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Submission 280 — Allied Health Professions Australia (280

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9 July 2026 Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs

Legislation Committee

Submitted via online portal.

Dear Committee,

Re: Supplementary submission National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS

for Future Generations) Bill 2026

Allied Health Professions Australia (AHPA), the national peak body for the allied health sector, welcomes the Senate Standing Community Affairs Legislation Committee’s extension of the Inquiry into the NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 (‘the Bill’) and thanks the Committee for the opportunity to provide further feedback. AHPA has previously joined other stakeholders in calling for additional time to allow for the Bill to be reviewed in detail and to allow for meaningful consultation. We welcome the agreement to extend the Inquiry as it will allow greater time for scrutiny and consultation on the Bill, which proposes to fundamentally change many of the key principles that underpin the NDIS.

AHPA writes to provide a brief response to the Interim report released on Tuesday 23 June 2026. In doing so, AHPA wishes to acknowledge the significant work of the Committee Secretariat in conducting this inquiry, particularly given the very high response rate and the short timeframes in which to consider that input. We also acknowledge the many participants and allied health professionals that have provided important and often very personal feedback about the risks and potential unintended consequences of the Bill.

AHPA provided a submission (submission #280) and welcomed the opportunity to present at the 9 June public hearing to speak more about the impact of the legislation on access to therapy supports and on allied health providers. Since then, AHPA has spent additional time analysing the Bill, reading published submissions, listening to hearings, reviewing reports from scrutiny committees, and considering the amendments that have been brought. Our concerns about the significant risks that these changes present in relation to participant safety and access to allied health supports have not changed and AHPA does not support the Bill in its current form.

The evidence we have reviewed since the Bill was tabled has only heightened sector concerns about the proposed changes and the high likelihood of significant adverse impacts on participants, providers and the broader community. If passed, the Bill will reduce opportunities for participants to achieve developmental gains and build capacity to function and thrive. It also risks further destabilising the allied health provider market, potentially forcing providers to close or reduce their capacity. While government commentary suggests that cuts to capacity building funding will be mitigated by higher plan utilisation, this disregards the viability challenges and thin market issues impacting therapy supports.

AHPA is deeply concerned that while the interim report recognises some of the key concerns raised about the Bill, the recommendations do not adequately reflect the evidence provided by participants, allied health and other providers, and the broader disability community. AHPA agrees that supports must be available outside the NDIS, however, the remaining recommendations do not address the scale or significance of the concerns raised. In particular, the interim report does not recommend any amendments to the Bill itself before it passes. AHPA considers this unsafe and unsatisfactory, as it does not appear to reflect the substantial feedback provided to the Committee, nor adequately address the identified risks.

The Bill proposes to make extensive changes to the operation of the NDIS. However, much of the critical detail about how legislative powers will translate into practice is not provided alongside the Bill. Instead, important operational elements will only become clear as they are set out in future legislative instruments. This lack of certainty has likely impacted the current impact analysis, which does not adequately account for the cumulative effect of the proposed changes, and has had to be revised on multiple occasions. Without these critical details, and a far more comprehensive assessment of the combined impact of multiple compounding changes to NDIS practice, it is difficult to identify where the greatest safety risks may arise if the Bill passes. Enacting the Bill measures quickly and concurrently will also limit the ability to determine which factors may be contributing to adverse outcomes for participants in the future and make it more difficult to make effective policy adjustments.

AHPA acknowledges that several amendments to the Bill have been supported in the House. This is a welcome first step, however if the Bill proceeds, AHPA strongly recommends that further amendments be made to ensure adequate parliamentary oversight is maintained, review rights are strengthened, and sufficient participant safeguards are legislated. Amendments must protect the clinical expertise of allied health professionals and ensure it is not replaced by standardised algorithms, automated processes, or non clinically trained personnel. Furthermore, the sequencing of reforms must be improved to ensure that no substantial changes to NDIS access or supports are made until the ecosystem of supports outside of the NDIS is established, resourced and shown to be effective.

