Submission 434
Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation
Committee - Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future
Generations) Bill 2026
Submitted by Disability Rights Connect
Disability Rights Connect welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission on the
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future
Generations) Bill 2026 (the Bill).
This submission focuses on a discrete but important issue: the interaction between the proposed permanence and “appropriate treatment” requirements and the NDIS early intervention access pathway, particularly for children with significant and ongoing support needs.
The Government has stated that the Bill is intended to secure the NDIS for future generations by restoring the Scheme’s focus on providing lifetime supports to people with permanent and significant disability. In this context, it is important to ensure that the proposed reforms do not create unintended barriers for children whose disabilities are known to be significant, lifelong and likely to require support across the lifespan. Clarifying the interaction between the permanence requirements and the early intervention pathway would help ensure that the NDIS continues to support future generations of children with significant and permanent disability.
The proposed permanence reforms
The Bill proposes significant changes to the way permanence is assessed for NDIS access.
Under the proposed amendments, an impairment will generally not be considered permanent, or likely to be permanent, unless:
the person has undertaken all appropriate treatment for the impairment
any further treatment is unlikely to materially improve, reverse or alleviate the impact of the impairment
the impairment is likely to persist for the person’s lifetime.
The Bill also introduces a new definition of “appropriate treatment”, which focuses on treatments that are evidence-based, reasonably expected to materially improve outcomes and regularly undertaken in Australia.
These reforms have been presented as clarifying the boundary between healthcare and disability supports. However, they also raise important questions about how permanence will be assessed for people seeking access through the NDIS early intervention pathway.
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Submission 434
Interaction with the early intervention pathway
The purpose of the NDIS early intervention pathway is to provide supports at an early stage where those supports are likely to improve outcomes, reduce future support needs, prevent deterioration or improve functional capacity.
The pathway is inherently prospective. It is designed to provide support before needs escalate and while there remains an opportunity to improve long-term outcomes.
However, under the proposed amendments, children and adults seeking access through the “permanent or likely permanent impairment” limb of the early intervention pathway (s 25(1)(a)(i) and 25(1)(a)(iii)) will first need to demonstrate that all appropriate treatment has been undertaken and that further treatment is unlikely to materially improve the condition.
This creates a tension within the legislative framework.
The early intervention pathway is intended to facilitate timely support. By contrast, the proposed permanence requirements may increasingly require evidence that treatment options have been exhausted before an impairment can be regarded as permanent or likely to be permanent.
For some people, particularly children with significant disability, access to early intervention supports could therefore become more complex and delayed, despite the known benefits of early support.
Implications for children with significant and ongoing support needs
This issue is particularly relevant for children with significant and ongoing support needs, including children with rare genetic conditions, complex neurological conditions and other lifelong disabilities.
Many of these children have impairments that are known from diagnosis, or from an early stage, to be permanent or likely to be permanent. These children are precisely the cohort that government policy suggests should continue to access the NDIS.
However, the proposed permanence and “appropriate treatment” requirements apply to children seeking access through the “permanent or likely permanent impairment” pathway, but do not apply to children accessing the Scheme through the developmental delay pathway (s 25(1)(a)(iii)). As a result, access through the “permanent or likely permanent impairment” pathway may become more complex for some children and families, despite the fact that the long-term nature of the disability may already be well understood.
The picture becomes more complex when the proposed functional capacity reforms are considered alongside the permanence reforms.
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Submission 434
The Bill introduces a new definition of functional capacity and creates a framework for future NDIS Rules to prescribe assessment methods, criteria and thresholds for determining functional capacity. The Explanatory Memorandum indicates that the intention is to assess a person’s intrinsic abilities, as distinct from the impact of environmental supports, living arrangements or other external factors.
These reforms are particularly relevant to children seeking access through the developmental delay pathway. Under the NDIS Act, developmental delay is defined by reference to a child’s functional capacity, including substantial reductions in areas such as communication, self-care, cognitive development and motor development.
While the Bill does not impose the new permanence requirements on the developmental delay pathway, it does create a framework through which future Rules may substantially influence how eligibility is assessed under that pathway. The Government has indicated that access decisions for new applicants will eventually be informed by a new standardised assessment of functional capacity, with existing participants expected to transition to the new framework over time.
At present, it remains difficult to assess how these future arrangements will operate in practice because the relevant Rules, assessment tools and eligibility thresholds have not yet been released. As a result, there is currently limited visibility regarding how children with significant and ongoing support needs will access the NDIS under the future framework, and how access through the developmental delay pathway will compare with access through the “permanent or likely permanent impairment” pathway.
The interaction between these reforms warrants careful scrutiny to ensure that children whom the Government intends to remain eligible for the Scheme are not inadvertently excluded or delayed in accessing support.
Recommendation
Disability Rights Connect recommends that the Bill be amended to ensure that access to the scheme via the early intervention pathway for children is not contingent on demonstrating that all appropriate treatment has been undertaken.
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