instead, it will increase demand on an already stretched mainstream system without adequate training or resourcing.

(e) International best practice

Best practice models internationally embed inclusion, child safety, and rights protections into child development systems. No credible best practice model removes children from funded disability entitlements into a discretionary program.

(f) Seamless transitions through mainstream systems

The initiative cannot provide a seamless pathway because it strips children of choice, control, and legal protections. Families will be forced into a patchwork of mainstream services that cannot meet needs — repeating the very failures the National Disability Insurance Scheme was designed to fix.

4. Parent Voices (Anonymous)

This section will include anonymised quotes from parents and carers gathered through Hope in Colour Advocacy’s community consultation, highlighting how losing National Disability Insurance Scheme supports would directly harm their children.

5. Recommendations

Hope in Colour Advocacy recommends that:

1. Reject the Thriving Kids initiative in its current form.
2. Guarantee that all children with disability, developmental delay, or autism remain eligible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
3. Implement the Disability Royal Commission’s recommendations on education, inclusion, and child safety.
4. Strengthen workforce training and accountability within the existing National Disability Insurance Scheme framework.
5. Invest in independent advocacy so families can enforce their rights.

6. Conclusion

The Thriving Kids initiative, as proposed, is not about helping children thrive — it is about cutting children out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and reducing government responsibility for their care. If implemented, the initiative will cause systemic harm: loss of supports, increased exclusion, worsening inequity, and ongoing breaches of children’s rights. We urge the Committee to listen to families and reject the Thriving Kids initiative. Instead, commit to strengthening — not dismantling — the National Disability Insurance Scheme and building a system that truly allows every child to thrive.

Submitted by:

Shanntelle Marks
On behalf of Hope in Colour Advocacy
admin@hopeincolour.org | www.hopeincolour.com.au