National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1153
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 - Senate Enquiry – Geoff Baldwin submission
Committee Secretary 25 May 2027 Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600
I find the proposed legislation amendments has issues with lack of clarity in the legislation and statements about arbitrary reducing Core Support and Capacity Building which is not in line with the Government statements or Scheme Objective as it has a one size fits all approach to reducing support or allows haphazard interpretation in decision making.
Legislative Issue
The proposed legislation amendments are subjective as a result of a lack of legislative clarity of who it applies to or how to apply it to decision making.
The only way it is not subjective is if it applied to all participants and all levels of disability disregarding criticality of their needs for functionality. I don’t belief that is the intent. Parts proposed legislation amendments repeat what is currently in the legislation and rules that NDIA has been ignoring. Eg medical and rehabilitation already defined in NDIS (Support for Participant) Rule It allows a one size fits all approach to decision making regardless of the critically of support needs on an alternate selective basis the lack of legislative clarity promotes more argument at the ART as public servants use their own judgements over specialist, medical and allied health advice.
Subjective legislation leaves too much to individual decision-makers, resulting in inconsistent and unpredictable outcomes.
Reducing Core hours
If NDIA reduces my core supports arbitrarily, I won’t have enough for any social activity. I normally have five to seven allied health and medical appointments a week which takes up most of weekly funding for social on lighter weeks, so it is normally just shopping for essentials, haircut etc. Arbitrary cuts to social and community funding will go below what I need to support medical and allied heath appointments.
Reduced Capacity Building
If NDIA reduce my Capacity Building supports arbitrarily, I won’t have enough for critically needed allied health supports to ward off debilitating migraines or to provide movement that only allied health can provided for paralysed bowel.
Comparing itself to other schemes is wrong as they have different outcomes to NDIS e.g. DVA is limiting allied health to $5000 per year on 1 July 2027 in line with its rehabilitation focus and outcomes for accepted service caused conditions. Medicare has similar restrictions. Half or quarter of my allied health needs is not an option to maintain my functional ability to live a half decent life.
Other Service Providers Every disability category has people that should be NDIS participants or are adequately supported by other service providers. And yes, that can about functionality and disability needs. That needs to be addressed through in carefully thought-out Legislation, but not by this proposed subjective legislation amendment. The level of detail in the proposed legislation needs to be similar to NDIS (Support for Participant) Rule defining S33 and S34 of the ACT.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1153
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 - Senate Enquiry – Geoff Baldwin submission
Every permanently disabled person comes to NDIS through other service providers usually medical and rehabilitation before they are considered permanently disabled and to what severity. In the past participant were let on the basic of diagnosis. That is a NDIA problem to correct with staff training on functional assessment tools. Supported by carefully thought-out Legislation preferably about Disability Pathways.
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