National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3083
Dear Community Affairs Legislation Committee
I write regarding the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026. I do not think these changes are appropriate and they have not been made with the input of disabled people.
Extending reassessment requests from 21 days to 90 days is wrong, as roughly 3 months of delay could cause significant harm to people who rely on the NDIS. If there are so many requests the CEO cannot manage them, I propose that they are delegated to multiple lower level staff. If you are having trouble paying this staff, it is a budget problem for the Government to solve. The NDIS allows disabled people and their families to work more and thus they are paying income tax.
One of the changes, “enable the Minister to reduce funding for specified groups of supports” Section 34A is alarming. There is no stipulated requirement that these decisions must be risk assessed and proven to not leave a single participant worse off than before. It is a shame that the government would propose this, particularly as it leaves so many people vulnerable to having their support ripped away by this or future governments.
In general, I am against this bill except for the fraud requirements, which I note are considerably smaller than the changes to access, appeals and funding. The budget should be managed to support the NDIS, and disabled people, their families, their support workers and public servants should not be thrown into the gutter because of budget cuts.
There are plenty of options for the government to address the number of people accessing the NDIS. This includes increasing Medicare rebates and adding auxiliary healthcare like dental, speech pathology, physiotherapy, dietetics and psychology/psychiatry at decent rates for these professionals. The government could also increase income support for people on unemployment, disability or aged pension to the minimum wage, and regulate private rental prices. The government could legislate inclusion requirements for employers and access to flexible working arrangements.
One thing that will significantly affect the NDIS budget is the lack of covid-19 mitigations. The OECD released “Addressing the Costs and Care for Long COVID: The Long Shadow of the Pandemic” in April 2026. They have found that regular covid-19 infections are causing increasing morbidity and mortality and will cost OECD countries significant volumes of money. The report is published here https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/addressing-the-costs-and-care-for-long-covid_87a0c17 1-en/full-report.html . The Australian Government could be providing masks, and infrastructure investment for clean air and UV-C, particularly in schools, workplaces and cultural venues. This would not just stimulate the economy by creating jobs, but a right to clean air would mean significant reductions in morbidity and mortality not just from covid but all airborne illnesses and conditions including asthma and COPD. Furthermore, clean air is correlated to increased performance and better behaviour in school, and higher productivity in the workplace.
Perhaps working on prevention by addressing environmental and social determinants of health would lessen the growth of the NDIS budget. As a person who holds a Masters in
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3083
Public Health, it is frustrating to see the upstream causes of poor health for all Australians and the lack of political endeavour to address them.
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