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

Submission 1955

Submission to Senate Inquiry: The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026

Hi,

I am making this submission to express my personal concerns in relation to this NDIS amendment plus the changes to the health insurance rebate for people over the age of 65.

I am a NDIS participant and an aged pensioner. This budget is therefore a double whammy in that it reduces my support under NDIS and makes it more expensive to keep my private health insurance. I am stunned that a Labor Government is taking benefits from both people with disabilities and pensioners.

NDIS

The direct eFects on my support by this Bill include:

• Loss of Community Access Support:
  • Access to health professionals
  • Access to shopping
  • The ability to leave my house for anything!
• Reduction in in-home support:
  • This will aFect me in support for feeding, cleaning and gardening.
• Changes to provider registration requirements:
  • Some of my providers (podiatrist, cleaners, support workers, gardeners) have already advised me that they will ‘walk away’ from providing NDIS support (and me!) because of: § Cost of registration and ongoing auditing § Too few NDIS participants to cover the cost.
  • Net eFect is that I will have to use registered providers, if I can find any with availability where I live in .
  • Registered providers charge more to cover the registration requirements cost.
• Proposed changes to funding for Support Co-ordinators. My experience so far is that Local Area Co-ordinators cannot, or are not willing to, take on the duties of Support Co-ordination.
• I cannot understand why I am required to annually prove that my permanent disability is still permanent. If my disability was not permanent, I would not have been allowed on the NDIS in the first place. The cost of this to my plan is high as it requires a Functional Capacity Assessment each time. In addition, I must get reports from all my health providers at further cost to the NDIS. This is a large

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

Submission 1955

• imposition on my time requiring the use of support workers to attend each provider as well as the obvious increased cost to my plan.
  • I have multiple disabilities but I am told I can only have support for my ‘primary’ disability.
    • Lack of support for some of these disabilities will result in additional burdens on the public health system. I cannot help but wonder if this is a deliberate transfer of federal costs to the states.

Algorithms The proposed use of algorithms to evaluate and decide plan values is decidedly RoboDebt revisited. This is worsened by the loss of the ability to have the decision reviewed. I, for one, question whether Human Rights Laws are being breached. Pope Leo has only this week warned against the use of AI.

Fraud The ongoing expression of fraud within the NDIS program as an excuse for these changes, just does not hold water. It seems, from the changes proposed in the Bill, that the fraud is coming from Participants as they are they ones primarily affected. In fact, Providers are the primary source of fraud. The real money has continued flowing upward to consultancy firms, in outsourcing, private providers, bureaucracy, and government contracts while it is being taken away from people with disabilities.

Health Insurance Rebate Changes The proposed dramatic increase in my health insurance cost will force me to cancel my private health insurance. As a full-time aged pensioner, every dollar counts. The cost of private health insurance is high as it is now. The annual hospital excess plus the ‘Gap’ means that most operations result in an out-of-pocket cost of around $5,000. I had four operations last year and one this year so far. The loss of the private health insurance rebate will result in future operations having to occur in public hospitals. Add to that the loss of the ‘Extras’ cover will mean using public Oral Health and Hearing Aids.

Pensions All the above is occurring while pensions are not seeing any real increase and has not seen any in years. The annual inflation adjustment is not covering costs.