National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 630
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment
(Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 A PWdWA submission to the Australian Parliament’s
Community Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry
People with Disabilities WA
Belmont disability hub
213 Wright Street, Cloverdale, Western Australia
Email: systemic.advocacy@pwdwa.org
Voicemail: +61 8 6243 6948
Rural and regional voicemail: 1800 193 331
Website: www.pwdwa.org
Submission 630
People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Preface
This submission to the Australian Parliament’s Community Affairs Legislation
Committee May–June 2026 inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 is presented by
People with Disabilities WA. It is authored by our lived experience advocates,
PWdWA Systemic Advocate Amanda Ellis and myself, PWdWA CEO Kat Johns.
People with Disabilities WA is the peak disability advocacy organisation in
Western Australia, representing the rights, interests, and voices of people with
disability. PWdWA works hard to ensure that people with disability are included,
respected, and empowered to participate fully in Western Australian and
Australian society, and is led by and for people with disability in metropolitan
and regional WA.
This PWdWA submission to NDIS Bill inquiry requested by the Australian
Senate on 14 May 2026 draws on the lived experience of people with disability in
WA. It also draws on the 45 years of experience that PWdWA has in supporting
people with disability to enjoy their international human rights and everyday life
in the community while they access fair and equitable support services such as
those provided by the Australian Government and the states and territories
through their jointly funded National Disability Insurance Scheme.
PWdWA is proud to contribute to this important public inquiry, reflecting a
shared commitment to addressing discrimination, supporting people with
disability, and advocating for systemic change through legal and community–
based approaches used across Australia and WA.
What our NDIS should look like and deliver is an is important topic that is
top-of-mind for people with disability in this state and country. Members of the
disability community in Australia view the scheme with hope and see as a
mechanism by which they can take part in everyday life in the community and get
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Submission 630
People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
the support they need to live their best lives, with autonomy and choice and
control. As people with disability and disability advocates, the staff, board and
members of People with Disabilities want the NDIS to meet our expectations and
be only be change in ways that better serve us – not by shelling it and ditching our
community for the scheme while pretending legislation will counter the tiny
proportion of fraud seen on the scheme.
We encourage the Australian Government and the Albanese Government
caucus to hear people with disability’s objections loudly and respect our lived
experience perspective and ditch the regressive restrictive and scheme
shrinking reforms you have put forward and retain spending on the scheme, in
accordance with your very real intergovernmental agreements with the states
and territories. People with disability know what they need. We need an NDIS
that serves us so we can enjoy our human rights under the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and take part in everyday
life in the Australian community.
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Submission 630
People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Acknowledgements
People with Disabilities WA acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples as the traditional custodians of Australia and acknowledge their
continuing connection to land, sea and community. We acknowledge the
traditional owners of the lands we live and work on, the Whadjuk and Noongar
people, the Ngarluma, Yindjibarndi, Mardudhunera and Yaburara people, and
the Wangkatha people, and pay our respects to elders past and present. Some of
us come from afar, others from near and here, and acknowledge our deep
gratitude at our shared access to these lands that were never ceded. Always
was, always will be. We also pay our respects to all First Nations people reading
this submission.
Acknowledgement of lived experience PWdWA is a disabled people’s organisation of people with disabilities and we
pay respect to all people with disability and all people with lived experience of
disability reading this submission. We acknowledge the awareness, sensitivity
and deeply valuable lessons you have learned that you can share with the
Australian community in your individual and group submissions to this
community consultation and in co-designing Australian laws and policy to help
our community leaders improve the lives of people with disability in our country.
Acknowledgement of opportunity PWdWA thanks the Australian Senate’s Community Affairs Legislation
Committee for the opportunity to provide our comments for its inquiry and report
into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS
for Future Generations) Bill 2026 presented to Australian Parliament. PWdWA
encourage you as always to co-design all policy and legislation about us with us.
Thank you.
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Submission 630
People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
About us
People with Disabilities WA
Since 1981 People with Disabilities WA has been Western Australia’s peak
disabled people’s community organisation representing the rights, needs and
equity of all residents with physical, intellectual, neurological, psychosocial or
sensory disability.
PWdWA is a member-based organisation that serves the disability
community in WA with individual and systemic advocacy services. The
organisation provides access to information, and independent individual and
systemic advocacy support with a focus on the community’s most vulnerable
people.
PWdWA is run by and for people with disabilities and provides support for
people accessing national, state and local services. The organisation has many
lived experience advocates in staff and management and on its board. The team
aims to amplify the voices of all people with disabilities in Western Australia and
empower them to live their best lives in the community.
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Submission 630
People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Contents
People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 ……………….
