Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026. I wish to acknowledge and thank the extraordinary individuals across our country, across our great land, who dedicate their lives to supporting people living with disability, including those across my community on the Gold Coast. To the carers, support workers, allied health professionals, educators, therapists, medical specialists and the families and informal carers who show up every single day, thank you. You are helping our community's most vulnerable to live with dignity, independence and opportunity. We are a better nation because of you.

This debate matters because behind every policy, every budget paper, every legislative amendment and every statistic are real Australians and real families—people who rely on this scheme not as a luxury but as a lifeline. The coalition has always supported the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We support the principle that Australians with significant and permanent disability should have access to the supports they need to live fuller, more independent lives. That principle has not changed. There should always be a national disability insurance scheme for those who need it, and that scheme must also be financially responsible and operationally sound for the decades ahead, because sustainability and compassion are not competing objectives; they depend on one another. If the scheme is not sustainable, it cannot continue delivering for the people who rely on it most.

Today, the NDIS supports more than 760,000 Australians. When it was originally designed, the expectation was approximately 410,000 participants. The scheme was initially estimated to cost $13.6 billion. Today, that figure sits at around $50 billion annually, and it is projected to reach approximately $70 billion by the end of the decade. That trajectory is not sustainable, and that reality cannot simply be ignored. But what concerns us is that this legislation represents the government's latest attempt to manage growth in the scheme after repeated failures to meet its own targets. In April 2023, the Albanese government committed to reducing annual growth in the scheme to eight per cent. That target was missed. Then the minister announced the government would seek to reduce growth to between five and six per cent over the medium term. Again, that target was not achieved. Growth is now sitting above those ambitions.

So this bill becomes another attempt to control a system the government has struggled to manage. It's out of control, just like the government's loss of control when it comes to our economy and the budget. While we support reforms where they improve integrity and strengthen protections, our concern is simple: Australians with disability cannot become collateral damage in a race to repair the government's budget position. That is why scrutiny matters, and that is why implementation matters. Scrutiny matters and implementation matters, and they, of course, are the two biggest weaknesses of this government, because the success or failure of these reforms will ultimately be judged not by the press releases but by the experience of the participants.

In my magnificent electorate of Moncrieff I've seen firsthand the difference the NDIS can indeed make. Earlier this month I had the privilege of spending time with 18-year-old Tilly. Tilly lives with disability. She uses a wheelchair and requires full-time medical care. But Tilly is far more than her diagnosis. She's a young woman with ambition. Tilly's as bright as a button. She's building friendships. She has dreams for her future. She's living her life to the full. Earlier this month, Tilly attended our IMPACT Gold Coast Youth Summit, alongside her carer. Now in its fourth year, the summit brings together young people from across the Gold Coast to encourage leadership, aspiration and connection. Tilly has contributed multiple times to the event, because she's part of the rich diversity that makes our community that much stronger. Tilly and her very special family receive NDIS support, and that is indeed entirely appropriate for Tilly's needs. The NDIS is enabling Tilly and the 4,000-plus other participants in Moncrieff to live dignified lives and contribute to our community, and our community is better for it.

People are understandably anxious about some of the changes that are proposed in this bill. One of the most significant changes is the establishment of a new framework to assess eligibility for support. Historically, access has largely been linked to diagnosis. Under these reforms, greater emphasis will be placed on functional capacity. Now, there may be merit in moving towards assessments that better reflect a person's actual support needs. The problem is that the legislation establishes the mechanism but the government has not yet developed the actual assessment model. As usual, they put the cart before the horse.

People are being asked to trust a process that does not yet exist, and families are asking, rightly: 'Will my child still qualify? Will my loved one lose supports? What evidence will be required? Will people need expensive reports? Will reassessments become endless exercises in bureaucracy?' And today there are not enough answers. Changes of this magnitude must be consulted on properly. Participants deserve certainty. Providers deserve certainty. Families deserve certainty. The government says implementation will not occur until 1 January 2028. If that's the case, then I say to the government use that time properly to consult, test, refine, listen. Use the time wisely, because Australia cannot take any more broken promises and rushed implementation from this government. There have been a plethora of broken promises from this government, and Australians have now had a taste of what that actually looks like and how it hurts their back pocket.

