The government's overhaul of the National Disability Insurance Scheme passed both houses of parliament on Wednesday, when the House of Representatives agreed to the amendments the Senate had made the night before. The bill was introduced on 14 May.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 defines functional capacity in the Act, limits unscheduled plan reassessments, ties funded supports more closely to the impairments that made a person eligible, and introduces plan end dates and renewal processes. It lets the minister reduce funding for specified groups of supports and widens the National Disability Insurance Agency's powers to investigate fraud and non-compliance. The savings attached to the package come to $37.8 billion across the four years to 2029-30.
The parliamentary record shows 32 government amendments agreed to in the Senate's committee of the whole on Tuesday, the same day the chamber agreed to the second and third readings. The House had already made 30 changes on 1 July, 18 of them the government's and 12 from the crossbench.
The Coalition's support came with a condition attached to a different bill. Labor agreed to fast-track legislation fixing what has been called the widow tax, a consequence of its own capital gains and negative gearing changes. Investors who held property before budget night kept their grandfathered concessions, but stood to lose them if a marriage ended or a spouse died. Treasurer Jim Chalmers agreed to bring that fix forward to secure the NDIS votes, and it cleared the Senate on Wednesday, the same day the NDIS bill completed its passage.
Mark Butler, who holds the health and ageing portfolio as well as disability and the NDIS, said the legislation was about strengthening the scheme so it could keep delivering on its promise. "These reforms will help make the NDIS safer, clearer and more sustainable, with stronger rules, better safeguards and greater confidence that funding is directed to the supports participants need," he said.
Senator Jenny McAllister, named with Butler on the government's statement, said passage was a step rather than a conclusion. "We'll be working with the disability community, their families, carers and the sector more broadly to implement these reforms and set the NDIS up for the long term," she said.
The scheme had 774,456 participants with approved plans at 31 March 2026, according to the agency's most recent quarterly report. Expenses grew 11.3 per cent in the twelve months to that date, against a government target of 5 to 6 per cent a year.
Nothing changes for a participant this week. The department says current access and planning arrangements stay in place, that there will be no changes to access until 1 January 2028, and that the agency will contact people before changes reach them.
The Greens and independent senator David Pocock had filed dissenting reports to the Senate inquiry recommending the bill not pass. More than 4,500 people with disability, families, advocates and organisations took part in that inquiry, according to People with Disability Australia. Neither the dissents nor the submissions changed the arithmetic once the Coalition committed its votes.
The bill now goes to the Governor-General for assent. What the overhaul does to any given participant's funding will be set by the rules and instruments made under the Act rather than by the Act itself, and those come later.
