14/05/2026
Helpful updates regarding proposed ndis legislation changes.
NDIS Minister Mark Butler has introduced the NDIS (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill to the House of Representatives.
The Bill is the first step towards implementing the Scheme re-design that the Minister outlined at National Press Club in late April.
Today, we're just sharing a very basic overview. We will be publishing an in-depth analysis of the new legislation and its implications in next week's newsletter. We've opted for accuracy over speed, because the consequences of this Bill are far-reaching and legislation takes time to get your head around.
What we can say today is that the new Bill:
- Defines functional capacity for NDIS eligibility. A Technical Advisory Group will later advise the government on what is the appropriate level of functional capacity to qualify for the NDIS.
- Tightens the criteria for plan reassessments, so they can only occur when there is a ‘genuine and ongoing’ change in the person’s support needs and can only be requested by participants or plan nominees (not providers).
- Reinforces participants can only receive funding for impairments that have met the eligibility criteria.
- Allows the government to reduce the funding for particular groups of supports, like social and community participation.
Requires all plans to have an end date. When a plan ends, unspent funds will not roll over. New plans would contain the same funding minus any one off funding allocations, plus indexation.
- Redefines the reasonable and necessary criteria. Including through considering what it is reasonable to expect the NDIA to fund, with regard to consistency with other schemes, NDIS sustainability and family contributions.
- Tightens the criteria around establishing that a disability is ‘permanent,’ including by requiring people to have undertaken all appropriate treatments.
- Allows the NDIA to take into account an applicant’s eligibility for other government schemes when assessing NDIS eligibility.
- Amends the definition of an NDIS provider, considering the recommendations of the NDIS Registration Taskforce.
- Gives the NDIA more compliance and enforcement powers.
- Requires participants, plan nominees and providers to retain records for a certain period of time. Civil penalties will apply for failing to do so.
- Requires claims to be made within 90 days of delivering a support.
- Enables a new approach to plan management- where participants can select from a panel of approved plan managers. Plan managers could also be banned from providing other services under the NDIS.
- Enables the Minister to set prices for NDIS services.
- Allows for automated decision-making in the NDIS.
- Prohibits participants or plan nominees from managing NDIS funds if they’ve been convicted of certain offences.
There are also some minor amendments to facilitate the rollout of new framework plans and transitional matters related to the implementation of this Bill.
We know these are big changes, and there’s a lot to take in. Stay tuned for our more detailed analysis next week.
You can find the Bill and Explanatory Memorandum here: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fems%2Fr7487_ems_35e6531f-c440-4faf-98d6-7c7ddd8bd539%22
