National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 368
Submission on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Belong & Disability Rights and Culture
Table of contents
Summary 2 About Disability Rights and Culture and Belong 2 Provisions of the Bill addressed by this submission 3 Detailed comments by Bill schedule and part 4
- Schedule 1 - Access and Planning Measures 4 1.1 Parts 1, 3, 8 and 9 - functional capacity, impairment-link requirements, permanence 4 and other service systems 1.2 Parts 4 and 6 - support determinations and reasonable and necessary supports 4 1.3 Parts 2 and 5 - limits on unscheduled plan reassessments and plan renewal 5 1.4 Part 7 - plan suspension and “not contactable” provisions 6
- Schedule 2 - Fraud Measures 6
- Schedule 3 - Governance Arrangements 7
- Schedule 4 - New Framework Planning 7
- Schedule 5 - Transitional matters 8 Human rights concerns 8 Recommendations 8 Conclusion 9 Key sources used to map the Bill provisions 10
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 368
Summary
This submission raises serious concerns about the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 and the risks it poses to disabled people, families, carers, disabled people’s organisations and the long-term integrity of the NDIS.
The submission is written from the perspective of disabled people connected through Belong, Disability Rights and Culture’s disability-led community. Belong exists because disabled people need more than services: we need connection, safety, culture, peer support, accessible information and genuine opportunities to participate in community life.
The NDIS requires reform and stronger safeguards against fraud, exploitation, and poor- quality services. However, reform must strengthen disabled people’s rights, safety and inclusion. It must not reduce essential supports before replacement services in mainstream foundational or community systems are available, accessible, adequately funded and independently shown to work.
This submission particularly raises concerns about:
broad powers to reduce funding across support categories, including social, civic and community participation and capacity building daily activities; reductions to community participation and in-home supports that are essential to safety, inclusion and independent living; narrow functional assessments, impairment-link requirements and automated or rules- based decision-making; risks for autistic people, people with ADHD, people with psychosocial disability, people with chronic illness and people with fluctuating or episodic disability; cost-shifting to schools, hospitals, mental health services, housing, child protection and state and territory systems; threats to self-management, direct employment, trusted support relationships and participant choice and control; suspension or loss of support for participants considered “not contactable”; and lack of genuine co-design, transparent modelling and accessible consultation.
The Bill should be withdrawn and redesigned in genuine partnership with disabled people and their representative organisations, consistent with the principle of “nothing about us without us”. If the Bill proceeds, the inquiry timeframe should be extended to allow proper consultation, modelling, human rights analysis, and public scrutiny.
About Disability Rights and Culture and Belong
Disability Rights and Culture (DRC), previously Disability Resources Centre, is a community- building, campaigning and advocacy organisation. DRC is a radically inclusive Disabled People’s Organisation that brings together people with disability across cultures, identities and experiences.
Belong is a free community run by and for disabled people. It welcomes members across Australia and across culture, gender identity, age and disability. Belong offers spaces where disabled people can be safe to unmask, be themselves and be heard by others who understand lived experience.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 368
Belong connects people through online groups, in-person events, Discord, WhatsApp chats, emails and newsletters. Belong members include people with physical disability, learning disability, chronic illness, prolonged physical or mental illness, mental health conditions, acquired brain injury, speech and communication conditions, sensory disability, neurodivergence, self-identifying disabled people and people in the process of diagnosis.
Belong’s perspective is highly relevant to this Bill. The Bill’s proposed changes to access, functional capacity, community participation, plan reassessment, plan suspension, provider arrangements and new framework planning will be experienced by disabled people not just as administrative changes, but as changes to whether they can belong, connect, remain safe, maintain relationships, participate in community life and exercise choice and control.
Provisions of the Bill addressed by this submission
The Senate inquiry has asked that submissions directly address the provisions of the Bill. This submission addresses the following provisions.
Issue addressed in this Relevant submission Bill provision submission section Schedule 1, Parts 1, 3, 8 Functional capacity, direct Section 1.1 and 9 impairment-link requirements, permanence and eligibility based on access to other systems. Schedule 1, Parts 2 and 5 Limits on unscheduled plan Section 1.3 reassessments and plan renewals/end dates, including non-carry-over of unspent funds. Schedule 1, Parts 4 and 6 Support determinations, Section 1.2 reduced budgets for groups of supports, and reasonable and necessary decision- making. Schedule 1, Part 7 Plan suspension and Section 1.4 possible revocation where a participant is considered not contactable. Schedule 2, Parts 1, 4, 5 Provider registration, record- Section 2 and 6 keeping, shorter claim times, and changes to plan management. Schedule 3, Parts 1 and 2 Pricing governance and Section 3 automation of administrative action. Schedule 4 New framework planning, Section 4 support needs assessment, budget method rules and transition to new framework plans. Schedule 5 Transitional arrangements Section 5 across the Bill.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 368
Detailed comments by Bill schedule and part
- Schedule 1 - Access and Planning Measures
1.1 Parts 1, 3, 8 and 9 - functional capacity, impairment-link requirements, permanence and other service systems
These provisions raise serious concerns for people whose disability is complex, fluctuating, episodic, poorly understood, masked or linked to multiple impairments. Psychosocial disability, autism, ADHD, chronic illness, and many neurological conditions cannot always be understood through a narrow or one-off functional assessment.
