National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2645
Submission to the Senate Community Affairs
Committee Inquiry into the National Disability
Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS
for Future Generations) Bill 2026
From: Anonymous parent and sole carer, NSW
Date: 1 June 2026
I am a sole parent of a young child with autism and ADHD with high support needs. I am
concerned this Bill will make the NDIS less responsive to children whose needs change quickly
and whose families are already under significant pressure
My son started school this year. He still needs ongoing speech therapy, occupational therapy,
psychology, behavioural support, and school related capacity building supports to help him
participate safely, manage transitions, regulate emotions, and stay engaged in learning. His
needs do not stay the same across home, school, holidays, illness, fatigue, and developmental
change. A system that is slower and narrower will not reflect the reality of childhood disability.
One of my biggest concerns is the change to parental responsibility. The Bill would define
substantial care and support in a way that captures supervision, personal care, transport,
emotional support, behavioural support, and help with daily living, regardless of the child’s
disability, and it also says supports should not be funded where the main purpose is to reduce
parental burden below what is reasonably expected. For families raising children with significant
disability, this risks shifting more disability related care back onto parents and treating very high
support needs as ordinary parenting.
This matters in real life. My child can become highly distressed during transitions. I can be hit,
scratched, bitten, and headbutted while trying to leave the house or get him safely into the car.
We have been stuck on the street many times for hours, unable to get him home safely. These
are not ordinary parenting demands. They are disability related support needs that affect safety,
health, work, and school attendance. The Bill does not appear to properly recognise that reality.
I am also concerned about the move away from the established reasonable and necessary
framework. According to public explainers, the Bill changes how support decisions are made and
leaves more detail to rules and later determinations. That creates uncertainty for participants and
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2645
families. The core test for what supports can be funded should stay clear in the Act, not be
narrowed over time through rules.
The Minister is also given broader powers in important parts of the scheme. The government fact
sheet says the Bill enables the Commonwealth Minister to make determinations to reduce funding
for groups of supports, and also makes the Minister the decision maker on NDIS pricing. Those
are significant powers. Decisions that affect the supports available to disabled children and the
value of those supports should not be made with so little protection for participants.
I am concerned about the tighter rules for unscheduled plan reassessments. The government fact
sheet says reassessments will only be possible where there have been significant and ongoing
changes in support needs or in living, education, work, or informal supports. Children can change
quickly. Families should not have to wait for matters to become severe and prolonged before
support can be reconsidered.
I am also concerned about the changes to permanence. The Bill says access will only be granted
when all appropriate treatment to remedy or alleviate an impairment has been undertaken, no
other treatment is likely to materially improve the impact of the impairment, and the impairment is
likely to be lifelong. This creates a risk that children may be denied access or face greater
barriers because of debates about what treatment should have been tried, even where access to
that treatment is limited by cost, location, waiting lists, or the child’s actual circumstances.
This Bill should be amended so it does not expand parental responsibility for disability related
care, does not weaken the established reasonable and necessary framework, and does not hand
such broad power to the Minister to shape the scheme through rules and determinations.
Children with disability need a system that is flexible, transparent, and responsive to their actual
support needs at home and at school.
Kind regards,
A concerned parent and voter.