NDIS reform bill: the government wants to cut first and build later
The NDIS Amendment Bill promises $10 billion in new supports but hasn’t delivered them yet. Twelve disability groups say cuts shouldn’t start until it does. Here’s what’s in the bill and what happens next.
Twelve disability representative organisations, including People with Disability Australia, First Peoples Disability Network Australia and Women With Disabilities Australia, put the government on notice this week over the NDIS Amendment Bill.
Their argument is simple. The government can cut the NDIS, or it can build the alternatives first. Doing both at the same time and calling it a plan is the problem.
What’s in the bill
The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 was introduced to Parliament on 14 May 2026, following NDIS Minister Mark Butler’s National Press Club speech on 22 April.
The bill’s changes include:
- cutting 160,000 people from the scheme over 4 years
- reducing the average plan by around $5,000
- cutting individual funding for social, civic and community participation by as much as 50%, from 1 October 2026
- cutting capacity building daily activity budgets by 10%, also from 1 October 2026
- replacing diagnosis-based eligibility with a “permanent and significant disability” test, applying to new applicants from 1 January 2028
- a new digital payment system and wider mandatory provider registration, aimed at reducing fraud
The government’s answer to the funding gap is a $200 million Inclusive Communities Fund. That covers a fraction of what’s being cut, and it hands the decision over which services exist to organisations, not to the participants losing funding.
How we got here
The Senate inquiry into the bill was due to report by 16 June. That deadline slipped twice, to 19 June, then 23 June.
On 23 June, the government struck a deal with the Greens: an 8-week extension to the inquiry, in exchange for Greens support on separate tax legislation. The final report is now due 14 August 2026.
The extension buys time. It only means something if that time produces real answers, not another 8 weeks of the same negotiating positions. As part of the deal, the government agreed to some amendments, including limits on the Minister’s power to cut whole categories of support, and more transparency around automated decision-making.
Why foundational supports matter
This is where the disagreement sits. Under a National Cabinet agreement, state and territory governments committed $10 billion to fund “foundational supports”: services outside the NDIS for people who don’t qualify, or who lose access under the new eligibility test.
Promising that money and delivering it are two different things. The disability sector has been asked to trust that gap before.
The Senate committee’s interim report says NDIS changes shouldn’t proceed until governments deliver on the $10 billion commitment. The 12 disability groups welcomed this. But they say the committee’s report still doesn’t go far enough, because it recommends the bill pass without major changes.
“An Explanatory Memorandum is not legislation, and a roadmap is not an enforceable safeguard,” the groups said in their statement.
A roadmap describes intentions. It doesn’t fund anything, and it doesn’t stop a single support being cut on 1 October.
What happens next
The Senate’s final report is due 14 August 2026. After that, the government decides whether and how to proceed with the bill, which still needs Coalition or Greens support to pass.