National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3001
Submission on the NDIS Amendment Bill
My name is . I am a disabled person and NDIS participant.
I am concerned by this Bill for a number of reasons, including those listed below.
1. ‘Not contactable’ rules might seem efficient on the surface, but they remove any compassion for or understanding of the disabled experience. Setting a hard time limit, with a punitive response if a participant can’t be contacted means risking cutting off someone’s supports when they are most in need of compassion. If someone is in hospital, in crisis or burnout, without support to manage their daily affairs, or navigating unstable housing, their ability to respond to communication is reduced or lost. A blanket rule and automated process around communication will only punish those who are most in need of support. 2. In contrast, the reduced requirements of responsiveness and communication on the part of the NDIA will further increase the power imbalance between participants (already marginalised) and the agency (already holding all the power). The agency must be contactable and responsive. 3. The increased administrative processes and compliance rules place undue pressure on participants - people who already have less capacity than most to deal with these things. It removes the focus from supporting people who need support and onto forcing people who need individualised support into systems that may exacerbate their disabilities and will certainly disadvantage them unfairly. 4. Increased powers to change how funding is allocated or adjusted, without oversight. 5. Use of automated systems for decision-making. This is another Robodebt fiasco waiting to happen. Combined with the changes that will make it even harder for a participant or applicant to contact the agency, the purpose of the NDIS - to provide individualised supports to people who need them the most can only be undermined.
What I want the committee to understand is that being accepted into the NDIS is already close to impossible, and once you’re there, it requires superhuman ability to navigate. This makes it harder for disabled people to get the support they need, and easier for providers to take advantage. If there is a need to reduce the cost of the NDIS (which I would argue there is not), then the focus must be on making the system easier to understand and navigate, and reducing the layers of nonsense that allow providers to take advantage. It should not be on taking supports away from people who need them the most.
Seeing such pride on the faces of people declaring they will reduce the support available to participants and reduce the participants able to access support is sickening, and frightening. I do not support this bill. I believe its focus is entirely misguided.