Functional capacity must be assessed in a way that recognises:
fluctuating and episodic disability; masking, burnout and the cumulative impact of prolonged effort; sensory overload and emotional regulation; communication differences and communication support needs; trauma, bullying, exclusion and unsafe service systems; executive functioning impacts; the interaction between multiple impairments; and the difference between clinical treatment and disability support.
The proposed stronger link between a funded support and an impairment for which a participant needs access may appear administratively clear, but it risks artificial separation of needs that are connected in real life. Many disabled people experience overlapping impacts from psychosocial, neurodevelopmental, cognitive, physical, chronic health and sensory impairments. A support may prevent crisis, support communication, reduce distress, maintain hygiene, enable community access and support family stability at the same time.
The proposed approach to permanence is also risky if it is interpreted as requiring people to exhaust treatment before receiving disability support. Treatment, therapy, medication, school adjustments and disability supports often need to occur together. People should not lose access or be denied support because treatment is still being attempted, because an impairment can be partially alleviated, or because a mainstream system is theoretically responsible but practically inaccessible.
Part 9’s focus on eligibility based on access to other service systems creates a serious cost- shifting risk. Schools, health services, mental health services, housing, child protection, workers compensation and other systems are not consistently accessible, inclusive or adequately funded. Disabled children and adults should not lose NDIS support because governments assume another system can meet needs that it is not yet equipped to meet.
For children, especially autistic children, children with ADHD and children with psychosocial disability, NDIS-funded occupational therapy, psychology, speech therapy and behaviour support can be what keeps a child connected to family life, school and community. In practice, schools often remain under-resourced and inconsistent in providing reasonable adjustments. Allied health supports can help families understand their child’s needs, communicate with schools and prevent exclusion, burnout or crisis.
1.2 Parts 4 and 6 - support determinations and reasonable and necessary supports
Part 4 is particularly concerning because it enables the Commonwealth Minister to make determinations reducing funding for groups of supports, including social, civic and community participation and capacity building daily activities. These are not optional extras.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 368
They are often the practical supports that allow disabled people to get out of bed, eat, wash, attend appointments, participate in community life, stay safe at home and avoid crisis.
For Belong members, community participation is not simply recreation. It is connection, peer support, safety, access to information, a pathway into advocacy, a place to be understood, and a safeguard against isolation. Social and community participation reduces the risk of abuse, neglect, violence, and mental health deterioration because isolated people are often less visible and less able to seek help.
Reducing these supports risks:
increased isolation and disconnection; worsening physical and mental health; family and carer burnout; hospitalisation and crisis intervention; earlier entry into supported accommodation or residential care; loss of skills and community relationships; and increased pressure on health, education, child protection, housing and mental health systems.
Part 6’s reasonable and necessary changes should not shift the NDIS from an individualised rights-based scheme into a scheme dominated by aggregate expenditure controls. Sustainability matters, but it must not be used to justify blanket reductions that ignore individual risk, safety, communication, culture, trauma, rurality, family circumstances or the lack of accessible alternatives.
The Bill should require that no support determination reduce or remove supports unless the Parliament and the disability community can see the modelling, the human rights analysis, the proposed rules, the impact on high-risk groups and evidence that replacement services are already available and accessible.
1.3 Parts 2 and 5 - limits on unscheduled plan reassessments and plan renewal
The Bill proposes to tighten the criteria for unscheduled plan reassessments and to introduce legislated plan end dates. While clearer processes may be useful, the proposed restrictions risk trapping people in inadequate plans when their circumstances change rapidly or when their current plan was already unsafe.
Disabled people may need urgent reassessment when informal supports collapse, housing becomes unsafe, a child is excluded from school, a person experiences family violence, a participant is discharged from hospital, a psychosocial disability escalates, a carer becomes unwell, or functional capacity changes because of burnout or chronic illness. These circumstances do not always fit neat administrative thresholds.
The end of plan rollovers and the non-carry-over of unspent funds may also punish participants who underspend for reasons outside their control, including provider shortages, thin markets, inaccessible services, hospitalisation, homelessness, family violence, administrative delays, difficulty finding culturally safe or trauma-informed workers, or the participant needing time to build trust with a support worker.
