Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 | External submission

National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1645

digital tools delivering choice and control at a fraction of the cost of legacy services — that the disability community has been asking for since the scheme began.

I would welcome the opportunity to speak to this submission at hearing.

Aaron Cotton

Founder, Acorn Homes Supported Living

Founder, Marco Polo Portal

Member, Advisory Council to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (personal capacity) aaronc@marcopoloportal.com

Consolidated recommendations

Each recommendation is numbered above where the issue is discussed; they are repeated here in the same order for ease of reference.

1. Amend section 17B so financial sustainability is one of several considerations the CEO must weigh — alongside the choice and control, individualisation and participant-direction principles previously contained in section 31 — rather than an override. Retain the planning principles previously in section 31 in modified form within Part 2 of the Act.

2. Delete the word “directly” from section 34(1)(aa) (and section 32L(6)), restoring the whole-of-person approach achieved in the 2024 amendments and confirmed in Eastham.

3. Amend section 34(1E) to give lived experience and treating-practitioner clinical experience genuine evidentiary weight alongside peer-reviewed research; remove section 34(1F) so that missing peer-reviewed research cannot operate as a veto on novel or individualised supports.

4. Amend sections 33(2EA) and 33(2EB) so worker-to-participant ratio limits cannot be set as cost ceilings by Ministerial determination overriding an individualised safety assessment; ratio-related standards should be safety floors set by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, not cost ceilings set by the Minister.

5. Require cap values themselves to sit in the disallowable NDIS rule, not in documents incorporated by reference under sections 33(2G)–(2H) and 209(2AA)–(2AB).

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National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1645

6. Amend section 34A so any percentage reduction is preceded by mandatory consultation with the disability community and a published impact statement; provide an enforceable exemption mechanism on the face of the Act for participants with high or complex support needs; preserve individual merits-review rights where a reduction produces a harmful change in a plan.

7. Amend section 25B so an “excluded impairment” only applies where the compensation or alternative scheme actually pays for the supports the participant needs; any section 25B(4) declaration must be a disallowable instrument with mandatory consultation, including with First Nations representative bodies where relevant.

8. Insert into the Act a principle that funding and commissioning arrangements for home and living supports must not mandate, incentivise, or have the practical effect of producing congregate or institutional settings, and must preserve the participant’s right to choose who they live with and at what scale. Anchor in the findings of the Disability Royal Commission.

9. Any commissioned support coordination or navigation function must be multi-provider, must be required to incorporate participant-choice tools (including housemate-matching), and must not operate as a monopoly that crowds out market innovation.

10.Clarify in section 34 (or in an accompanying NDIS Rule) that disability-specific tools and services that reduce reliance on more expensive supports — including digital tools that deliver choice and control in housing and living arrangements — are explicitly fundable as NDIS supports where they meet the reasonable-and-necessary criteria.

11.Make decisions to transition participants into new framework plans (section 32B(2A)), automatic plan renewals (section 50A), and the application of support determinations to individual plans (section 34A) reviewable. Where the Minister’s alterations to a renewed plan are more than purely administrative, they constitute new decisions and must be reviewable.

12.Implement NDIS Review Recommendation 11: amend section 45C so maximum-price determinations must be made on the binding advice of the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority, not on the advice of the Agency.

13.Narrow the Schedule 5 transitional rule-making power: limit it to specifically enumerated transitional issues; reduce the duration; require mandatory consultation with the disability community; require a published impact statement.

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National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1645

14.Delay commencement of the section 9B functional capacity test until the assessment tool has been published in draft, consulted on, piloted with diverse cohorts, and made subject to disallowable parliamentary scrutiny. The tool must not be used to remove existing participants.

15.Remove or qualify section 25A(2) so the participant’s actual ability to access a treatment — including geography, cost, wait lists, and disability-related barriers — must be considered. Preserve a participant’s right to refuse treatment for personal reasons without losing scheme access.

16.Define “reasonable attempts” in sections 40A and 30(1A) as evidenced, accessibility-appropriate contact through every channel the participant has provided, over a minimum 60-day period, with protected-circumstance exclusions. Remove the direct-revocation pathway in section 30(1A)(a).

17.Extend the claim window in section 45A(5)(a) beyond 90 days with a meaningful exceptional-circumstances discretion. Introduce reasonable-excuse and proportionality defences for record-keeping debts under sections 45B and 182(4), available to participants, nominees and small providers. Apply tiered, proportionate obligations.

18.Consolidate the enforcement powers proposed in Schedule 2 Part 2 within the existing NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission rather than establishing a parallel NDIA enforcement function. Remove participant-facing civil penalties under sections 53(2)–(3) for administrative non-compliance.

19.Insert into the NDIS Act a statutory requirement for an independent post-implementation review commenced no later than two years after Royal Assent, with mandatory consultation, cohort-disaggregated analysis, a published government response, and a duty on the Minister to introduce remedial legislation where the review finds material harm.

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