Big and complex changes are coming to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) after the Federal Budget and Minister for the NDIS Mark Butler’s tabling of a new NDIS Amendment Bill in Federal Parliament last week without consultation.

The JFA Purple Orange policy team is working quickly to analyse the proposed cuts and legislative reforms. We are currently drafting a submission to the Senate Inquiry and encourage others to do the same. Our friends at CYDA have created this helpful guide on how to make your voice heard.

We are making our concerns about the extremely short timeframe for submissions to this Inquiry known, but it seems likely the deadline of this Friday, 29 May 2026 will remain.

Another option to provide feedback is to contact your local Member of Parliament. You can find their contact details here. There is no deadline to do this, although the Federal Government intends to pass the Bill by the end of June.

Among our most serious concerns are:

  • Cutting the number of NDIS participants to 600,000, which could occur before alternative supports are available, especially in regional, rural, and remote locations that already have far fewer services;
  • A new definition of functional capacity and the requirement that this be assessed without taking into account a person’s circumstances or living environment;
  • A narrower definition of permanence and stricter requirement that all treatment options be exhausted before becoming eligible for the NDIS;
  • Ministerial power to reduce support budgets for all, or targeted groups of, participants. The current focus is on reducing social and community participation budgets, but there are few limits on how this power could be used in the future;
  • New restrictions on accessing plan reassessments that will particularly affect those who use formal supports for planning;
  • Automated decision making and the loss of 669 NDIA jobs in the next financial year; and
  • Limits on what constitutes a reviewable decision.

We have sought meetings with key decision makers and will continue to engage with this process through every available channel to ensure there is appropriate scrutiny of the changes and to try to achieve better outcomes for South Australians with disability.