People with Disability Australia (PWDA), the national cross-disability rights and advocacy organisation, has condemned the passage of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, condemning Parliament for proceeding despite the overwhelming evidence of the unacceptable and foreseeable harm these changes will cause people with disability, our families and carers, and the Australian economy.
PWDA Acting CEO Megan Spindler-Smith said today was a devastating day for the disability community.
"We are devastated. We are frightened. We are angry. Today, our community is grieving. We are grieving the lives we have had, the opportunities we will lose and the impossible choices we will now need to make.
"People with disability in their thousands provided evidence of what these changes would mean for our lives. We warned about the harm, the injuries, the lost opportunities and lives. Parliament chose to proceed anyway.
"The NDIS was created because people with disability deserved more than simply surviving. It was supposed to give us the supports we need to participate, to work, to learn, to build relationships and to live the ordinary lives that were out of reach for too many of us, for far too long.
"The amendments made to this Bill matter. People with disability and our organisations fought incredibly hard to stop some of its worst harms, and those protections will make a real difference for some people.
"But they do not change what sits at the heart of this Bill. Hundreds of thousands of people with disability still face being denied access to the NDIS or losing supports they need.
"The Government says it is working with states and territories to build supports for people who cannot access the NDIS. But those supports do not exist today and will take time to build, and states and territories have categorically said they will not be like-for-like supports. We need to know what will actually be there, when they'll be up and running and how they will replace the 94 million hours of paid care that are being taken away.
"This does not end with the passage of the Bill. Much of what these changes will mean in practice is still to be determined through rules, regulations and the processes that come next. People with disability must genuinely lead that work.
"This Bill may have passed, but the accountability does not end here.
"We will document the harm. We will document the supports lost, the jobs lost and the lives made smaller. We will put it on the public record. And we will hold the Government and every parliamentarian who voted for these changes accountable for what happens next.
"We will fight for the harm to be reversed and for the NDIS to return to what it was always meant to be. We are in this for the long haul.
"And to every person with disability who is hurting today, who is frightened about what this means for their future, we see you. We hear you. We are with you.
"We will be alongside our community through what comes next, advocating at every step to minimise the harm and ensure people with disability genuinely lead the decisions still to be made, so we do not lose the choice and control over our lives the NDIS was always intended to deliver."
About us:
People with Disability Australia (PWDA), is a national disability rights and advocacy organisation led by, and for, people with all kinds of disability. We are a non-profit, non-government organisation and our membership is made up of people with disability and organisations mainly constituted by people with disability. https://www.pwd.org.au
