Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, I present the committee's report entitled Human rights scrutiny report: report 7 of 2026.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—I am pleased to present report 7 of 2026 of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, which was tabled out of sitting on 12 June 2026.

In this report, the committee considers one new bill and 17 new legislative instruments. It has commented on three pieces of legislation.

The focus of this report is the committee's consideration of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026. This bill seeks to make several significant amendments to the operation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, broadly aimed at managing the financial stability of the scheme. The bill aims to secure the future of the NDIS through measures to tackle fraud, improve compliance, slow rapid cost increases and make eligibility requirements clearer, and deliver quality services and support to participants.

The committee has commented on six measures that appear to most directly engage and limit human rights. These measures are:

The combined impact of these measures may affect the rights of people with disability and the rights of the child, including their right to an adequate standard of living, equality and nondiscrimination, health, privacy and social security.

In general, the explanatory materials do not clearly identify the objective of each of the measures in the bill, making it difficult for the committee to assess the legitimacy for the purpose of international human rights law. The committee also has questions about whether the measures would be effective to achieve the objectives and whether the measures represent a proportionate limitation on human rights.

The committee is therefore seeking further information from ministers to assess the compatibility of the measures in the bills with human rights.

I hope the NDIS is and will remain the government's largest social program outside the age pension and the centrepiece of a comprehensive suite of support for people with disability. Given it's significant, it's important that the parliament carefully considers both the policy objectives of these measures and their implications for human rights.

I encourage all members to consider the committee's report closely. With these comments, I commend the committee's scrutiny report 7 of 2026 to the House.

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