Our original submission outlines key recommendations and an updated version of these is included at the end of this letter. We refer the Committee to that original submission and argue strongly that further consideration of the recommendations and detail in that submission is needed. Most critically, a future version of the NDIS must continue to ensure reasonable and necessary supports, based on individual need, are funded in full. Risks for participants are particularly heightened as changes roll out and AHPA calls for assurances that during upcoming transition periods that participants can access timely reassessments, reviews and appeal processes.

The Committee has a responsibility to deliver a final report that accurately reflects the totality of the evidence presented throughout the Inquiry. AHPA strongly recommends that the additional time be used to rigorously scrutinise this complex legislation, engage with further witnesses and evidence, respond to the concerns raised, and undertake a genuine analysis of the true impacts of the proposed changes. This additional time must be used to ensure that any future reforms support the long-term sustainability of the NDIS while preserving its role as a rights-based scheme centred on individual need, choice and control.

AHPA thanks the Committee for the opportunity to continue to engage in this Inquiry. AHPA is available to provide further information and encourages any follow up questions about allied health therapy supports.

Yours faithfully,

Philipp Herrmann

Acting Chief Executive Officer

Allied Health Professions Australia

AHPA Recommendations

AHPA strongly recommends that the Bill not proceed in its current form and that the Bill be amended to ensure plan funding cannot be set below the cost of providing reasonable and necessary supports. AHPA reiterates our call for critical for amendments to the Bill as presented in our full submission to the Committee.*

Schedule 1 Part 1 - Defining functional capacity.

  1. Amend section 9B, the definition of functional capacity, to reflect real world functioning and to incorporate the person’s environmental and personal context. Future rules must specify that assessors hold relevant health qualifications. Schedule 1 Part 4 - Support determination.

  2. Delete section 34A. If section 34A proceeds, additional safeguards should be included. These should require consultation, stronger parliamentary scrutiny and publication of impact analyses for any proposed determinations. Safety should be defined to include not only imminent risks of harm, but also the longer-term impacts of funding reductions on developmental and capacity building outcomes. Determinations should be reviewable decisions, and participants must be able to seek plan variations where genuine risks arise. Any determinations should also apply only for a fixed and limited period. Schedule 1 Part 6 - Reasonable and necessary supports.

  3. Delete item 66 and retain the principles to be considered for a participant’s plan outlined in section 31.

  4. Delete proposed item 68, the addition of s32 (2EA) and (2EB) which will permit caps on the funding or intensity of supports. If this item is retained, additional participant safeguards should be included. These should require the Minister to consider both immediate and longer-term safety implications of any caps, and to publish the evidence relied on and assessment of the impact of any caps. Participants must also be able to seek reviews of decisions and have their plans varied where risks arise.

  5. Amend proposed item 73, the addition of s34 (1E) and (1F) to ensure that the full range of evidence is considered when decisions are made about the effectiveness of supports. The evidence range should not be ranked in a hierarchy. The proposed clause allowing the CEO to disregard other evidence, including a participant’s own evidence of effectiveness, in determining if a support is reasonable and necessary, should be removed. Schedule 1 Part 8 - Meaning of permanence.

  6. Define all appropriate treatment to include treatments that are readily available, affordable, culturally safe, and accessible. Schedule 1 Part 9 - Eligibility based on access to other services.

  7. Amend to only permit exclusion to the NDIS in situations where alternative supports are available, accessible and offer equivalent levels of support. Schedule 3 Part 1 - Decision making on pricing.

  8. Amend the Bill to require the Minister to make publicly available all advice received in relation to pricing as well as explanatory notes on pricing determinations. Additional recommendations

  9. Delay any substantial changes to NDIS access or supports until the ecosystem of supports outside of the NDIS is fully established, accessible, well-resourced and demonstrated to be effective.

  10. Amend the Bill to ensure adequate parliamentary oversight is maintained, review rights are protected, and sufficient participant safeguards are in place.

  11. Establish an NDIS Therapy Supports Advisory Group to provide independent oversight of reform implementation and evaluation related to allied health therapy support policy and pricing.

  • Note these recommendations have been updated since AHPA’s initial submission based on additional input and analysis.