Preface …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. i
Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………………………. iii
Acknowledgement of Country …………………………………………………………………………………………. iii
Acknowledgement of lived experience ……………………………………………………………………………… iii
Acknowledgement of opportunity ……………………………………………………………………………………. iii
About us ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… iv
People with Disabilities WA …………………………………………………………………………………………….. iv
Contents ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. v
Executive Summary & Introduction …………………………………………………………………. 1
Principles for any reforms ………………………………………………………………………………. 3
Specific feedback on the NDIS Bill that follows its structure ……………………………….. 4
Schedule 1—Access and planning measures ………………………………………………………………………. 4
Schedule 2—Fraud measures …………………………………………………………………………………………… 6
Schedule 3—Governance arrangements ……………………………………………………………………………. 6
Schedule 4—New framework planning ……………………………………………………………………………… 6
Schedule 5—Transitional rules …………………………………………………………………………………………. 8
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Submission 630
People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Executive Summary
Bill claims to tackle provider fraud but instead punishes participants
The proposed bill stresses importance of tackling fraud by providers in the NDIS. Rather than identifying strategies to tackle fraud, the bill punishes participants and does not identify any strategies to deal with fraud. The strategy set out by the government involves removing supports. Blocking participation is not a strategy in any other market or support system, to tackle fraud.
Questionable data relating to fraud
Disabled Person’s Organisations have also requested more information about where the government have obtained their data from and if it’s accurate.
Bill pretends Australia is spending too much on disability support
Australia is not an outlier in spending on disability supports. Australia’s NDIS expenditure (around 2% of GDP) sits in line with countries such as Germany and below Nordic countries, rather than representing exceptional level of investment.
Cutting NDIS spend on participants will increase spending on hospital care
The NDIS is an upstreaming system, made efficient via a market model and naturally supporting safeguards by enabling choice and control. Dismantling supports will inevitably increase pressure in state-based systems of care, including hospitals, emergency departments and mental health systems.
Efficiencies can be made without a lazy strategy to cut front line support
What IS an outlier compared to e.g. Nordic countries, are Australia’s spend on bureaucracy, overheads, lawyers and other government programs. Many things can be done to curb spending such as defaulting to plan management, cutting expensive consultancy contracts and undertaking a normal efficiency program.
Millions will be impacted
People with disabilities, carers, parents and support workers will be impacted, causing financial pressures on the economy. Many carers (mostly women) will be unable to work, participants on the scheme who have all proven eligibility, will be forced back into poverty without the support to participate economically.
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Submission 630
People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Introduction
People with Disabilities WA has been supporting people with disability in
Western Australia with disability advocacy services for the past 45 years.
PWdWA and its staff have lived experience of disability and decades of
experience supporting people with disability to live their best lives in the
community. It is based on this extensive experience of the lived experience of
people with disability that we believe the rushed, exclusionary piece of
legislation that is the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment
(Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 is not fair, sensible or
appropriate.
PWdWA has read the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment
(Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, the accompanying
Explanatory Memorandum, the Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights,
the announcements of the Hon. Mark Butler MP and the supporting 2026–27
Budget materials. We are shocked at the NDIS Bill’s contents and believe it is
unworthy to be passed by members of any political party in Australia,
including the Australian Labor Party, the Liberal Party of Australia, the Australian
Greens, the National Party of Australia and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation – all
key players in whether this legislation gets up.
PWdWA’s position is unambiguous: the National Disability Insurance
Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 is the
wrong instrument applied to an actually nonexistent “overspending problem”
that, based on the international evidence is just spin. The Bill’s name is a fallacy.
The NDIS Bill actually aims to rob future generations of the NDIS and rip it
away from current generations. It’s an appalling piece of legislation and it
should not pass or be voted for by any politician regardless of their politically
leanings.
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Submission 630
People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
PWdWA notes that the major political parties have supported this
legislation being assessed by a Senate inquiry from the Australian Parliament’s
Community Affairs Legislation Committee. However, sending it to an inquiry is
not enough. The legislation needs to be thrown out. We cannot abandon the
disability community and then use the funds we save to fund nuclear
submarines. It is just wrong.
Like organisations, lobby groups and everyday Australians with disability,
PWdWA opposes the exceedingly short timeframe for the inquiry to evaluate the
legislation, examine community feedback, and report back to Parliament. Two
weeks for the community to look at the NDIS Bill. Two weeks for the inquiry to
report. Just four weeks in total. The timeframe is ridiculous. And if the NDIS Bill is
to pass people with disability will lose our funding, lose our human rights under
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and
lose the role we play in everyday community life. We will lose our way of life,
and some of us will lose our lives too. It’s not on.
Principles for any reforms People with Disabilities WA believe the following five principles should apply to
any reforms to the National Disability Insurance Scheme and disability support
services in Australia.
-
Keep The Promise – honour Australia’s social contract for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Give us the support you promised.
-
Nobody Left Behind – don’t boot people off the NDIS without a real and equal support system in place. Ensure we have certainty and good
ongoing support.
