AMTA continues to urge Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme of Australia Bill Shorten MP and the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) to keep music therapy in the NDIS as a therapeutic support.
We make this statement to support National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants who use music therapy as a therapy support to help achieve their NDIS goals.
This week, the NDIA confirmed they have removed music therapy as a therapy support for NDIS participants, effective from 1 February 2025. No-one in the music therapy community was consulted about this decision.
AMTA urges Minister Shorten and the NDIA to reverse this decision. Music therapy is an evidence-based allied health profession and should remain a therapy support in the NDIS.
AMTA President Monica Zidar RMT said:
“We urge Minister Bill Shorten to support us to reverse the unfair and unfounded decision to remove music therapy as a therapy support, which will devastatingly affect over 8,000 families across the country.”
Music therapy is a therapy support and an allied health profession
Therapy supports provide NDIS participants with critical, often life-changing results, through goal-directed, individualised interventions. Music therapy is one of many allied health professions providing therapy supports in the NDIS, along with occupational therapy and speech pathology.
The NDIA is moving music therapy to the community participation budget. This budget promotes access to activities, not therapies. We strongly support the role of the NDIS in facilitating social and community participation and connection for people with disabilities. However, community participation does not deliver the functional outcomes achieved through allied health therapies such as music therapy.
Music therapy is supported by strong evidence and delivers significant functional outcomes with participants. You can read more in our Disability Evidence Summary.
AMTA is deeply concerned that music therapy has been selectively removed from NDIS therapy supports. We expect to be held to the same standards and review processes as our allied health colleagues.
Impacts for NDIS participants
The decision to remove music therapy as a therapy support devastatingly affects over 8,000 families across Australia. We fear that the benefits participants experience, and the goals they are working to achieve, will be jeopardised.
Without funding for music therapy as a therapeutic support, most participants will lose access to music therapy, leaving many without essential support.
This abrupt decision not only undermines the principles of the NDIS but directly threatens the health and goals of participants who rely on music therapy.
We are also deeply concerned that participants’ and registered providers’ trust in the NDIA will be undermined.
We make this statement on behalf of over 8,000 NDIS participants and their families, and on behalf of the 950 registered music therapists in Australia, many of whom are also NDIS registered providers.