Plan renewal processes must include accessible notice, advocacy access, human review, capacity to respond to crisis, and safeguards so people do not lose support because of market failure or administrative delay.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 368
1.4 Part 7 - plan suspension and “not contactable” provisions
Part 7 creates serious safeguarding risks by allowing a plan to be suspended when the NDIA has made reasonable attempts to contact a participant and has not received a response or adequate response. It also creates the possibility of a person’s participant status being revoked after a period of suspension.
The people most likely to be non-responsive are often the people at greatest risk, including people who are:
unable to communicate in the expected way because of communication support needs, cognitive disability, intellectual disability or psychosocial disability; hospitalised or transitioning from hospital; homeless or in unstable housing; experiencing family violence or coercive control; isolated from services and community; without reliable phone, internet, mail or digital access; living with trauma, paranoia, anxiety, executive dysfunction or burnout; dependent on unsafe nominees, carers or providers; or from culturally and linguistically diverse communities where contact methods may be inaccessible or mistrusted.
Non-response should trigger safeguarding, outreach, advocacy, and supported decision- making, not punishment. The Bill should remove these provisions or amend them so that suspension or revocation cannot occur without independent human review, documented safeguarding checks, accessible reasons, supported decision-making, advocacy access, and evidence that the participant is safe.
- Schedule 2 - Fraud Measures
DRC and Belong support strong action against fraud, exploitation and unsafe providers. Fraud and non-compliance take resources from disabled people and can leave people without supports, unsafe, exploited or harmed.
However, Schedule 2 must be implemented in a way that protects disabled people rather than simply increasing surveillance, debt risk and administrative burden. Provider registration, record-keeping requirements, shortened claim timeframes and changes to plan management must not undermine self-management, direct employment, trusted support relationships or flexible arrangements that many participants rely on because mainstream provider markets are inaccessible, unsafe, culturally inappropriate or unavailable.
Many participants use self-management or direct employment to build stable relationships with workers who understand their communication, culture, trauma history, sensory needs, routines, and access requirements. These arrangements can be safer and more effective than generic provider systems. Safeguarding should strengthen informed choice, worker quality, accountability and access to advice, not force participants into inflexible models that reduce autonomy and continuity of care.
Record-keeping and shorter claim rules should include accessible education, supported compliance, exemptions for crisis and vulnerability, and safeguards against participant debt where records are missing because of disability, exploitation, coercion, homelessness, hospitalisation, family violence or provider misconduct.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 368
- Schedule 3 - Governance Arrangements
Schedule 3 includes pricing governance and automation of administrative action. These provisions require strong safeguards because pricing decisions and automated processes can have major practical effects on the availability, quality and safety of supports.
Pricing decisions must be transparent and must include meaningful engagement with disabled people, workers, providers, families and representative organisations. Price reductions or indexation decisions can reduce workforce stability, increase staff turnover, push providers out of thin markets, and make it harder for participants to find safe and skilled workers.
Automated administrative action also raises serious concerns. Even if automation is described as administrative, automated processes can still shape who is paid, when claims are processed, what evidence is accepted, whether a matter is escalated, and whether a participant is left without support. Rigid systems cannot replace human judgment in a scheme that deals with complex disability, communication needs, digital exclusion, and crisis situations.
Any use of automation must include:
clear limits on what can be automated; no automated suspension, reduction, debt or access decision without human review; accessible reasons that explain the decision in plain language; public information about the rules, inputs and error-checking processes used; easy correction of errors; review and appeal rights before harm occurs; and independent monitoring for discriminatory or unsafe outcomes.
- Schedule 4 - New Framework Planning
Schedule 4 makes amendments to support new framework planning, including support needs assessment and budget method rules. This is one of the most significant parts of the reform agenda because it will determine how disabled people’s support needs are translated into funding.
A support needs assessment must be a whole-person assessment. It must not reduce disabled people to a score, category or algorithmic output. It must capture real life, including fluctuating disability, masking, burnout, psychosocial distress, sensory needs, communication needs, family circumstances, housing safety, rurality, thin markets, culture, trauma, and cumulative barriers across systems.
Rules about what an assessor must and must not consider should be co-designed and publicly available before commencement. Participants must be able to provide evidence from treating practitioners, allied health professionals, advocates, family, support workers and people who know their day-to-day functioning. Assessors must be trained in disability rights, trauma, communication access, cultural safety, psychosocial disability, neurodivergence, and intersectional discrimination.
Budget method rules must be transparent. Participants and advocates need to understand how assessment information is converted into support types and funding levels. Without transparency, new framework planning risks becoming a hidden mechanism for budget reduction rather than a fair and rights-based planning system.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 368
Transition to new framework planning should not occur until the assessment tool, rules, review pathways, advocacy supports, accessible information, workforce capacity and human rights safeguards have been tested with disabled people and independently evaluated.
- Schedule 5 - Transitional matters
Transitional provisions must protect people from harm during implementation. Major reforms should not be switched on before participants, families, advocates, workers, providers, states and territories understand the rules and before replacement systems are ready.