- No Disadvantage – legally guarantee people won’t be worse off under any new arrangements. Enshrine our rights, like Australia and the world did in
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
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People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
- Real Choice And Control – keep people’s ability to choose their NDIS or state and territory–based providers and caregivers. We want to choose
who we have around us and who supports us.
- Protect Disability Work – support our right to work, and protect the employment of people who work for us. We need good jobs where we’re
accommodated, and so do our disability support workers.
Specific feedback on the NDIS Bill that follows its structure
Schedule 1—Access and planning measures People with Disabilities WA believes that there should be no reduction in the
number of people on the National Disability Insurance Scheme and no removal
of the lists of impairments that make people eligible for the scheme. In fact, we
believe the impairment tables should be revisited and glaring omissions from the
lists, such as ADHD, should be finally included.
Part 1—Defining functional capacity PWdWA understands and respects the need for assessing functional capacity
when looking at people’s eligibility for the scheme. However, PWdWA does not
believe that functional capacity should be assessed by non-professionals who
have an economic incentive to exclude people from the scheme and save the
Australian Government from spending funds on people who are truly eligible.
PWdWA therefore opposes the introduction of the 9B(1) definition of
functional capacity, especially its efforts in section 9B(2) to move elaboration on
the ways to determine functional capacity into the Rules, instead of being clearly
specified in legislation and impairment tables.
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Submission 630
People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Part 2—Limit unscheduled plan reassessments PWdWA opposes the shifting of the goalposts on participants that will mean that
participants must dread the very real prospect that under the proposed new
subsection 32B(2A) the National Disability Insurance Agency CEO could
mandate that the participant must have a new framework plan, even if an
existing plan is still current. People should have certainty in the plans they have
and not be subject a captain’s call from whoever the latest NDIA CEO is.
PWdWA also objects to the replacement of subsection 48(2) with a new
48(2) which introduces more captain’s call provisions for the latest and
subsequent NDIA CEOs to execute their own judgement (read initiative) and a
new 48(2A) that allows any NDIA CEO to require any evidence they like, whether
it be information, documents … or reports that are impossible to obtain or afford
without assistance.
PWdWA is concerned that the new section 48A will use legalese to limit
what counts as “conditions for conducting reassessment of participant’s plan on
request” to extreme alterations in their circumstances – such as 48A(3)(a) living
arrangements; or (b) education arrangements; or (c) work arrangements; or (d)
network for informal support. We are concerned that valid reasons will be
ignored and the significant alterations required will only be diabolical reasons.
People need their plans when their circumstances change, so trying to close the
door as much as possible through exclusionary definitions is not on. Don’t
introduce this clause.
PWdWA worries about the proposed section 27 related to “application of
amendments.” What on earth does it mean? Are you really going to try and police
this requests-for-assessments clause 48A from the nanosecond this NDIS Bill
passes? What happened to delayed implementation? This Bill is trying to ram
through its changes, as fast as possible.
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Submission 630
People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Part 3—Strengthen link between an impairment and need for support PWdWA believes the removal of whole-of-person assessment through Schedule
1 Part 3, in favour of assessment on a single eligible impairment consideration is
wrong. People with disability can and usually do have multiple impairments or
comorbidities, if you want to use medical language. Collectively, people’s
multiple impairments add up to the disability they live with. That is why we in
Australia use the term people with disability as a singular noun. All our
impairments add up to the experience of disability we have in society.
PWdWA notes that in Schedule 1 Part 3 a clause will be removed that says
previously acknowledged environmental factors and other ineligible
impairments could affect support needs. We don’t believe this consideration
should be removed. It should stay, as our environmental factors and ineligibility
impairments still contribute to our singular experience of disability as real
people. Check out the social model of disability, it will help explain why the
bigger picture of our environment and context is just as disabling as catastrophic
injury. One impairment does not affect us in isolation. All impairments
contribute to our singular experience of disability as individuals.
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Submission 630
People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Part 4—Support determinations
Part 5—Plan renewal
Part 6—Reasonable and necessary supports
Part 7—Plan suspension etc.
Part 8—Tightening meaning of permanence to reduce access where an impairment can be treated
Part 9—Eligibility based on access to other services
Schedule 2—Fraud measures
Part 1—Registration of NDIS providers
Crimes Act
National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013
Part 2—Civil penalties and regulatory powers
Part 3—Information gathering powers
Part 4—Retention of records
Part 5—Reducing claim times
Part 6—Registered plan management providers
Schedule 3—Governance arrangements
Part 1—Decision-making on pricing
Part 2—Automation of administrative action
Part 3—Minor amendments
Schedule 4—New framework planning
National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013
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Submission 630
People with Disabilities WA’s Thoughts on the Diabolical National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on
Track No. 1) Act 2024
Schedule 5—Transitional rules
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