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Policy call, Think Autism Melbourne 2026
Closed tenders and NDIS changes threaten autistic led social enterprises
In short
At Think Autism Melbourne in 2026, a panellist said autistic businesses rarely reach government shortlists, and Rebecca McCash warned that moving NDIS money into direct grants and tenders would turn enterprises like FutureTech into charities.
Read it instead, 5 minutesThe transcript
The story
Rebecca McCash runs FutureTech inside the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and at Think Autism Melbourne on 30 May 2026 McCash explained why that location had made it a social enterprise. The money comes from government, McCash said, but it goes to NDIS participants, and the participants decide how to spend it. That arrangement lets FutureTech win those customers, and it is predominantly how the enterprise makes the money to pay its neurodivergent staff. The changes then underway would move funding toward grants and tenders issued directly by government. In McCash’s view, “this sort of makes it seem like we will have to be more of a charity than a social enterprise”.
The answer came in response to a question about how recent NDIS changes were affecting autistic entrepreneurship in ways that were not obvious at first reading. It followed a question Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the session, had put to the panel just before, on whether autistic enterprises were largely invisible in government’s eyes.
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Sources the story draws on
- National Autism Strategy (opens in a new tab), Department of Social Services
- Q&A from Minister Butler, National Press Club, 20 August 2025 (opens in a new tab), Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
- Thriving Kids (opens in a new tab), National Disability Insurance Agency
- The Indigenous Procurement Policy is changing (opens in a new tab), National Indigenous Australians Agency
- Indigenous Procurement Policy overview (opens in a new tab), National Indigenous Australians Agency
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