First, We Build It – Why Thriving Kids Misses the Real Opportunity
Dear colleagues,
The federal government’s Thriving Kids announcement on August 20 by
The Hon Mark Butler MP, Minister for Health, Disability and Ageing should have been a turning point for children with disability and developmental delay. Instead, it risks becoming another patchwork program that adds to the burden families already carry.
Families don’t need more silos. They don’t need another layer of bureaucracy. What they need - what Australia needs - is one unified, easy-to-navigate early childhood system that connects the services children rely on: health, education, disability, the NDIS, justice, social and community services. Reimagine has been calling for this since the release of the Reimagine Early Childhood National Action Plan in 2020, commissioned by the Australian Government and endorsed by families, practitioners, researchers, and communities, and through our Reimagine Statement.
For Reimagine, the issue is not simply about fixing the NDIS. It’s about reimagining the whole early childhood ecosystem. Right now, families are forced to criss-cross between fragmented systems that don’t speak to each other. Parents describe it as “a second full-time job” - a job done while grieving, exhausted, and fighting for recognition. This stymies children’s outcomes and drives families into despair.
In his anouncement, the Minister has argued that children with mild to moderate developmental delay or autism are a “mainstream issue” best supported by services such as health, early learning, and schools. But the evidence shows these very systems are already failing too many children.
The Disability Royal Commission and Productivity Commission have both found ensystemic exclusion, under-resourcing, and inequity. According to the AEDC (2024), only 52 per cent of children are developmentally on track when they start school, and almost one in two begin school developmentally vulnerable in at least one domain.
Closing the Gap targets for early childhood development and school readiness are off track for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Thousands of families are stuck on long waitlists for developmental assessments and early supports.
Many children with disability, neurodivergence, or developmental delay are still excluded from early years settings, while the ECEC sector itself struggles to keep children safe. For families already experiencing trauma, poverty, or cultural exclusion, these systems are not just difficult to access — they are often impossible to navigate.
The government says Thriving Kids will let “kids be kids.” But with a $2 billion budget that falls far short of the ~$3.1 billion currently spent on NDIS supports for children with autism and developmental delay, the numbers don’t stack up. Less money. Fewer supports. Greater inequity.
And crucially, there is no new system ready. Community supports dismantled at the birth of the NDIS have not been rebuilt. Schools and early learning settings are already stretched and failing too many children. To move kids now is to push them into a vacuum.
The real tragedy is that this moment could have been - and still can be - visionary.
Reimagine Australia continues to call for a single, joined-up system led by an Office of Early Childhood, grounded in the ChildKind Best Practice Framework: Understand Me, Support Me, Enable Me.
This is the bold reform families are crying out for. A system that:
- Removes silos and connects health, education, disability, NDIS, and community supports.
- Is equitable, accessible, and culturally safe in every community - not just urban, privileged ones.
- Catches children early, at the red-flag stage, with safe, responsive, family-centred and evidence-based supports.
- Reduces complexity for parents instead of multiplying it.
- Is appropriately resourced, with a workforce that is supported, ready and skilled.
The return on investment is beyond doubt. Every dollar spent on early childhood inclusion saves multiple dollars down the line in health, education, welfare, and justice. Failing to act boldly now means condemning children to be more disabled than they ought to be — not because of who they are, but because systems failed them.
This is our chance to do more than shuffle dollars between programs. This is our chance to build one bold, co-designed, connected early childhood ecosystem that will pay dividends for generations.
We believe children are our future. But Thriving Kids, as announced, isn’t it.
First, we build it.
Kindest,
Yvonne Keane AM
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