National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1919
Subsection 32K(3A) The Minister must also be satisfied that those rules adequately take account of the variety of factors that may affect a participant’s need for NDIS supports. Note: Examples of those factors include environmental factors, and a participant’s need for NDIS supports arising from an impairment in relation to which the participant meets the disability requirements or the early intervention requirements being impacted by another impairment in relation to which the participant does not meet either of those requirements.
This subsection is important to keep, meaning to not repeal, as the impacts of where participants can live and the impacts of health conditions that are unrelated to NDIS support dramatically influence the supports that will be needed.
Reducing the cost of the NDIS will not reduce the federal government’s overall spending. The effects of fewer participants and smaller supports will include health impacts affecting hospital and Medicare costs; employment impacts affecting Centrelink, homelessness and policing costs; isolation impacts affecting the peace, policing and healthcare costs. Reducing NDIS spending will increase state and local government spending. The need for unpaid care will increase, reducing non-former participants labour value; adding stress to households that will increase domestic violence; lowering the spending power of the lower income households most.
Evidence for the impacts of reduction in federal government support for disabled people can be seen in the UK’s austerity measures following 2008, causing more than an additional ten thousand to forty thousand people to die each year than expected.
“consistent evidence of a relationship between austerity policies and harmful impacts on mortality outcomes in high-income countries” Broadbent P, Walsh D, Katikireddi SV, Gallagher C, Dundas R, McCartney G. Is Austerity Responsible for the Stalled Mortality Trends Across Many High-Income Countries? A Systematic Review. Int J Soc Determinants Health Health Serv. 2024;54(4):362-379. doi:10.1177/27551938241255041