PWDA slams Senate Committee’s Recommendation to Pass NDIS Bill

People with Disability Australia (PWDA), the national cross-disability rights and advocacy organisation, has condemned the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee's recommendation that the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 proceed. 

More than 4,500 people with disability, families, advocates and disability, legal and community organisations participated in the inquiry, providing extensive evidence about the risks of the Bill and the harm it will cause. The evidence laid out serious and foreseeable consequences for people with disability, families, carers and the Australian economy.

PWDA Acting CEO Megan Spindler-Smith said disregarding thousands of submissions and the documented harm of removing people from the NDIS, placing caps on essential supports and shifting responsibility onto families, carers and already stretched mainstream services was a betrayal of the deep expertise and experience of the disability community and our allies.

"People with disability have been extraordinarily clear about what is at stake if this Bill passes. We know what these changes would mean in our lives. We provided the deep expertise and evidence. We proposed alternatives," Mx Spindler-Smith said.

"We showed what happens when the supports that make our participation possible are taken away. The harm laid bare through the Disability Royal Commission is not a distant memory. This Bill will see us working less hours or stopping work, being unable to engage in our community, seeing friends less, relying more on family, losing independence or simply not being able to do the ordinary things other Australians take for granted. Isolation does not support safety.”

"To have that evidence heard and then disregarded through one recommendation is irresponsible and disrespectful."

The foreseeable harm was already reflected in the Government's own impact assessment of the Bill and independent economic research.

New analysis from The Australia Institute estimates the planned cuts are equivalent to around 51,600 full-time jobs and 94 million hours of paid care every year by 2029-30. It also estimates that, after accounting for inflation and population growth, NDIS funding in real terms would be around 10 per cent lower in 2029-30 than in 2026-27.

PWDA Interim President Jarrod Sandell-Hay said those figures expose what is really at stake.

"These cuts mean smaller lives for people with disability," Mr Sandell-Hay said.

"Those 94 million hours of support don't simply vanish. They are hours of support people need to leave their homes, go to work, study, see friends, participate in our communities and live safely.

"People with disability will either go without or our families and carers will be left scrambling to fill the gaps.

"It is cruel to ask people with disability to sacrifice our independence, our participation and our opportunities because the Government has made the wrong choice to cut the NDIS.

"The consequences won't just be felt by people with disability. With more than 51,600 jobs at risk, there are consequences for workers, communities and the wider economy that have not been adequately considered or addressed. That is frankly irresponsible."

Speaking to the disability community Jarrod Sandell-Hay reaffirmed PWDA’s commitment to holding government to account and ensuring the NDIS meets the needs of people with disability.

"To ignore the evidence we heard throughout the hearing is another blow to the consultation and promise of "nothing about us, without us. Tonight the community is angry and upset as we have been here before and we will once again continue the fight for our basic human rights" shared Mr Sandell-Hay.

PWDA said the Bill leaves critical details about how supports can be reduced, how new powers will operate and what safeguards will protect people with disability to future decisions and future Governments.

"This Bill asks Parliament to give the Government an open-ended mandate to cut our NDIS supports," Mx Spindler-Smith said.

"A roadmap does not make unsafe legislation safe. Promising consultation after the Bill passes does not fix legislation that gives current and future Ministers extraordinary power over our lives.

"It leaves our community with ongoing uncertainty about the security of the supports that keep us safe and make our ordinary lives possible.”

The final report focuses only on amendments the Government had already agreed to and fails to address the broader concerns raised by people with disability and the disability community. While those amendments are important, our community have been clear that they do not go far enough. The report does not meaningfully respond to the significant concerns raised about the Bill beyond the Government’s existing amendments.

PWDA thanked the Australian Greens, Senator Jordon Steele-John and Senator David Pocock for listening to people with disability and opposing the Bill through their dissenting reports.

"We thank the Australian Greens and Senator David Pocock for standing with our community and refusing to accept the harm of this Bill," Mx Spindler-Smith said.

"At a time when so many people with disability feel ignored, disrespected and disregarded by this process, their dissent and considered recommendations are welcome."

Mx Spindler-Smith said the final decision now rests with the Senate.

"Parliament has been warned. The consequences are foreseeable.

"We are asking every Senator to listen to the deep expertise of people with disability, look at the evidence and reject this Bill."