National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2385
I wish to make a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Community
Affairs about the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the
NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026.
I am a family member , a friend and a carer of various disabled people on the NDIS .
I want to outline the harm this Amendment Bill will cause if it passes Parliament. This
Bill is too far-reaching to pass as it stands. I believe the Bill should be withdrawn
from parliament altogether and the government should keep the NDIS as it is. Any
changes to the NDIS should not come at the cost of the wellbeing and safety of
disabled people and our families, carers and should not create further barriers to
equality or autonomy. We are already living with so many barriers.
Tax gas companies or the top 10percent of wealthy australians if you need more
money to balance your budget, Don’t punish disabled people and devastate peoples
lives.. If it proceeds this bill requires further scrutiny and amendment before it
proceeds.I am writing to express my opinion to you that the NDIS reform Bill needs
to be withdrawn at once and the NdIS needs to be kept as it is for participants. Get
rid of fraudulent providers and keep the disabled NDIS participants
Any changes to the NDIS should not come at the cost of the wellbeing and safety of
disabled people and our families, carers and should not create further barriers to
equality or autonomy. We are already living with so many barriers.
The whole NDIS Bill and the changes it wants to make to the NDIS needs to be
withdrawn. Aged care and NDIS eligibility and supports should not be determined by
computer systems. Or by a Minister who wants to have powers to do whatever they
want with no meaningful input by participants and their carers who have lived
experience,with no input by medical experts in specialist fields and no meaningful
input by social and community workers and therapists who work within the field.
Parliamentary Scrutiny and Transparency
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National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2385
The consultation period for the Amendment Bill is two weeks, which is insufficient to
allow for appropriate consultation, considering accessibility and communication
needs. Especially when you are talking about people on the NDIS who are disabled
and their families and carers who are often time poor and burn out with their unpaid
caring roles. The Australian Government Guide to Policy Impact Analysis says
consultation should occur for a minimum of 30 days where possible.
The short timeline impacts me and everyone I know who this bill will directly and
indirectly affect.
Recommendation: Amend the consultation period for a best practice minimum of 30
days.
Key decisions left to ministerial instruments, not law
The issue: The Bill allows Ministers to change who gets NDIS support (Schedule 1
Parts 8 and 9) and how much funding people receive (Schedule 1 Part 4; Schedule
- by signing an instrument, without going back to Parliament. The rules that will
determine critical eligibility thresholds (Schedule 1 Parts 1, 8 and 9) have not yet
been written.
How this affects participants: The decisions that shape the lives of participants,
whether they qualify for the NDIS and what supports they can access, could be
changed without parliamentary debate or public scrutiny. Participants may not know
supports or eligibility rules have changed until their plan is affected.
Recommendation: Require that all decisions affecting NDIS eligibility and funding
levels be made through primary legislation subject to full parliamentary scrutiny, with
input by experts and community members in the disability field with mandatory
advance notice to affected participants before any changes take effect.
They should not be reduced to a financial cost. The process of being accepted onto the current NDIS requires professional assessments and diagnosis by skilled medical experts and takes time, effort and money. As does functional capacity
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PWDA Template: Submission to the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2385
assessments. People will not become less disabled because of the proposed changes in the NDIS Bill. They will still need supports and so will their families and carers.
The proposed NDIS Bill and its changes to the NDIS will cause harm to existing participants of the NDIS and potential future NDIS recipients.
Existing participants face narrower criteria and fewer rights to challenge decisions
The issue: The Bill changes the rules for existing NDIS participants and makes it
harder to challenge some decisions about supports and funding. It also restricts
when you can request a reassessment, removes review rights for automatic plan
renewals, and makes funding reductions unreviewable (Schedule 1 Parts 1 and 8).
Combined with restrictions on reassessment requests (Part 2), automatic plan
renewals without review rights (Part 5), and unreviewable funding reductions (Part
4), existing participants face narrower criteria with significantly fewer avenues to
challenge decisions about their supports.
How this affects participants: This does not protect participants already on the NDIS,
who could be reassessed under stricter rules. If someone’s funding is reduced or
their plan renewed automatically, they may have limited or no ability to challenge that
decision. This will make it harder for people to get extra support when their
circumstances or disability change. It will also make
Recommendation: Require a “no harm” safeguard ensuring no current participant
loses access to supports unless equivalent supports are in place, with independent
review rights before any exit decision and access to unscheduled reassessments
preserved.
Unreviewable ministerial power to cut funding across all support categories
The Minister can reduce funding for any support or group of supports by a specified
percentage through an instrument that cannot be challenged (Schedule 1 Part 4).
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PWDA Template: Submission to the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2385
This applies across all budget categories. Unspent funds will no longer carry over at
plan renewal (Schedule 1 Part 5).
How this affects participants: A participant’s community participation, capacity
building or assistive technology funding could be cut without warning and without any
right to appeal. Participants who save unspent funds across plan periods for high-
cost items will lose that ability entirely.The minister should not have powers that
allow him to make cuts to whole sectors of NDIS recipients, their funding and
supports. He is not qualified or compassionate to have these powers. The power to
cut whole sections of diagnosed people from the NDIS , to cut people’s plans, to cut
people’s funding to things such as community and participation supports and make
decisions on what supports people are allowed to use. And block funding and
evidence based therapies chosen by the minister will not work.
