Speech by Samantha Hunter – CEO, Occupational Therapy Australia

Before I begin I want to note that OTA welcomes the record funding for public hospitals and disability reforms announced last Friday by National Cabinet. OTA also welcomes the extra clarity around the Thriving Kids Initiative, which will begin on 1 October 2026 and be fully rolled out by 1 January 2028. However, it is vital that all Governments deliver funding to support the workforce transition of Occupational Therapists into the Thriving Kids Initiative, which will begin from 1 October 2026, as I will explain in my speech.

This morning, I wish to provide a briefing on Australia’s Occupational Therapy contribution to the Australian health landscape with a particular focus on highlighting the potential contribution to Thriving Kids – and the opportunities that this represents. Occupational Therapy is a person-centered health profession that supports individuals of all ages develop, recover, maintain or regain the skills needed to participate in meaningful daily activities, or "occupations," such as self-care, work, study, and leisure activities, improving their overall health and well-being by adapting the tasks, environments, or tools necessary to enable meaningful occupation.

Emerging from World War One with the rehabilitation of returning soldiers with physical and mental injuries, this profession has grown in both size and scope. Occupational Therapy in Australia is now the third largest and fastest growing allied health profession. OT’s empower individuals, their families and carers to overcome challenges, achieve independence and improve their quality of life across all ages and stages of the life-span. From cradle to grave, from critical care and rehabilitation to everyday living – you will find the valuable contribution of OT’s working in hospitals, community care, aged care, mental health, veterans and in private practices right across our nation.

And at Occupational Therapy Australia, the peak membership body representing occupational therapists nationally, we empower and elevate over 34,000 exceptional professionals who in turn work in partnership with individuals and communities to enable this meaningful participation in the activities of everyday life. We’re the single, unifying connection point for occupational therapists in the nation, leading the profession through education, support, and of course advocacy, so every Occupational Therapist is informed, inspired and fulfilled in their profession. And you, those who chart the course of future policy are aware of the significant contribution we can and do make in the health and wellbeing of the communities we all serve.

As the professional association for Occupational Therapists, we stand ready to respond to the three main health challenges our country faces along with many others, which are an ageing population, a rise in mental health challenges, and a rise in early developmental delay or autism in children.

Occupational Therapy Australia’s top priority for 2026 is for Thriving Kids to be everything our children with autism and developmental delay deserve. In terms of the rise in early developmental delay or autism. Minister Butler has stated that “just under half of NDIS participants are children under 15. And one out of every ten six-year-olds are in the NDIS”.

The new $2bn federal program launching from 1 October 2026 represents a once-in-a generation opportunity to transform early intervention, offering a new way of providing tailored and holistic approaches to early intervention and support.

I’ve heard from families, occupational therapists and allied health workers, and some of the brightest minds across health and allied health contributing to Thriving Kids’ design – one unifying factor is the desire to see a genuinely multidisciplinary approach.

Children don’t experience developmental challenges in neat boxes. Neither should their support. Thriving Kids must enable children to access care from the full range of therapists – occupational therapists, speech pathologists, physiotherapists, psychologists and more. Children learn and grow in classrooms, playgrounds, homes and community spaces.

In order for kids to thrive, Thriving Kids must deliver support in all these settings. This means therapy sessions in schools that integrate naturally into the child’s day, support in community centres where families already gather, and home visits when that’s what works best for the child and family. Flexibility should be the default, not the exception.

Maintaining quality requires continuing professional development and peer support. It must be founded on and grounded in a sustainable workforce able to work cross functionally across schemes and multidisciplinary across the allied health and education professions. Kids cannot thrive without the appropriate professionals leading, developing and working collaboratively within any proposed programs.

So we must invest seriously in workforce training and development – not just for allied health therapists, but for teachers, early childhood educators, GPs and all professionals working with young children. Delivering evidence-based intervention requires robust education and training. It requires skill and experience and a reliable pipeline of professionals.

There is a significant government investment in dollars and a huge investment in public trust in the delivery of Thriving Kids – this investment in money and confidence simply must deliver a system that actually works – services that are integrated, holistic and easy to navigate for both parents, carers and the professionals that serve them.

This is complex and hard thinking and such complexity cannot be tackled alone.

Occupational Therapy Australia stands ready to work collaboratively with government, families and our allied health colleagues.

Australia’s 34,000 occupational therapists are essential partners in this transformation. It is a false economy not to include the specific and specialised therapies and the capability and capacity building expertise of OT’s in the design and delivery of Thriving Kids.

