Greens secure longer inquiry into NDIS; government support for failsafe amendments if the liberals help labor to pass cuts
Greens secure longer inquiry into NDIS; government support for failsafe amendments if the liberals help labor to pass cuts | Australian Greens Skip to main content Search Get Involved Join Donate Our plan Tax the 1% Tackle the cost of living Healthcare for all Fix the housing crisis Strong climate action Policy principles & aims Our team Federal MPs State/territory MPs Officeholders Media releases Take action Volunteer Donate Issues & campaigns Events Greens Shop Leave a bequest Our movement About the Greens Become a member Jobs Green Magazine All news Get Involved Join Donate Search Our plan Toggle Tax the 1% Tackle the cost of living Healthcare for all Fix the housing crisis Strong climate action Policy principles & aims Our team Toggle Federal MPs State/territory MPs Officeholders Media releases Take action Toggle Volunteer Donate Issues & campaigns Events Greens Shop Leave a bequest Our movement Toggle About the Greens Become a member Jobs Green Magazine All news Greens secure longer inquiry into NDIS; government support for failsafe amendments if the liberals help labor to pass cuts 2026-06-23 The Greens have secured an 8 week extension to the inquiry into the NDIS cuts until 14 August 2026, which will delay the bill and grant more time to build pressure on both Labor and the Liberals to withdraw their support for the Bill entirely.
With Labor, the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation currently supporting the NDIS cuts, the Bill has been widely expected to pass the parliament. However, support for the bill is flagging - with the Senate yesterday spending hours debating withdrawing the bill. With support for this Bill collapsing and a growing public understanding that this Bill makes limited attempt to focus the cuts on rorting, the Greens will continue to press for the cuts Bill to be withdrawn.
As a precaution, the Greens have also secured changes to weaken some of the more outrageous provisions. The Greens and government-agreed amendments will: Limit ministerial powers to impose sweeping cuts to people’s supports budgets Ensure greater transparency on automated decision-making Provide greater protections for disabled people by ensuring that they cannot be forced to undergo harmful restrictive practices to gain access to the NDIS, and that any treatments required must be available in the public healthcare system.
While these amendments reduce some of the most egregious harms of the bill, it remains a dangerous and callous threat to disabled people. Regardless of amendments, the Greens will oppose the NDIS Bill if it comes to a vote. This extended inquiry does not preclude additional future delays to the bill, and the Greens say that they will put as many roadblocks in front of these cuts as are needed to stop it once and for all.
Australian Greens Leader Larissa Waters said: “The Greens will not support the NDIS Bill. We will vote against it, and we will do everything we can to delay it and stop it entirely. “The inquiry hearings have only confirmed what we knew - this is an appalling and dangerously irresponsible Bill.
“These cuts were friendless in the short inquiry we’ve just had, and Parliament should listen to the strong voice of the disability community and cancel these cuts. “The Liberals should make good on their increasingly concerned rhetoric and oppose these cuts, or Labor should dump this cruel Bill, which represents the biggest cut to a government program this century.
“This Labor Government is cutting services because they are too cowardly to tax the superprofits of corporations. “Labor decided to balance the budget by booting disabled people off critical supports because they were too cowardly to tax gas exports, to stop sending billions to the USA for submarines that we’ll never get, or to stop the $30 billion a year in tax handouts to professional property investors." Australian Greens Disability spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John said: “Labor’s cuts to the NDIS are one of the cruelest acts perpetrated on a community by an Australian government.
The Greens will continue to fight night and day to see this cruel attack on the lives of 241,000 disabled Australians scrapped. “Thankfully, the momentum behind these cuts is crumbling, and with growing public opposition, disabled people across the country will recognise this as a reflection of their strength and unity in defying this attack on their independence and dignity.
“The Greens will continue to work alongside the disability community to build pressure on Labor and the Liberals to walk away from these appalling cuts. “The Greens have secured a longer Senate Inquiry into Labor’s damaging NDIS Bill. So while Parliament breaks, the Disability community will keep organising, campaigning and demanding that their local Labor and Liberal MPs drop the bill.
“I call on every Labor and Liberal Senator who has heard the disability community’s testimony that these cuts will upend their community and kill people: go back to your party room and tell them what you’ve heard. “Tell them that supporting this Bill means hundreds of thousands of disabled people across Australia and their families will lose access to carers, equipment and supports they rely on everyday.
“While we've secured some improvements and won more time for scrutiny, our objective remains the same: this bill should be shelved. “The disability community is no punching bag, and will not accept these cuts to balance the budget just because Labor is too scared to tax gas exports.” BACKGROUND TO GREENS AMENDMENTS TO THE NDIS BILL Support determinations: The Bill allows the Minister to make universal percentage cuts to funding for a category of supports.
These cuts would apply to all NDIS participants receiving that support, regardless of their personal circumstance. Our amendments have put a firewall between participants and the government, ensuring that cuts cannot be applied to support categories of Daily Living, Transport, Consumables, Assistive Technology, or Home Modifications. We have limited the impact of the Minister’s changes to Support Determinations relating to Social, Community, and Civic participation.
The Minister can not make cuts to supports that people rely on for daily health needs, attending medical appointments or getting to work. Permanence: The Bill gives a new definition of permanent disability that narrows the scope of what will be considered a permanent disability by bringing into primary legislation the concept of ‘all appropriate treatment’, which requires a person to undergo treatments to prove their disability is permanent before being allowed access onto the Scheme.
The Bill as it is written specifies that financial and geographical circumstances aren’t a consideration in what treatment is available. We've secured protections to ensure that where a person is required to access treatment before becoming eligible for the NDIS, that treatment cannot be a restrictive practice, such as forced medication. It must also be a publicly funded service available through Medicare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, or the public health system.
Automated decision-making: This Bill allows the use of automated decision-making for important NDIS decisions, including the development of participant plans and the processing of claims. In practice, this could mean a computer system is used to make decisions about whether supports are approved or rejected, or whether a claim is considered fraudulent and therefore not paid.
We have secured greater transparency on the detail of how these automated decisions will be made, by requiring that decision making frameworks for evaluative decisions are make publicly available before being implemented. Transitional powers: This Bill gives the Minister the power to make Rules that can change how parts of the NDIS Act operate, without having to pass a new Bill through Parliament.
While these Rules cannot directly change the wording of the Act, they can alter how the law works in practice. The Bill as it’s written has the power available for 12 months, and any Rules made under it would be in effect for an additional 12 months. Our amendment reduces the scope of the Ministerial Power by reducing the timeframe for making transitional Rules to 6 months for every part of the Bill except for Schedule 4 (New Framework Planning) and Schedule 1, Parts 5 and 6 (Reasonable and Necessary and Plan Renewals).
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