The bill also proposes reassessment of existing participants over several years, and that means hundreds of thousands of Australians potentially entering the reassessment process. We must ask: What happens if people lose access? Where do those people go? State health systems are already under immense pressure. Hospital waitlists continue to grow. Specialist access remains difficult. GP availability remains stretched. We cannot simply move pressure from one system into another and pretend that that constitutes reform. The states simply cannot accommodate that and are certainly not ready for it.

We are hopeful that participants with permanent and significant disabilities are not forced to repeatedly prove conditions that are already permanent. People should not have to relive trauma or spend thousands obtaining reports to establish facts that are already known. The government must apply common sense—the very thing, I'm afraid to tell Australians, it lacks.

Let me be clear. There are other elements of this bill that the coalition support. We support stronger safeguards. We support improving integrity. We support measures that better protect participants because fraud in the NDIS is not victimless. Every dollar lost to fraud is a dollar not available to support someone like my friend Tilly. This bill includes measures around provider registration, stronger record-keeping requirements and shorter claim periods. These are indeed sensible reforms. Currently, providers and participants may claim over lengthy periods. Moving towards stronger record retention and shorter claim windows can support integrity, but integrity reform must go further.

Public confidence in the NDIS matters. Australians expect that taxpayer money reaches participants, not opportunists, and right now there remain significant concerns about fraud, exploitation and inappropriate claims across parts of the NDIS. We continue hearing stories of providers charging inflated prices simply because services are being paid through the NDIS. Families tell us they seek quotes for everyday supports and watch prices increase dramatically once the words 'NDIS funded' are mentioned. I have had many families come to my office in Surfers Paradise to speak to me about these difficulties, and those issues are indeed unacceptable. Participants should never be treated as funding streams, and taxpayers should not be treated as unlimited sources of revenue.

But integrity also means making sure good providers are supported, because not every provider is doing the wrong thing—far from it. In Moncrieff, organisations like LGO Therapy Group have worked tirelessly to provide evidence based, person centred support to young people and adults living with disability. Their focus is not on gaming the system. Their focus is on helping people live better lives—hats off to them.

I've heard directly from allied health professionals and providers concerned about workforce sustainability, funding settings and administrative burdens. Concerns have been raised that pricing decisions, travel arrangements and funding structures risk reducing access to services, particularly to capacity-building supports designed to help participants become more independent over time. There are also distributors who are NDIS providers who are charging a premium once they import some of the equipment and then add their margin to it—their overly bloated margin. These concerns deserve to be heard because reform cannot simply reduce costs in the short term while creating bigger problems down the road. Providers delivering essential services should not be left carrying unsustainable financial risk while trying to do the right thing by participants.

At every stage, the government must remember that the goal is not simply to reduce growth. The goal is to build a stronger scheme, a fairer scheme and a more sustainable scheme that protects participants while supporting innovation and choice. That means getting the balance right: stop the exploitation, support our legitimate providers and, most importantly, protect participants.

The coalition will support this bill because we recognise that change is necessary. The findings of the NDIS review and the royal commission make clear that reforms cannot be ignored. There must be stronger oversight, there must be stronger protections and there must be greater accountability—all weaknesses of this Albanese Labor government. But our support comes with an expectation that implementation is transparent, that consultation is genuine and that Australians with disability remain at the centre of every decision. The NDIS is one of Australia's most important social reforms. Its future matters, its integrity matters and, most importantly, the people who rely on it matter.

I once again thank every Australian who quietly dedicates themselves to caring for other Australians living with a disability. Your work matters, your compassion matters and Australia is stronger and better because of you.

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