Let’s commit to giving every Australian child with autism or developmental delay what they truly deserve: timely, coordinated, high-quality support that helps them thrive.

Occupational Therapy Australia has Five Asks in Supporting the rollout of Thriving Kids.

We wish to play an active role in the Government’s rollout of Thriving Kids from 1 October 2026 – and we wish to work closely with Government and all parties and Independents to ensure Thriving Kids is successful. OTA is seeking investment in five key initiatives that will better support the health care needs of Australians, and ensure Thriving Kids meets the needs of children & families.

1. $1.4 million under the first phase of Thriving Kids is needed to Support the Thriving Kids Initiative Workforce Transition for Occupational Therapists.

2. $2.3 million under the first phase of Thriving Kids to attract and retain rural and remote Occupational Therapists through incentives.

3. Support for effective and emerging models that demonstrate evidence based interventions for children with mild to moderate support needs as outlined in our submission to the Enquiry Into Thriving Kids.

4. Commit $3 million under the first phase of Thriving Kids to hold a series of Thriving Kids Access Forums for families.
   
   Holding a series of Thriving Kids Access Forums in each Federal Electorate will allow families to hear about local services, and give parents information about best practice approaches like PRECI Australia’s National Best Practice Framework for Early Intervention. The Thriving Kids Access Forums would provide an information session, as well as a local provider showcase with local providers showcasing their services, such as occupational therapy services – this provides both consumer information and a pathway to practice transition for providers ensuring a strong supply of qualified and experienced practitioners.

5. Invest $3.98 million in Occupational Therapy clinical student placements to build a skilled future care workforce to ensure continuity of this highly in demand profession.

As a member of Allied Health Professions Australia, Occupational Therapy supports their petition for and immediately expansion of the Commonwealth Prac Payment to include occupational therapy students as well as other allied health disciplines.

I now wish to finish with two key messages. First, Occupational Therapy Australia believes the Australia Government should rollout the full Foundational Supports as indicated in the independent NDIS Review, as it includes targeted support for psychosocial disability (mental health), as well as supporting children with early development delay or autism through what is now called the Thriving Kids Initiative.

Secondly, Occupational Therapy Australia believes health professionals such as Occupational Therapists should be connected with children within the over 13,000 early childhood centres and over 9,500 schools in Australia. In terms of Thriving Kids, the Australian Government could consider international models such as that of Specialised Instructional Support Personnel (SISP) used in USA, whereby over a million SISP or health professionals including over 30,000 Occupational Therapists provide school‐based prevention and intervention services - or better, look locally where OT’s in schools are already demonstrating evidence based outcomes particularly in primary school settings.

In Australia there are very few OTs working in schools, as the focus over the last 15 years has been the rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), with this model working back into children in school settings. 

The rollout of Foundational Supports & Thriving Kids presents an opportunity to draw from both our local knowledge and the “on scale” evidence based approach in the USA and other nations.

I’d like to cite a local example. In 2025 there was an Occupational Therapist at Blue Haven Public School in NSW, whose early identification facilitated children getting the supports that they needed to engage in school, which led to an 83% improvement in development. To fully tackle the rise in early developmental delay in Australia we need more Allied Health Professionals such as Occupational Therapists working in the Early Childhood Centres or in the School setting. This early identification and intervention leads to greater outcomes for our children AND long term savings for the government purse, and ultimately for greater participation and greater productivity. 

Getting Thriving Kids right is for all of us in this room today, an opportunity AND an obligation.

Thank you all for attending today’s inaugural OTA Morning Tea. Of course there are many other areas of Australia’s health and wellbeing system in which OT’s contribute which require much dissection and discussion. We have ongoing aged care reforms, a national wide mental health crisis, particularly amongst our younger generations, and we have almost half a million veterans that we owe a debt of gratitude, and access to services to.

Myself and my team are always ready and willing to work with both policy and decision makers across all of these issues. Today I have talked about the pressing issue of Thriving Kids – as I said earlier, this is a once in a generation opportunity to shape how we support the new and next generations of Australia – let’s not miss the chance to shape a fair, equitable and sustainable scheme. Let’s work together to get this right the first time.

Thank you for listening, thank you for your time - we wish to make this an annual event, but let’s not leave it that long to continue the vital conversations that we must have to keep the health and wellbeing of Australian’s and the services that support them at the cutting edge of best practice and the forefront of our policy debate.

I am so looking forward to the opportunity to chat and mingle with you today to share our insights and experiences, and we are looking forward to your support in the future.