National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2838
There are many concerns relating to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026; many of these have been clearly and compassionately articulated in other submissions. I will respond to three areas. The first is changes to access and the requirement that applicants must have attempted all treatment and procedures that might bring improvement, in the opinion of the NDIS, before accessing the NDIS will be possible. The second is the shifting of more kinds and quantities of care onto informal support systems and parents. Lastly, the provision that the Minister may alter funding for groups on the NDIS even such that funding for agreed supports is not available.
Access changes detailed in Schedule 1 –Items 88–94(Permanence and treatment), which result in the possibility that prospective participants can be essentially forced into treatment that overall, considering their whole person and personal circumstances may not be in their best interests. For all medical procedures informed consent is essential; introducing a compulsion to consent to treatments in order to access essential supports erodes the right of persons with disability to consent or withhold consent to medical treatment. Of additional concern is that there is no consideration given to the practical reasonableness of procedures in the life of the individual person with disability. For example, whether the treatment is realistically accessible and available to the individual in their lived experience and circumstances and whether the potential side effects or outcomes of failed treatment would impair their ability to work, care for children or function in other areas that are a priority for the individual. Of further concern is the intrusion of the NDIS into the therapeutic relationships between prospective NDIS participants and their medical care team.
Secondly, Schedule 1 –Proposed subsections 34(1G)–(1J) (Parenting and family responsibility) shifts cost and care burdens onto parents and other informal care supports. This increases the already elevated risks of family breakdown, parental (and sibling) burnout, excessive financial costs and risks to child safety. The adverse outcomes of these increased risks will be borne by families and by other Federal and State Government departments and agencies in areas such as health and child protection. This is also likely to be a burden that is borne disproportionally by mothers further restricting their availability to access paid work and the benefit of financial independence and further increasing the risk of burnout and other adverse consequences such as health problems and social isolation.
Lastly, Schedule 1 –Proposed section 17B (Sustainability principles); this proposal allows cost to become the deciding factor in the allocation of funding and for this decision to be made across large swathes of participants, and not on an individual basis. The integrity of the NDIS is at risk as the foundational principle of individual assessment based on individual need and in consultation with the individual, their family and their professional care team is proposed to be dispensed with in favour of limiting expenditure as the key principle. This must not happen, as an Australian, I do not want this, as the friend, teacher, relative of people whose care has been provided through and whose lives have been improved by the NDIS I do not want this. What I want is for the NDIS to provide equality of life chances for people living with disability, to be an expression of Australia’s and Australians care for those
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2838
with increased need and vulnerability and to be a safeguard for all Australians ensuring appropriate, individualised care is available for all who need it.
Please consider these points and the many excellent, thoughtful and detailed submissions already made, the fear and concern of people living with disability, their families, friends and care teams and protect the NDIS and those it should continue to serve.