Recommendation: Require that unspent funds carry over at plan renewal for
participants saving for high-cost items and require independent review rights before
any funding reduction takes effect.The minister should not have powers that allow
him to make cuts to whole sectors of NDIS recipients, their funding and
supportsTHis needs to be performed by medically trained experts who have years of
expertise and experience working within the NDIS and disability framework. They
have the skills and knowledge to assess, diagnose , perform meaningful and life
changing functional capacity assessments and recommend supports and therapies
specific to an individual’s needs. This needs to be done on a case by case basis
looking at the whole person and the impact that their disability has on their whole life
and how it combines with other disabilities, symptoms and health or mental health
problems that the disabled person has..
Requirement to exhaust treatment options before eligibility
The issue: A person with disability will need to exhaust treatment options before they
can be eligible for the Scheme (Schedule 1 Part 8). There will also be a removal of
whole-of-person assessment, replaced by single eligible impairment consideration
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PWDA Template: Submission to the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2385
(Schedule 1 Part 3). The note that previously acknowledged environmental factors
and other ineligible impairments could affect support needs will be removed
(Schedule 1 Part 3).
How this affects participants: People with disability will need to prove their
impairment cannot be treated before they access the NDIS. Once in the scheme,
their supports will only be assessed against a single eligible impairment rather than
their whole experience. A person’s individual circumstances will not be considered,
including ability to pay for treatment, where they live or whether treatment is actually
available to them.
Recommendation: Do not proceed with a requirement to exhaust “appropriate
treatment” options – there are no safeguarding measures around participant harm
due to side effects or complications, a participant’s financial ability to pay, or their
geographic capacity or functional capacity to access treatments.
Unvalidated functional capacity assessment tool risks misidentifying need
The issue: The Bill shifts assessment from whole-of-person consideration to a single
eligible impairment (Schedule 1 Part 3). Read together with the eligibility thresholds
in Parts 8 and 9, the tool used to conduct functional capacity assessments must be
capable of sufficiently identifying whether a person meets the threshold for that
single impairment.
The named assessment tool is the Instrument for Classification and Assessment of
Support Needs (I-CAN). I-CAN requires validation to ensure it will sufficiently identify
the needs of all people with disability, including those whose needs may be
fluctuating or episodic and may not be captured through a point-in-time assessment,
and to ensure it is culturally appropriate for First Peoples with disability.
How this affects participants: If the assessment tool does not accurately capture the
full extent of a person’s disability, including complex and nuanced needs that
fluctuate or vary over time, a participant may be found ineligible or have their
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PWDA Template: Submission to the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2385
supports undercounted, with no guarantee the result reflects their actual daily lived
experience. And they will have no way to get a review of the decision.There needs to
be human being not computers who make these decisions.
Recommendation: Do not proceed with I-CAN as the functional capacity assessment
tool . It cannot replace human beings and reports by people with expertise in the
disability sector including people living with disability, their carers, NDIS participants
and medical and health professionals including but not limited to
psychologists,occupational therapists, autism assessors, social and community
workers. The minister should not have powers that allow him to make cuts to whole
sectors of NDIS recipients, their funding and supports. He is not qualified or
compassionate to have these powers. The power to cut whole sections of
diagnosed people from the NDIS , to cut people’s plans, to cut people’s funding to
things such as community and participation supports and make decisions on what
supports people are allowed to use. And block funding and evidence based
therapies chosen by the minister will not work.. Medically trained experts have the
skills and knowledge to assess, diagnose , perform functional assessments and
recommend supports and therapies specific to an individual’s needs. This needs to
be done on a case by case basis.
There needs to be an appeal system left in place and there needs to be meaningful
human oversight where nuanced and complex needs can be examined included in
the NDIS plan for each individual,. This includes reading and taking advice from
experts and medical practitioners and social workers and health professionals, the
disabled individuals themselves and their carers and families who live with this
disability.
Supports cut
The issue: From 1 October 2026, the government has announced funding for social,
civic and community participation supports will be cut by 50 per cent and capacity
building daily activities by 10 per cent for all participants, reductions that will be
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PWDA Template: Submission to the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2385
implemented through the ministerial instrument power in Schedule 1 Part 4. The
Foundational Supports system intended to fill that gap has no confirmed
implementation date and is not yet operational.
How this affects participants: Supports that help participants connect with their
community, build skills and maintain independence may be cut before anything
exists to replace them, leaving carers and families with greater responsibilities and
no additional support. These supports are often what help people stay visible,
connected and safe.These supports are what help people to live on a daily basis and
are fundamental to an individual’s autonomy, social , medical and community
connection.
Recommendation: Require that no reductions to community participation or capacity
building supports take effect . And do not even consider them until Foundational
Supports are fully operational, adequately funded and demonstrably able to meet the
needs of those who will lose NDIS supports and reviewed by those medical experts
who are already working in the disability sector and people living with a disability.The
current structure of the NDIS funding and in particular flexible funding options
enables the participant to use the funding as they need to and results in the NDIS
participant functioning at their best so that the NDIS participants can have a chance
at living a life. Many participants have fluctuating capacity and their needs and
abilities change from day to day. They need to be autonomous to make decisions on
who will be supporting them, what supports they will use and where those supports
will be used, My grandson cannot leave the house and the supports need to come to
him or be over the internet. He cannot function without his current NDIS plan and its
current level of funding.
The proposed changes with th eNDIS Bill will have devastating effects on members
of the disability community, NDIS participants, their carers and their families. It
needs to be withdrawn from parliament.
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PWDA Template: Submission to the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026