National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026

Submission 3782

NDIS Bill Senate submission

To whom it may concern:

My name is I’m a Nepali Australian, a Melbournian and work in a disability advocacy organisation. I myself am paraplegic due to a spinal cord injury I sustained in an accident when I was 18. I have a younger brother who has non-verbal autism. We are both on the NDIS. I’m writing to you about the NDIS Future Generations Bill 2026.

I’m writing to you today firstly with grave concern about the tougher unscheduled reassessment rules and the loss of review rights. This change will strip away what little recourse we NDIS participants have when we are given decisions by planners that are actually plainly wrong and would very negatively impact our quality of life if enforced.

The Minister’s new power to cut funding without appeal (s 34A) is also a point of concern for me. The minister is being given very broad powers that could facilitate arbitrary cuts to different funding components, robbing us of our choice and control by unilaterally changing the things we do/don’t have access to with no planning meeting or discussion. If my plan was changing in such a way, I would want to be able to appeal it. This undermines a NDIS participant’s right to appeal as well as the transparency and fairness of the scheme. This section also weakens safeguards to secure necessary funding as the minister can fund something that is less than what is legally seen as “reasonable and necessary”.

My life was nearly destroyed by the NDIS and if we weren’t able to appeal their decisions, it may have been destroyed irreparably. After my accident, I was discharged from hospital after being an in-patient for 9 months. I was sent into a Retirement Home because I had nowhere else to go and my life seemed effectively over.

I was successful in getting an SDA package, but the package was only revealed a month before I was set to move in. It was the wrong plan, and the NDIS was going to cancel my short-term accommodation funding because I wasn’t moving out in a month. Even though I was only unable to move out because the NDIA revealed the plan to me too late. We took it to the ART, at which point we succeeded in getting the right package and I was able to move out. I now study law at Monash, live in a supported environment where I can look after my health. I’ve turned my life around because of the accountability mechanisms that are currently in place. This Bill would strip away my ability to challenge decisions such as this in the future.

Will you speak up for me in Parliament? I’m a proud Labor voter and I feel shocked and betrayed by what this Bill stands for. I am sincerely asking you to vote against this Bill unless it is amended to better protect the appeal rights of NDIS participants.

Yours sincerely,