February 2026
The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Integrity and Safeguarding) Bill 2025 was introduced to the Senate on 26 November 2025 and sent to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee for review.
The Bill would change the NDIS Act 2013 to give the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission stronger powers, and to make specific operational changes to the National Disability Insurance Agency.
People with Disability Australia supports stronger safeguards to protect people with disability from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. We also support tougher penalties for providers who deliberately harm participants' health, safety, or financial wellbeing. This includes anti-promotion orders to stop predatory marketing and misleading claims, and a new 90-day cooling-off period for participants.
However, the Bill also expands administrative and enforcement powers. Without matching protections for participants, these changes risk limiting choice and control.
PWDA is calling for targeted amendments to ensure:
- Access to independent review of decisions
- Respect for dignity of risk and supported decision-making
- Fair and proportionate compliance for small and community-controlled providers
- Strong safeguards around information-gathering powers and evidentiary certificates
Recommendations
Recommendation 1: Provide Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) external merits review for key Commission and NDIA decisions and orders (including information demands, determinations, banning orders and anti‑promotion orders), with stays where appropriate and plain‑language reasons for decisions.
Recommendation 2: Legislate objective, published criteria and procedural fairness for banning orders and anti‑promotion orders (notice, reasons, right to be heard, time‑limited interim orders, and external review).
Recommendation 3: Insert explicit dignity‑of‑risk and supported decision‑making principles and duties into the NDIS Act and co‑design rules and guidance with people with disability.
Recommendation 4: Issue risk‑enablement guidance and expectations aligned to the High Intensity Support Skills Descriptors (HISSD) to avoid risk‑averse withdrawal of complex supports.
Recommendation 5: Legislate a proportionality duty for the Commission and establish a Small Provider Support Program to avoid thin‑market harms, and enable compliance by sole traders, small and community‑controlled providers.
Recommendation 6: Strengthen the 90‑day cooling‑off period through NDIA‑initiated extensions (without extra paperwork) where vulnerability is evident (for example, to ensure those who have complaints in with providers or are facing domestic and family violence, incarceration or hospitalisation, have guaranteed continuity of funding until other matters are resolved.
Recommendation 7: Mandate statutory co‑design for subordinate legislation, guidance and implementation with people with disability and representative organisations (including PWDA and First Peoples Disability Network), with "what we heard/changed" reporting. Extend consultation timelines.
Recommendation 8: Require plain‑language reasons and ART review rights where plan variations reduce total funding; ensure access to independent advocacy to contest reductions.
