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NESA NEXT: Insights

Let’s Talk About Disability Employment

September 2026 | Cain Beckett

To achieve parity on disability employment, policies and programs need to be balanced and focus more on growing employer demand for hiring people with disabilities, capacity for inclusion, and workplace supports, rather than primarily skills and capabilities of employees.

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Employment Services Reform in Australia: Getting the Whole System to Work Together

July 2026 | Dr Marion Byrne

Australia is redesigning its employment services system, and it's a real opportunity. But success won't be decided by structure alone. It will depend on whether assessment, funding, streams, employer engagement and frontline delivery work together for real people. NESA opens up the design questions underneath its reform submission.

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Employment Services Reform: Should Streams 2 and 3 Be Delivered Together?

June 2026 | Dr Marion Byrne

Should participants move between providers as they move between Streams 2 and 3? NESA’s latest Policy Insights Paper explores one of the most significant questions facing Australia’s employment services reform agenda and considers whether a distinct response may be needed for those furthest from employment.

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Why Disability Employment Outcomes depend on more than Good programs.

June 2026 | Dr Marion Byrne

For more than a decade, Australia has invested heavily in both disability support and disability employment services. Yet employment outcomes for people with disability remain stubbornly low. Only 23% of working-age NDIS participants are in paid employment. Of that group, just 25% are in open employment at full award wage. For people with psychosocial and neurological disabilities, employment rates fall as low as 7-17%. Read our analysis of what needs to happen within the NDIS and Inclusive Employment Australia interface, to help to close this gap.

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Supported Employment Reform in Australia: What Would Genuine Choice Actually Look Like?

May 2026 | Dr Marion Byrne

NDIA data shows only 1% of adults with intellectual disability in supported employment have moved to open employment. NESA's latest analysis asks what it would actually take to change that, examining international evidence, what works for this specific cohort, and what realistic reform of the IEA program and NDIS supports would require. The future depends on genuine options, not just good intentions. Read the blog and access the full paper.

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Why Employers Hold the Key to Closing Australia's Disability Employment Gap

May 2026 | Dr Marion Byrne

People with disability face unemployment rates twice the national average, a gap that has barely shifted in a decade. NESA's new research examines what international evidence shows actually works in disability employment, and what doesn't. From employer capability building to social procurement and employment services reform, the findings have significant implications for IEA and Australia's disability workforce participation agenda. Read the blog and access the full research paper on the NESA website.

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NESA Next publishes analysis from NESA and guest perspectives from people working on the future of employment services. Guest pieces are labelled and reflect the views of their authors. NESA may edit, update or remove content at any time. Guest pieces remain the copyright of their authors and are published with their permission.