On Thursday 30 July, at the request of People with
Disability Australia (PWDA), a number of Disability
Representative Organisations, legal organisations and
representatives from the Australian Government Department of
Health, Disability and Ageing met to discuss the National
Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for
Future Generations) Bill 2026.
The roundtable provided
an opportunity for participating Disability Representative
Organisations and legal organisations to present directly to
Australian Government representatives involved in developing
and drafting the legislation the evidence of the significant
and foreseeable harm this Bill will cause if it passes in
its current form.
Participating Disability
Representative Organisations and legal organisations were
united in their position that the Bill should not
pass in its current form.
The organisations
shared evidence from advocacy, legal practice and engagement
with people with disability demonstrating that the Bill, as
drafted, will make it harder for people to access and retain
the supports they rely on, weaken review rights and legal
safeguards, increase uncertainty about future eligibility
and supports, and expose people with disability to
significant and foreseeable harm.
The organisations
warned that the Bill presents two distinct risks. First,
there are policy changes that Disability Representative
Organisations and disability legal organisations
fundamentally oppose because they will cause harm. Second,
there are significant drafting concerns that mean the
legislation may not operate in the way the Australian
Government has publicly described. Broad drafting, undefined
concepts and extensive reliance on future Rules create a
real risk that more people with disability will be adversely
affected than the already unacceptable number the Government
has indicated.
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If Parliament chooses to proceed with
the legislation despite these risks, it has a responsibility
to minimise the foreseeable harm it will cause. At the
Roundtable, our organisations presented on a range of
legislative amendment opportunities, including strengthening
access and permanence provisions, protecting participant
choice and autonomy, improving review rights, addressing
flaws in the proposed “whole of person” test, removing
inappropriate “other support systems” provisions,
strengthening participant, parental and informal carer
protections and establishing stronger implementation
safeguards.
To be clear, these amendments would reduce
some of the most serious risks, but those amendments do not
resolve the organisations’ fundamental concerns with the
Bill. Our organisations stress nonetheless that the
evidence is clear. The harm and risks are foreseeable.
Parliament now has the opportunity to prevent that harm by
rejecting this Bill in its current
form.
Participating
Organisations:
- Disability Advocacy Network
Australia - Children and Young People with Disability
Australia - Intrepidus Law
- Inclusion
Australia - Justice and Equity Centre
- National
Legal Aid - People with Disability
Australia - Villamanta Disability Rights Legal Service
Inc - Women With Disabilities Australia
About People with Disability Australia
(PWDA):
People with Disability Australia (PWDA)
is a national peak disability rights and advocacy
organisation made up of and led by people with
disability.
Founded in 1981, PWDA represents the
interests of people with all kinds of disability. We’re a
not-for-profit community-based organisation and our members
comprise a diverse range of individuals and organisations
from across Australia.
Our vision is for a socially
just, accessible and inclusive community, in which the human
rights, belonging, contribution, potential and diversity of
all people with disability are recognised, respected and
celebrated with
pride.
