NDIS Legislation Update

On 22 August 2024, the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024 was passed by Parliament having been voted on in the lower house and upper house (Senate).

There had been a Senate Community Affairs Inquiry into the Bill which was extended for further inquiry which received over 300 submissions. Many submissions raised concerns and sought amendments to the Bill (e.g. Australian Legal Aid, Villamanta Disability Rights Legal Service Inc, Dr Darren O’Donovan Administrative Law School La Trobe University, Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Every Australian Counts, People With Disability Australia and others).

You can read the submissions to the second round of Senate inquiry at Submissions – Parliament of Australia (aph.gov.au)

The Bill passed with a majority in the Senate (which has a total of 76 Senators) with:

• 39 votes in favour of the legislation (Australian Labor Party, One Nation, Liberal Party, some independents) and
• 12 votes against the legislation (Australian Greens and some independents),
• 2 Senators abstained from voting (Senators Reynolds and Senator Kovacic),
• 23 Senators were not present for the vote.

Some key changes enabled by the new legislation include:

• Extended powers of the CEO of the NDIA/NDIS Minister
• Changes to how eligibility for the NDIS is assessed. There will be a mandatory new Functional Assessment (yet to be designed) for entry into the NDIS and a new Needs Assessment (yet to be designed) for planning. The Needs Assessment will then be converted into a “reasonable and necessary budget” by a method yet to be designed.
• Changes to the supports that can be funded by the NDIS (There has been a 3 week period ending Aug 25^th for submissions about the proposed new NDIS Supports Lists which say what can and cannot be funded by the NDIS. The final Lists are not available yet). Participant budgets will only be based on the impairments that meet NDIS disability and early intervention requirements, not other impairments the person might have
• Changes to how NDIS participants plans are managed. The NDIA will for example be able to change a participant’s plan from Self-managed or Plan Managed to Agency managed
• Changes to how participant funding is allocated and needs to be spent.
• NDIA CEO power to require participants or others to provide information, including medical assessments if they are doing an eligibility reassessment. If the requested information is not provided in the required time the NDIA CEO can revoke the participant’s status as an NDIA participant.

PLEASE NOTE: The changes will take some time to be fully implemented. Some will take effect soon (e.g the NDIS Support Lists) but others will take longer and involved substantial design work.

You can read the NDIA’s summary of the legislation changes and what it enables at - Changes to NDIS legislation | NDIS

What You Can Do Now

• Get involved in consultations about the system changes that are advertised periodically through the NDIA Participant First Initiative Participant First: Help improve the NDIS | NDIS
• If you have concerns about the changes or how they impact you – you can contact your local Federal MP – you can look up details for your Federal MP here Members – Parliament of Australia (aph.gov.au)

Links to more information and commentary:

• Summer Foundation - Reasonable and Necessary Podcasts series Reasonable and Necessary podcast series - Summer Foundation
• Every Australian Counts news updates - NDIS Bill '24 - Every Australian Counts
• Department of Social Services - Changes to the NDIS Act | Department of Social Services, Australian Government (dss.gov.au)
• Joint Statement: Amendments Vital to Make NDIS Bill Fair - People with Disability Australia (pwd.org.au)
• NDIS Bill: the changes coming soon - Team DSC