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

Submission 2501

Inquiry:

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

Committee Secretary Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600

deeply concerned that the proposed reforms risk moving the NDIS away from the principles that have made it successful and toward a model that increasingly resembles aged care. Proposals involving provider panels, commissioned services, reduced flexibility and greater government control over supports raise serious concerns. My experience has been that when people lose the ability to choose supports that suit their circumstances, outcomes deteriorate and individuals become increasingly dependent on systems that are unable to respond to their actual needs.

I am also concerned about provisions that would allow Ministers to reduce support categories or place limits on supports through legislative instruments. Decisions that affect whether people with disability can participate in their communities, maintain employment or live independently should not be subject to reduced parliamentary oversight. Such decisions have life-changing consequences and deserve full public scrutiny and accountability.

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

Submission 2501

The impact of these proposed reforms is not merely theoretical. I have witnessed the significant stress and anxiety they have already caused. The uncertainty surrounding future supports, eligibility, participant rights and funding arrangements has had a visible effect on my close family member’s wellbeing and level of functioning. It is deeply concerning to see people who have worked hard to build independent lives now fearing that those gains may be reversed.

The NDIS was intended to move Australia away from inflexible, service-driven models and toward a system based on individual needs, choice and control. In my view, the lessons from aged care should be used to strengthen those principles, not weaken them. We should be asking how to make disability supports more responsive and individualised, not how to move closer to systems that many people already find inadequate.

I respectfully ask the Committee to carefully consider whether these reforms risk undermining the core principles that have made the NDIS successful and to ensure that the rights, independence and dignity of people with disability remain at the centre of any future changes.

Yours faithfully,