Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens and I are opposing the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026. The sheer volume of amendments being moved to this bill demonstrates that this bill just should not pass in its current form. We'll be supporting most of the amendments, despite them not sufficiently addressing the scale of harm in the government's bill. The Greens will be moving our own amendments in the Senate.

The largest saving in this budget is $37.8 billion in cuts to the NDIS to be implemented via the changes in this bill. Here's what those changes will actually mean. They're changing the definition of permanent disability. Under this new provision, NDIS access won't be granted until all other medical treatment options have been exhausted and have failed to reduce people's disability. So if you can't afford to pursue all treatment options, too bad, you can't access the NDIS. They are going to reassess all participants and remove 160,000 people from the scheme, and it's still unclear what alternative supports will be available for that cohort. It's no wonder that people are rightly very, very scared. This bill gives the minister the ability to make broad reductions to entire groups of supports, which will enable a 50 per cent funding cut to every participant's social and community participation supports and a 10 per cent cut to their capacity-building supports, with absolutely no regard to what people actually need.

It's very clear to me that there are some problems with the way the NDIS operates, which have allowed the scheme to be exploited. Large providers who monopolise the system are the cause of so much fraud and abuse of disabled participants, in part because the NDIA does not require them to implement checks, balances or strong anti-fraud safeguards. No-one cares more about fraud than disabled people and their families, because they're the ones that suffer at the hands of fraudulent providers. But we don't tackle those issues with the NDIS, and we don't solve those problems, by kicking people off the scheme or making disabled people worse off by removing the support they so desperately need. When there's fraud in Medicare, we don't just kick people off it or reduce people's support because we recognise that as an essential service.

I sent out a survey about these cuts to my electorate, to people on the NDIS and those supporting someone on the NDIS who my office has directly helped with advocacy. Every single respondent said they were concerned about the effects of these cuts, about either being kicked off the scheme or having absolutely essential supports cut. One person supporting someone on the scheme said that they both—that's the person supporting and the person on the scheme—would not be able to work, contribute or live without the NDIS. Another said:

We barely survived before, I am absolutely terrified of going back.

Many others also said their participation in the workforce was contingent on the support they receive as well as the ability to stay out of hospital and to stay in stable housing. The social and community support that has been one of the main targets for the government's cuts means so much to participants because it allows them to participate in society. It's crucial for mental and physical health.

One participant who responded to my survey is blind and relies on support workers to get out and about. That has allowed them to get involved in competitive sport—which is great—which has in turn improved their health and resulted in fewer falls and hospitalisations. Of the changes, they said:

They will reverse the good and the feeling that I am an important part of society—at the moment I feel that only gas and coal bosses are important, and they all wish we'd just shut up and die.

The participants and carers from whom I've heard are also well aware that some level of fraud and exploitation is happening within the scheme. Many of them responded to my survey unprompted about how to actually address these issues. Notably, their suggestions don't include kicking people off the scheme. One person pointed out the huge amounts of money wasted by the NDIA on legal fees because participants are forced to go to the ART to get the care they need. They rightly point out that, if participants were given appropriate supports in the first place, there would be less need for costly review processes. Another simply said:

Don't target the participants, target the unscrupulous service providers and fraudsters.

The proposed changes we are debating give me absolutely no confidence that they will target those who are genuinely exploiting the NDIS. Rather, it's clear the government is using this as cover to unceremoniously and radically reduce the size of the scheme in an attempt to avoid political blowback. One of the survey respondents summed it up really well:

I am disgusted and horrified that the media narratives and political agenda continues to attack marginalised people, in this case some of the most vulnerable people in our rich country, to save a few bucks. Meanwhile multinational corporations get away with making billion dollar profits and paying no tax, our natural resources are taken by foreign investors and the citizens of our country don't benefit at all.

At the end of the day, it's clear that disabled people will be significantly worse off. For this reason, the Greens and I will be strongly opposing this bill.

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