A Senate committee has recommended that the government's overhaul of the National Disability Insurance Scheme be passed, tabling a report in Canberra on Friday that contained one recommendation and no others. The Senate sits from Monday.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 was introduced on 14 May and referred to the Community Affairs Legislation Committee the same day. It reached the Senate on 12 August. The bill defines functional capacity in the Act, limits how often a participant can ask for a plan reassessment, widens the grounds on which a plan can be suspended, and ties funded supports more closely to the impairments that made a person eligible. It also lets the government approve a panel of plan management providers, who would then be barred from supplying any other NDIS support.
The savings attached to the reform package come to $37.8 billion across the four years to 2029-30. Grattan Institute disability program director Sam Bennett and senior associate Owain Emslie set out the two largest components on 21 July: a 50 per cent reduction in every participant's social and community participation budget, and a 10 per cent reduction in every capacity building daily activities budget.
Scheme costs grew 11.3 per cent in the twelve months to March 2026. The government's target is 5 to 6 per cent a year. Bennett and Emslie calculated that the structural changes on their own would hold growth near 3 per cent annually across the forward estimates, below the target the government set for itself. The two budget reductions deliver more than a third of the total savings, about $4 billion a year by 2028-29.
The Greens filed a dissenting report recommending the bill not pass, and asked the government to model the effect on the disability workforce before proceeding. "The Greens' central recommendation is clear: this Bill should not pass Parliament," said Senator Jordon Steele-John, the party's NDIS spokesperson. Independent senator David Pocock also dissented.
The Australia Institute costed the reduction in social and community participation supports at 51,641 full-time equivalent jobs, or close to 94 million hours of paid care each year. On the same analysis, once inflation and population growth are counted, NDIS funding in 2029-30 would be about 10 per cent lower in real terms than in 2026-27.
More than 4,500 people with disability, families, advocates and organisations took part in the inquiry, according to People with Disability Australia. "We showed what happens when the supports that make our participation possible are taken away," acting chief executive Megan Spindler-Smith said. "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."
Mark Butler, who holds the health and ageing portfolio and the disability and NDIS portfolio, has argued the changes return the scheme to its original purpose of supporting people with permanent and significant disability, and that each week of delay sends more money to fraud rather than to participants. The government has set aside $3 billion over five years for foundational supports delivered outside the scheme, to be matched by the states. A further $2 billion is committed to Thriving Kids, also to be matched, for children aged eight and under with developmental delay or autism and low to moderate support needs.
The inquiry ran eight weeks longer than first scheduled. The Greens secured that extension in June, along with government support for what the party called failsafe amendments, and an interim report was tabled before the final one.
What the committee produced on Friday is advice, not a vote. The bill is before the Senate, the two dissenting reports are on the record, and the chamber returns on Monday for a four day sitting week.
