National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2500
My name is . I am a participant of the NDIS, a parent of 2 participants and provide capacity building supports to NDIS participants. I have experience of the NDIS from all angles. I have a vested interest in the NDIS being sustainable, but the current proposed approach is not going to achieve its objectives.
I could comment on all the proposed changes in legislation but have chosen a few that would fundamentally impact me as a participant of the scheme.
End dates for plans (and preventing funding carryover)
If the act is changed as proposed the following would have a catastrophic impact on myself and my family home.
I am a participant with a physical disability and associated psychosocial disability. I am applying for complex home modification to my home due to my disability and functional capacity needs.
If the following proposed end dates for plans is implemented this would be catastrophic to myself and my family home. Let’s say the builder has materials and supplies delays or difficulties during the planned works and the home modification completion is delayed and my plan ends, according to this new act, the funding would be withdrawn and not carried over into my new plan.
This would mean:
- The builder would not be able to be paid for the work completed
- The complex home modifications would be incomplete leaving my home in pieces
- My home is vulnerable to damage from the elements
- My home would be uninsurable as the home would not be in good, maintained state.
- My home mortgage would be under threat as my home needs to be habitable or I would need to remortgage to complete the works and make my home habitable again.
This proposed change would also impact the purchases of expensive and often imported assistive technology.
If there are delays in the supply and delivery of assistive technology (mostly supplied from overseas) the items would be shipped by the supplier and then I would not able to receive the assistive technology that was approved and funded in my plan due to the funding being withdrawn when the plan ends.
This would leave
- The Supplier with stock they cannot on sell.
- Me without essential assistive technology
As per the current NDIS act, goods and services cannot be claimed until the services are delivered. If you are going to implement this act change, there would need to be change the claiming laws so that goods and services can be paid for upfront during plan periods so that these large capital funding items can be completed. This isn’t good commercial business practice and leaves the NDIS vulnerable for fraud. Do not NOT change this, as it currently works well in the scheme. Any Complex Home Modification or Assistive Technology approved but not yet delivered at the date of plan renewal/replacement should automatically be carried into the new plan at the approved value.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2500
Without that, participants whose builders, OTs or AT vendors have delayed delivery (often outside the participant’s control) will lose the approval.
Cuts to social and community participation
The Government is proposing a 50 per cent cut to social, civic, and community participation funding, and a 10 per cent cut to some capacity building daily activity funding.
How will I be able to do the basic life tasks that you do without a second thought? Grocery shopping for my family, doctors’ visits, therapy appointments, work? That’s just the basics of life, let alone doing anything frivolous like going out to an event.
What happens for those who’s family members are in the workforce? With a 50% cut to funds, my husband will have to leave his jobs to support me. Increasing pressure on Centrelink, increase to unemployment, underemployment, damaging the economy. This will just redistribute the government spending from NDIS into Centrelink. I want to be an active tax paying citizen. I need social and community participation funding to be able to support my contribution to society.
The new functional capacity test and the 2028 onwards reassessment of everyone.
This is Independent Assessments all over again. The disability community have been very clear that independent standardised assessments are not person centred, or appropriate. Living with a disability is complex. No one tool will be able to capture the full range of disability and functional impairment.
Who decides what is appropriate treatment? NDIS delegates are not Doctors, Specialists and don’t know me. The only person that can decide whether someone can access treatment is the person and their healthcare professional and for it to be accessible to them (financially, geographically etc) Many treatments would be considered as ‘elective’ in the healthcare system, which would mean people could be waiting years before access to treatment. This would put enormous stress on an already overburdened healthcare system. Who decides what treatments the person should have considered? Many people with disabilities are on pensions which means that financially many treatments (whether funded by Medicare or not) are out of reach to them. What if the treatment is evidenced based but contraindicated for the person? I can’t have some treatments because of my medical history.
Eroding the Right to Refuse Treatment
Will the New NDIS Act overwrite the common law that all competent adults can consent to and refuse medical treatment?
Under the law, people have a right not be subjected to an invasive procedure without consent or other lawful justification, such as an emergency or necessity. At the international level, the CRPD expresses this in terms of a ‘right to respect for his or her physical and mental integrity on an equal basis with others.
By refusing to provide NDIS support to a person because they have not been able to access evidence based medical treatment or for medical reasons unable, it penalises them through no fault of their own and erodes their rights to how they maintain their health and wellbeing.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2500
Undoing the ‘whole of person’ approach, is very dangerous. We can’t dissect our disabilities from our lives and where we live and the supports available or not to us. We can’t separate how our disabilities, comorbidities and disability related health concerns impact our day to day and how we function day to day. What’s available to people in city, regional and rural and remote areas are vastly different. No family support system is the same. People are not robots or engines with predictable parts so we need plans that are unique to us and our needs.
Automation of some NDIA functions The Minister’s new power to cut funding without appeal
NO, NO, NO. Did you not learn anything from ROBODEBT? This will be ROBODEBT 2.0. PEOPLE WILL DIE! The NDIS systems rely on people within the NDIS to understand disability. No disability is the same, no person is the same. Cookie cutter plans are very dangerous and will put people’s lives at risk. No other system in the world has untrained people reading reports (or not reading them, on public record from senate hearings) and making decisions about people’s lives without knowledge, skills and understanding of disability (i.e. Allied health professionals). AI and Automation is an even more terrifying prospect.
When I make poor decisions in my life that affect the wellbeing of others, I can be held legally responsible (personally or professionally). If a NDIS delegate or the Minister makes a decision about my life (my NDIS plan supports) that has an adverse effect (harm, illness, injury, further disability or death) they do so without any consequence. There should be protections in the Act for the people with disabilities and their families where the minister or NDIS delegate can be made legally responsible for their decisions.
The proposed broad stroke axe slashing that these proposed powers of the Minster can have to peoples NDIS plans will have catastrophic outcomes. People will be forced into already overburdened hospitals, health care systems, mental healthcare systems and justice systems. We learned from COVID that when large amounts of pressure are put on systems, they collapse and people die. Government must learn from the past and not repeat the mistakes. Having broad stroke power by the Minister sets a very dangerous precident for future government policies. For a Minister to allow the government to act without the usual accountability to Parliament and the public without recourse is lunacy.
The tougher unscheduled reassessment rules and the loss of review rights.
People should be allowed to maintain the right to appeal and review of their NDIS plan. It seems that criminals will have more rights to review and appeal than NDIS participants. This is wrong. People’s lives can change in an instant without warning. Waiting 90 days for a decision could be life threatening and dangerous to informal supports.