Supplementary Submission – NDIS Amendment Bill 2026

Following its appearance before the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, the Australian Autism Alliance has provided a supplementary submission, Systems That Work: Ensuring Reform is Ready, Accountable and Safe.

The Alliance supports NDIS reform and long-term sustainability, but does not support the Bill in its current form or the proposed implementation timeframes. Our supplementary submission builds on our earlier evidence to the Inquiry and examines whether the evidence, systems, safeguards and critical dependencies needed to implement the proposed reforms are in place.

Key areas addressed in the submission include:

• Testing the evidence — the Alliance tested 11 legislative and cross-cutting assumptions underpinning the proposed reforms. Six were assessed as presenting Extreme risk if wrong, including assumptions relating to family capacity, functional assessment, replacement-system readiness, procedural fairness and whether harm can be corrected after implementation.
• Readiness and sequencing — our analysis maps the reform timetable against its critical dependencies and identifies reforms scheduled to commence before, or at the same time as, the systems and capabilities needed to make them work safely. A commencement date is not a readiness test.
• Design First — the Alliance proposes a safer sequence for major reform: Design → Test → Build → Demonstrate Readiness → Authorise → Transition.
• The Missing Ledger — a saving to the NDIS is not necessarily a saving to Australia. The submission calls for whole-of-government assessment of costs that may instead be shifted to health, education, housing, justice, income support, families, unpaid carers and the wider economy.
• Sustainability and efficiency — the Alliance identifies opportunities to reduce waste, duplication, poor first-time decision-making and avoidable administrative costs before reducing participant supports.

At the centre of our submission is a straightforward question for Parliament:

Has Government demonstrated enough evidence for Parliament to responsibly authorise major reform?

The Alliance believes NDIS reform must be evidence-based, properly sequenced, safeguarded and accountable — and ultimately must leave people with disability better off.

If systems are not ready, reform is not ready.

Click here to Read the Australian Autism Alliance Supplementary Submission