Authorities are keeping a close eye on the state of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, after the recent COAG (Council of Australian Governments) meeting saw changes made which might indicate a new direction for the plan.

A number of ‘launch sites’ around the country will now be referred to as ‘trial sites’, with the Government indicating it wanted to learn lessons from the early roll-out to be incorporated into later developments.

Insiders are unclear as to what this means for the future of the plan, which was launched with bipartisan support under the Prime Ministership of Julia Gillard.

The head of the Every Australian Counts campaign, which has pushed for better services with the establishment of the NDIS, says the language is irrelevant as long as patients are offered better services.

“I think it's probably more likely that there's a simple political conclusion to be taken that the Government wants to invest in different terminology... I don't think any government can now walk away from the important commitment to the National Disability Insurance Scheme,” said Every Australian Counts director John Della Bosca.

Mr Abbott’s address indicated that costs and demands are higher than expected, but that the Government was still committed to the program. Mr Della Bosca said they knew it would be costly.

“It’s very early days to start making predictions about cost and about the benefits of the scheme, because clearly comes of the initial costs are upfront costs, and that was always something that governments - the previous government and this Government - went into eyes wide open,” he said.

While quite expensive, the enhanced lifestyle offered by adequate disability support has returns far over the cost of the program.

“It's important to understand that the cost-benefits of the system, the cost-benefits of an NDIS, will take time but they are huge. They've been tested over and over again by very reputable economic modellers.”

“I think any government, including the Abbott Government, that started to back away from the undertakings made on a bipartisan basis would be very foolish indeed politically,” Mr Della Bosca said.

“Apart from the ethics of breaking a promise, and the ethics of letting down hundreds of thousands of Australians with a disability who really haven't had a fair go up until now and are expecting the NDIS to deliver one.”