Submission 359
National Council of Women WA
The Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committee
Community Affairs
P O Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future
Generations) Bill 2026
The NDIS was established in 2013 as a government program intended to assist individuals living with severe, permanent and profound disability. Sadly, the fundamental barrier is the design of the scheme itself. Unfortunately, the NDIS has been transformed into one of the government’s biggest and most expensive social programs.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics while 5.5 million Australians (21.4%) in 2022 had disability 15.0% of people aged 0-64 had disability compared with 52.3 % pf people aged 65 years and over (not supported by the NDIS) and 7.9% of all Australians had a profound or severe disability.
According to the March 2026 NDIS Quarterly Report 774,456 are receiving support from the NDIS. More than 18,500 participants entered the NDIS during this March 2026 quarter. Children younger than 9 account for 167,787. The number of participant requests for a plan change increased this quarter. During the March quarter, 61449 plan change requests were received which comprised of 37,013 plan assessments requests and 24,436 plan variation requests.
There is no doubt that the scheme cannot continue on its current trajectory. According to a number of reports the annual cost of the NDIS is $50 bn with expenses in the nine months to March 20206 totalling about $38 bn.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future
Generations) Bill 2026 establishes the legal framework for determining access to the NDIS on substantially reduced functional capacity. It also provides a definition of functional capacity.
There does need to be a tightening of the unscheduled plan reassessments. While there should be an availability for the participant or their guardian to apply for a plan
Submission 359
reassessment there is some concern in the community that there is now an industry of people taking huge sums of money from a current plan (those funds should be for the person with the disability) to write plan reassessments for participants or their guardians. Payment for requests for plan reassessments by intermediaries such as support coordinators and plan managers should be banned.
The current definition of “NDIS provider” under section 9 of the NDIS Act is too broad and does encompass retailers and suppliers and should be amended. However, provider registration is a must. Currently only one in sixteen providers are registered. While I understand there are some small or sole trader providers a two- tier registration system with a much less onerous registration requirement for small providers could be a sensible approach.
National Council of Women WA (NCWWA) remains concerned about a number of areas that must be addressed which will go someway to address the runaway costs of the program. As the original intention of the program, the NDIS must continue to provide support to individuals with significant, profound and permanent disability:
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Ensure any legislation includes the capacity to stamp out rorting and bad actors in the scheme;
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Pricing of service caps and maximum levels must be reviewed, as research demonstrates many providers charge just below model caps for commercial benefit;
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Freeze NDIA staffing increases, noting that a headcount of 11,052 in December 2025 is up from 9127 in 2024(1925 headcount increase) and constitutes 70 per cent of all new Commonwealth Public Service hires in 2025
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Reduce the amount of 60 million of taxpayer expenditure on external legal firms in 2024-2025
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Reduce the 11.6 million spent in 2025 on social and community NDIS supports and ensure such supports are evidence -based and delivering real outcomes;
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Restore the maximum timeframe of 60 days for completion reviews as promised by the NDIA, noting currently 3 in 10 reviews are completed within sixty days and the December 2025 Quarterly Dashboard shows falling trends in every jurisdiction.
Unfortunately, the rorting and bad actors now in the scheme is a huge issue. I am aware of employees being paid a very small amount of money for long shifts caring for their clients, with the provider then invoicing the NDIS often more than double the amount.
The provider while being responsible for shifts, time sheets, etc says the employee is being employed by the client. Invoices are often sent in to the NDIS handwritten and with no supporting documentation. Surely there has to be some supporting documentation. Surely there has to be a proper wage structure in place for payment to employees.
Submission 359
In conclusion the NCWWA supports the Government’s National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026. However, the NCWWA also strongly believes there will be further and continued on going work that will need to be done to ensure the NDIS continues to being a program to support those individuals with severe, permanent and profound disability.
Yours sincerely