I am writing this submission to the inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 as a former Minister for Disability from the ACT, the first jurisdiction to sign up to the scheme in 2012; and as someone who had Commonwealth government disability financial support in childhood.
The 2026 Federal Budget is underpinned by $44.9b in savings, of which $37.8b is NDIS cuts. More than 2,000 people in the ACT and 160,000 people nationally will no longer be able to access disability support through NDIS plans as a result of the changes in this Bill, and that affects all Australians. The ACT Government will not be able to fund or set up alternative services before these cuts take effect, This means unpaid carers (usually women) will have to do more.
NDIS growth has been attributed to more plans than were expected for children with autism, ADHD and developmental delay, people with psychosocial disability, and supported independent living. I expect people with these needs will have their plans cut as a result of the amendments in this Bill, but their health and social support needs will still exist.
There was originally a vision of an NDIS with Tier 2 supports, and this is what the ACT signed up to. I know this to be a fact because I’ve read the 2012 ACT Government Cabinet papers from that time. These are what are now described as foundational supports. They should be delivered by State and Federal governments in partnership to ensure that no matter what postcode you live in, there is accessible housing, inclusive education, and mental health care for everyone.
In 2023, National Cabinet agreed to restrict NDIS growth to 8% by 2025–2026. In January 2026 it was cut again to 5–6%. Now they’re cutting it to 2% growth per year until 2030, largely using the amendments in this Bill. Inflation in March 2026 was 4.6%. By capping NDIS growth at less than CPI, NDIS will become exponentially smaller as a program in future Budgets, allowing other Commonwealth spending to continue unabated. The only way NDIS growth is less than inflation is if fewer people have plans and each plan is smaller, which means support needs go unmet unless alternative services exist.
Support needs for some health conditions are unpredictable from one year to the next, but NDIS plans are not flexible. Before NDIS, the ACT block funded some community mental health services. Block funding, rather than funding based on units of service delivered, means fluctuations in demand are smoothed out over a multi year contract. This could be part of a foundational support landscape that both ACT and Commonwealth government deliver in partnership, but nothing in this Bill or elsewhere in public discourse from this government indicates that this is their intention.
We need all governments working together to improve accessibility in public housing stock so that anyone needing modifications — whether for disability, age related, or for veterans — can live in a safe home. We need schools resourced for teaching support, improved infrastructure, and professional development for educators. This would assist in meeting the Disability Royal Commission recommendations, as well as reducing NDIS plan expenditure. A more accessible home or inclusive school enables greater independence, reducing time spent by support workers to do things a person would rather do themselves. But this Bill is not providing for those thigns, it just enables cuts to the only way that people with disability are able to manage in places that are inaccessible.
In 2021, the Morrison government sought to cut costs by reducing NDIS plans through Independent Assessments. Those proposed reforms would have had every disabled person assessed by a public servant using a checklist that put them into one of 400 boxes with a preset plan, disregarding
individual needs. As the ACT Disability Minister at the time, I made it clear that this was unacceptable, and it was scrapped.
In 2026, the Albanese government seeks to cut costs by reducing NDIS plans through functional capacity assessments. These proposed reforms will have every disabled person assessed by a public servant using a tool that has not been validated for use by non allied health workers. It has not been tested for use with psychosocial conditions or complex autism. It has unknown reliability to assess the needs of people from diverse cultural backgrounds or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Seeing people as individuals has been a cornerstone of NDIS since its inception. People with disability have seen what is possible in a world where the social model of disability becomes part of decision-making, not the medical model. We cannot go backwards as a society. The past is a different place, they do things differently there.
As a child, I had long term health problems that meant I sometimes missed a third of my school days each year, had regular hospital inpatient stays from a few days to months long, and needed my family and school to make adjustments so that I could do normal things. At 13 years old, my mother drove me four hours to Canberra so I could advocate for myself at an Administrative Appeals Tribunal hearing. We won our appeal, and my mother was able to receive a small amount of disability payment for me. But having to do that caused immense shame for me, and I don’t want other children to experience othering and shame, having to beg for support, because of the way their bodies or minds work.
Under the amendments in this Bill, the Minister can make a decision to refuse their access to the scheme without even a tribunal review to change it. There will not be funding to enable social or community engagement, normal things that anyone in Australia should be able to participate in. There will not be support for long term health conditions, like mine, that may not be permanent, even if that condition results in missing school or work. People will be expected to have at least tried to make their body or mind fit what the Minister and Department deems “normal” so that no adjustments are necessary, even if the treatment is unaffordable or painful or undignified. The only person who should be deciding if they’ve tried enough treatments is the person whose body has to go through it. The person should be informed in their choices by their treating team, not people who have never met them and don’t understand their individual circumstances. No Minister, and no public servant who was in the room for the three years of Disability Reform Ministers Meetings that I attended as ACT Minister, could possibly know what treatment I could withstand as a child, and if it would be better than making adjustments at school or home instead.
Thriving Kids is the only foundational support being planned, for children under 9 years old with autism, ADHD and developmental delay. There is nothing for young adults who need an ADHD assessment as they navigate university or an apprenticeship, teenagers struggling in high school from the stress of constantly masking autism, or adults whose psychosocial condition means they sometimes need extra counselling to maintain wellbeing.
From 2020 until 2024, I know the NDIA and DSS did not provide enough information to the ACT public service for ACT Government to quantify unmet needs as a result of any future NDIS plan cuts. Commonwealth has not worked co-operatively with State and Territory governments to plan a landscape of foundational supports. There can be no trust.
The $25b investment in public hospitals in the 2026-27 Budget will soon disappear into the increased number of hospital beds taken by people who could be at home and participating in education, employment, and their local community. Our community will be poorer for not seeing people with long term health conditions as part of who we are as a society. I have run many focus groups with women on topics like tax reform, housing, and disability in my career before politics, and a consistent message from the full diversity of women in Canberra is that they want to see people of all ages, abilities, and economic backgrounds getting out and about in their neighbhourhood because we all belong.
The Treasurer says that nominal wage growth will remain above 3%. Employment will grow and unemployment will remain around 4.5%. But he also talked about slower economic growth due to global fossil fuel price increases. He has said the economic outlook is “hostage to developments” overseas. I do not understand why 84% of total savings in this Budget are from kicking 21% of NDIS participants out of the system.
The word “pressure” appears 14 times in the Treasurer’s Budget speech in the context of supporting families under pressure. He does not mention the pressure of unpaid care work for people with disability. These NDIS amendments do not address that pressure.
Fundamental problems in the NDIS will persist until foundational supports are delivered. There are ways to improve sustainability and reduce costs that don’t result in needs having to be met by unpaid carers, or in hospitals. Needs left unmet will cost this country billions. This Bill does not deliver the foundational supports needed, it cuts support access and leaves it up to disabled people and unpaid carers to get by on their own. It is a step backwards on respect for human rights and dignity, as well as poor economic management.