No participant should lose support, experience a significant reduction, be moved to a new framework plan, or be denied access because of assumed supports in mainstream or foundational systems unless those supports are already funded, available, accessible, culturally safe, disability competent and independently proven to meet the relevant need.
The transition must include accessible information, direct advocacy funding, supported decision-making, public modelling, staged implementation, independent evaluation, transparent complaints data and an enforceable commitment that no person will be left without essential support during the transition.
Human rights concerns
The NDIS was created as part of Australia’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). The Bill risks undermining:
Article 19: independent living and community inclusion; Article 5: equality and non-discrimination; Article 16: freedom from violence, abuse and neglect; Article 28: adequate standard of living and social protection; and Article 4(3): consultation and active involvement of disabled people.
The reforms place too much emphasis on expenditure control and administrative efficiency while leaving many participant safeguards to later rules, instruments and operational systems. Disabled people are being asked to accept significant risk without being able to fully assess the practical impact of the reforms.
A rights-based Bill would put safeguards, transparency, review rights, advocacy access and co-design in the primary legislation rather than leaving them to later implementation.
Recommendations
- Withdraw the Bill and recommence reform in genuine partnership with disabled people, families, carers, workers and Disabled People’s Organisations.
- If the Bill proceeds, extend the inquiry process to allow meaningful consultation, accessible engagement, independent modelling, human rights analysis, and public scrutiny.
- Release all modelling and draft rules before the Bill proceeds, including modelling on reduced access and funding, autistic people, people with ADHD, people with psychosocial disability, children and families, self-management, community participation, cost-shifting, workforce impacts, market impacts and automated decision-making.
- Do not reduce or remove supports through Schedule 1 support determinations unless equivalent supports are already available, accessible, funded, culturally safe and independently proven to work in mainstream, foundational or community systems.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 368
- Protect access to occupational therapy, psychology, speech therapy, behaviour support, support coordination, community participation, in-home supports and other capacity- building supports that prevent crisis and maintain inclusion.
- Amend Schedule 1 to ensure assessments properly capture fluctuating disability, psychosocial disability, sensory needs, communication, executive functioning, masking, burnout, trauma, chronic illness and the interaction between multiple impairments.
- Remove or substantially amend Schedule 1 plan suspension and revocation provisions relating to participants being “not contactable”, including strong safeguarding protections, outreach obligations, advocacy access, supported decision-making and human review.
- Ensure Schedule 2 fraud and integrity measures protect participants from exploitation without undermining self-management, direct employment, trusted support relationships, flexible supports or choice and control.
- Ensure record-keeping, shorter claim and debt provisions include accessible education, supported compliance, vulnerability safeguards and exemptions where disability, crisis, exploitation or provider misconduct affects compliance.
- Strengthen Schedule 3 safeguards for automation, including mandatory human review, accessible reasons, transparency about rules and inputs, correction pathways, review rights and independent monitoring for discriminatory impacts.
- Ensure Schedule 3 pricing decisions are transparent and informed by disabled people, workers, providers and representative organisations, with specific consideration of thin markets, workforce stability and safety.
- Do not commence Schedule 4 new framework planning until the support needs assessment, budget method rules, evidence rules, review pathways and safeguards have been co-designed, published, tested with disabled people and independently evaluated.
- Create strong protections against cost-shifting between the NDIS and mainstream systems, including a requirement that no support be withdrawn on the basis of another system unless that system is actually available and accessible to the person.
- Guarantee accessible review and appeal rights before any participant loses support, experiences a significant reduction, is moved to a new framework plan, has a plan suspended, or is found ineligible.
- Ensure all reforms are co-designed with disabled people and their representative organisations, consistent with the principle of “nothing about us without us”.
Conclusion
The NDIS requires reform, but reform must make the Scheme fairer, safer, more transparent and more rights based.
This Bill creates significant risks for disabled people by reducing supports and increasing administrative powers before replacement systems and safeguards are fully operational. For Belong, the central issue is not only funding. It is whether disabled people can live safely, remain connected, participate in community, build disability culture, receive support from trusted people and exercise choice and control over their lives.
The Government should withdraw the Bill and redesign the reforms in genuine partnership with disabled people and the disability community. If the Bill proceeds, Parliament should not pass it without stronger safeguards, independent scrutiny, transparent modelling, accessible review rights and meaningful consultation with the people the Scheme is designed to support.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 368
Key sources used to map the Bill provisions
Parliament of Australia - Bill page and Senate inquiry page: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r7487 Department of Health, Disability and Ageing - NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 fact sheet: https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/ndis-amendment-securing-the-ndis-for-future- generations-bill-2026-fact-sheet Disability Rights and Culture - Belong: https://drc.org.au/belong/ Disability Rights and Culture - Home: https://drc.org.au/