Advocacy for Inclusion welcomes today’s extension of the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 to 14 August, and calls on the Government to use that time for genuine engagement rather than what the Minister has described as dispelling “misapprehensions.”
The extension is welcome. The framing from Government is not. When more than 4,000 Australians submit to an inquiry in a fortnight, when every organisation that appeared before the committee said the Bill should not proceed as written, and when the evidence includes testimony that people will be harmed – that is not misapprehension. That is the community telling the Government something it needs to hear.
Advocacy for Inclusion is calling on the Government to use the next eight weeks to:
- Publish the full financial modelling, including projected costs to Medicare, Centrelink, state mental health systems and informal carers – not just NDIS budget savings
- Demonstrate with evidence that foundational supports will be fully operational before any access or budget changes take effect, consistent with the NDIS Review’s own sequencing condition
- Conduct genuine, accessible consultation with people with disability – including those in regional and remote areas and those with complex communication needs – not information sessions designed to manage concern
- Clarify how the amendments already agreed with the Greens will operate in practice, and what further protections remain outstanding
Chief Executive Officer of Advocacy for Inclusion, Nicolas Lawler, said the original timeline was never adequate for legislation of this scale.
“Giving people with disability two weeks to respond to a Bill that would reshape the NDIS for a generation was not a genuine process. Over 4,000 submissions in a fortnight is evidence of how seriously people with disability and their families took the risk this legislation poses. Eight weeks is better. It needs to be used properly.”
Mr Lawler said the amendments secured so far do not resolve the fundamental problems with the Bill.
“Softening ministerial powers and adding transparency around automated decision-making are steps in the right direction. But they do not address the central question: what happens to people who are cut from the scheme, or whose budgets are reduced, before the alternatives exist to support them? That gap – between when cuts begin in October 2026 and when foundational supports are fully operational in January 2028 – remains. No amendment has closed it.”
Jo Luetjens, Acting Head of Policy, said the Government’s own documents undermine its public case for the Bill.
“The Government has led this entire process with fraud. Its own modelling shows that less than 2 per cent of projected savings come from anti-fraud measures. The rest comes from cutting access and reducing participant budgets. And the $37.8 billion savings figure doesn’t count what Medicare, Centrelink, hospitals and state mental health services will absorb when people leave the NDIS. Those costs don’t disappear. They fall on the same taxpayers, through different budget lines, with far less transparency.”
Ms Luetjens said the Government is also contradicting the authority it has most relied upon to justify the Bill.
“The NDIS Review – which the Government has cited throughout – was explicit: changes to access and budgets should only happen once widespread foundational supports are in place. The Government’s own timeline violates that condition directly. You cannot cite a review as your authority and implement reforms in direct contradiction of its clearest condition.”
The Government has said these are necessary reforms. Necessity does not excuse a process that was, in the words of those who lived through it, ridiculous and disrespectful. Eight weeks is an opportunity to do better. We will be watching closely to see whether it is used that way.