National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1388 - Supplementary Submission
NDIS Bill 2026 - Regional Provider and Downstream Cost Brief
For Coalition, Nationals and regional representatives
Prepared by Jessica Schafer-Wilson | Heart Worx | May 2026
I am writing from Tamworth as a regional NDIS Where the cost moves provider, practitioner and carer working across • unpaid care provider operations, regional delivery, carer systems, • hospitals psychosocial complexity, review realities and local • housing systems service access. • mental health services I support genuine reform, fraud prevention and action • police and crisis responses against poor providers. My concern is that this Bill • legal aid and tribunal review may create administrative savings on paper while • provider collapse increasing pressure elsewhere: families, unpaid • workforce exitscarers, regional providers, hospitals, housing, mental health systems, legal aid, review pathways and local service markets.
Core fiscal point: Poorly designed NDIS cuts do not remove support need. They move it.
Why this matters regionally
Regional NDIS markets do not operate like metropolitan markets. A provider exit, travel restriction, pricing change or increased claim risk may remove practical choice altogether. A participant may technically retain choice on paper while having no realistic local option.
Why staged evaluation matters
The NDIS has already been materially tightened through the October 2024 reforms, including stricter support definitions, funding periods, claim controls and increased payment integrity activity.
Ask
• Do not support the Bill in its current form without regional impact assessment.
• Require provider viability safeguards and staged evaluation of recent reforms.
• Protect review rights, human oversight, functional capacity safeguards and limits on executive-made Rules.
• Require downstream cost modelling before further participant-level restrictions proceed.
Closing line: The support need does not disappear. It goes somewhere.
Prepared by Jessica Schafer-Wilson | Heart Worx | Page 1