National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3924
SUBMISSION RE NDIS BILL 2026
Date: 30th May 2026 Submission To: Committee Secretary, Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs Via Email: Community.a=irs.sen@aph.gov.au Or via Seniorclerk.committees.sen@aph.gov.au Regarding: National Disability Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 From: South Australia (sibling of an NDIS Participant) E:
This is a brief but sincere submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Community A7airs regarding the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026.
I am very concerned that this Amendment Bill is too far reaching and will cause harm if it passes Parliament. It requires further scrutiny and amendment before it proceeds.
The NDIS is a hard-won resource for a genuine need across Australia and it needs to be free from political interference. We need to respect the largely unpaid labour and advocacy of persons and families living with disability both within Australia and internationally during the previous 80 years which prepared the ground for the original NDIS Bill. The cost and e7iciency of the NDIS needs consideration but this needs to be balanced with consideration of the great achievements of the NDIS in helping people achieve their goals and rights, if we are to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There needs to be benevolent safeguarding for future Australians into the long term.
The current “Securing the NDIS for Future Generations” 2026 Bill Amendment proposes to increase ministerial powers to act and decide independently without parliamentary or community consultation – allowing Ministers to decide who gets NDIS support (Schedule 1 Parts 8 and 9) and how much funding people receive (Schedule 1 Part 4; Schedule 3) simply by signing an instrument, without going back to Parliament. The rules that will determine critical eligibility thresholds (Schedule 1 Parts 1, 8 and 9) have not yet even been written. Decisions that shape the life and Rights of current participants (of whom my sibling is one) and the lives of prospective participants, are worthy of parliamentary debate and public scrutiny. I am also concerned about the proposed loss of an independent arbitration route for review of NDIS decisions.
I urge the Senate Standing Committee on Community A7airs to please require a “no-harm” safeguard ensuring no current participant loses access to supports unless equivalent supports are in place, with independent review rights before any exit decision. And to protect participants from blanket cuts to their support packages, as social and community participation is as important as improved daily living support categories for quality of life. The cuts in supports will simply shift costs and disrupt social cohesion further, through loneliness, homlessness
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3924
SUBMISSION RE NDIS BILL 2026
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In 2025 my sibling, who has been an NDIS participant since 2018, moved out from the parental home for the first time in her 60 years of life. She was born with intellectual disability and has needed lots of family help in her life so far and also to achieve this goal of change in her living situation.
The outcome has been exactly as originally intended when the NDIS was launched – it has helped create a future living situation for her that does not rely on her 90 year old father to continue to provide daily support under the same roof as him until he dies. Instead of providing support directly, our now 91-year-old father can instead (together with her siblings) provide oversight to ensure she is receiving quality funded support in her new home and community, and continue to provide her with family connection.
I find the proposed cuts across the board to social and community support hours, is a lazy response to funding pressures and unfairly punishes the participants, who require this funding to live successfully in the community. For example my sibling is unable to access the community on her own at all, due to her disabilities, so this category of funding is critical for a sense of belonging and community participation and includes attending appointments such as doctor and dentistry, podiatry, haircuts. This category of support funding is just as important for the success of her living situation as the improved daily living in-home supports for personal care tasks and domestic tasks. All of it is necessary and genuinely needed due to her disability. She is unable to hold a paid work role nor a volunteer role, so her social and community participation activities take the place of the incidental social connection that working Australians enjoy as part of their role in the workforce.
A reduction in her support would undoubtedly reduce the quality of life for her and all of us in her small family network. I continue to be in the workforce and having to absorb funding cuts in her formal supports will cause further disruption in my own availability for contributing economically in society, as more of my time and attention would need to be diverted to supporting her on an unfunded informal basis. I do not want to think of this Bill Amendment as having a sexist intent, but the unintended cost may penalise women in the Australian community more than men eg mothers, daughters, sisters – as it is typically women who are expected to absorb family nurturing especially where there is more-than-typical support and help needed for family member/s.
direct reduction of support levels for participants will only shift costs to other budget areas and contribute to greater loneliness, behavioural crises, homelessness, family breakdowns etc
There are so many unintended and direct harms that can arise that the NDIS Bill needs to safeguard the scheme from hostile and ill-conceived economic strategies from all Governments long into the future.
Thankyou for reading this brief submission and the many others you will receive as you deliberate on the proposed amendments within the NDIS Bill 2026.