PWDA Template: Submission to the
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Attention: Committee Secretary, Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs
Submitted by email: community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au Date: 27/05/2026
I welcome the opportunity to make a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs about the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026.
I am an NDIS participant with disabilities.
I want to outline the harm this Amendment Bill will cause if it passes Parliament. This Bill is too far-reaching to pass as it stands. I believe the Bill requires further scrutiny and amendment before it proceeds.
Parliamentary Scrutiny and Transparency
The consultation period for the Amendment Bill is two weeks, which is insufficient to allow for appropriate consultation, considering accessibility and communication needs. The Australian Government Guide to Policy Impact Analysis says consultation should occur for a minimum of 30 days where possible.
Key Decisions Left to Ministerial Instruments, Not Law
The issue: The Bill allows Ministers to change who gets NDIS support (Schedule 1 Parts 8 and 9) and how much funding people receive (Schedule 1 Part 4; Schedule 3) 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 been written.
How this affects participants: These decisions can be made arbitrarily and devoid of any evidence-based decision making. As a participant I may not know supports or eligibility rules have changed until my Plan is affected. As a participant whose plan was cut 2023 and again late 2025 the notion of further restrictions on my ability to participate socially and economically is simply terrifying. The ability to utilise my Plan while not knowing there has been cuts or restrictions will make my ability to utilise my Plan extremely difficult.
Recommendation: Require that all decisions affecting NDIS eligibility and funding levels be made through primary legislation subject to full parliamentary scrutiny, with mandatory advance notice to affected participants before any changes take effect.
Existing participants face narrower criteria and fewer rights to challenge decisions
The issue: The Bill changes the rules for existing NDIS participants and makes it harder to challenge some decisions about supports and funding. It also restricts when you can request a reassessment, removes review rights for automatic plan renewals, and makes funding reductions unreviewable (Schedule 1 Parts 1 and 8).
- Combined with restrictions on reassessment requests (Part 2), automatic plan
- renewals without review rights (Part 5), and unreviewable funding reductions (Part
- 4), existing participants face narrower criteria with significantly fewer avenues to
- challenge decisions about their supports.
How this affects participants: This does not protect participants already on the NDIS, who could be reassessed under stricter rules. If someone’s funding is reduced or their Plan renewed automatically, they may have limited or no ability to challenge that decision. This could make it harder for people to get extra support when their circumstances or disability change.
Recommendation: 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 access to unscheduled reassessments preserved.
Unreviewable ministerial power to cut funding across all support categories
The Minister can reduce funding for any support or group of supports by a specified percentage through an instrument that cannot be challenged (Schedule 1 Part 4). This applies across all budget categories. Unspent funds will no longer carry over at plan renewal (Schedule 1 Part 5).
How this affects participants: A participant’s community participation, capacity building or assistive technology funding could be cut without warning and without any right of appeal. Participants who save unspent funds across plan periods for high- cost items will lose that ability entirely.
These proposed changes will leave participants with an inability to plan how they will improve their daily living. Not knowing when the axe will fall on funding leaves the participant with zero confidence in how to achieve their NDIS goals. Life is not linear and support may be needed in peaks and troughs. This proposal penalises
Requirement to exhaust treatment options before eligibility
The issue: A person with disability will need to exhaust treatment options before they can be eligible for the Scheme (Schedule 1 Part 8). There will also be a removal of whole-of-person assessment, replaced by single eligible impairment consideration (Schedule 1 Part 3). The note that previously acknowledged environmental factors and other ineligible impairments could affect support needs will be removed (Schedule 1 Part 3).
How this affects participants: People with disability will need to prove their impairment cannot be treated before they access the NDIS. Once in the scheme, their supports will only be assessed against a single eligible impairment rather than their whole experience. A person’s individual circumstances will not be considered, including ability to pay for treatment, where they live or whether treatment is actually available to them.
I am legally blonde, hearing impaired, and have rheumatoid arthritis.
Which one of these impacts me the most? I have to choose a Disability to continue access to NDIS? My legally blind status is congenital so no it will never improve in fact if anything likely deteriorate. Hearing loss may stabilise but there’s no guarantee and there no treatment options. I wear hearing aids which help but do not restore hearing. Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is not curable. Treatments can cause negative health impacts. Whilst there might be periods of so-called remission via treatments, RA is inclined to be a progressive disease which can cause significant physical
disability. When will RA treatment option be exhausted? I will need to access lifelong treatment via my treating Rheumatologist.
So someone like me would need to choose between my legally blind status and my RA disease. While there might be some crossover between types of Support required for both these disabilities, there are aspects of both conditions that require completely different types of Support.
Recommendation: Do not proceed with a requirement to exhaust “appropriate” treatment options – there are no safeguarding measures around participant harm due to side effects or complications, a participant’s financial ability to pay, or their geographic capacity to access treatments.
Unvalidated functional capacity assessment tool risks misidentifying need
The issue: The Bill shifts assessment from whole-of-person consideration to a single eligible impairment (Schedule 1 Part 3). Read together with the eligibility thresholds in Parts 8 and 9, the tool used to conduct functional capacity assessments must be capable of sufficiently identifying whether a person meets the threshold for that single impairment.
The named assessment tool is the Instrument for Classification and Assessment of Support Needs (I-CAN). I-CAN requires validation to ensure it will sufficiently identify the needs of all people with disability, including those whose needs may be fluctuating or episodic and may not be captured through a point-in-time assessment, and to ensure it is culturally appropriate for First Peoples with disability.
How this affects participants: If the assessment tool does not accurately capture the full extent of a person’s disability, including needs that fluctuate or vary over time, a participant may be found ineligible or have their supports undercounted, with no guarantee the result reflects their actual experience. Will I be at the end of an inflexible ‘too’ that disregards my individual disability experience? I am a unique
human being and my disability is unique and I deserve to be treated as an individual
human being. This proposal describes RoboNDIS
Recommendation: Do not proceed with I-CAN as the functional capacity assessment tool unless it has been demonstrably validated to identify the needs of all people with disability, including those with episodic or fluctuating disability, and demonstrated to be culturally appropriate for First Peoples with disability.
Supports cut before replacement system is ready
The issue: From 1 October 2026, the government has announced funding for social, civic and community participation supports will be cut by 50 per cent and capacity building daily activities by 10 per cent for all participants, reductions that will be implemented through the ministerial instrument power in Schedule 1 Part 4. The Foundational Supports system intended to fill that gap has no confirmed implementation date and is not yet operational.
How this affects participants: Supports that help participants connect with their community, build skills and maintain independence may be cut before anything exists to replace them, leaving carers and families with greater responsibilities and no additional support. These supports are often what help people stay visible, connected and safe.
As a participant who has had cuts to two prior plans this proposal terrifies me. I am socially isolated, reside 80 kilometres from CBD, need to travel to access most services.
To halve my current level of social & community access would leave me with little or no ability to access essential services & recourses such as food shopping, pharmacy, multiple specialist appointments. These proposed cuts fly in the face of what NDIS was meant to achieve. As a participant my social isolation would increase. My ability to access basic goods and services would halve. I fear for my mental health if I am marooned at home. It’s equivalent to lockdown but it’s just me that can’t leave my home.
- Recommendation: Require that no reductions to community participation or capacity building supports take effect until Foundational Supports are fully operational, adequately funded and demonstrably able to meet the needs of those who will lose NDS supports.