National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026

Senator STEELE-JOHN (Western Australia) (17:55): Here we are at the end of the road after one of the most brilliant, dedicated, energised, activated, connected, powerful campaigns that have been run by disabled people across the country—this great collective effort that we have been engaged in as a community. We come at last to the end of the road. We as disabled people are often born into a world that is not built for our bodies or our minds.

We are made to feel like we are lesser and other. Often our interactions with government and people in power reinforce that. Sometimes we believe that ourselves.

It is the work of every disabled person, throughout our lives, to push back on, to extract from, to free ourselves from that internalised belief and to move into our identity as disabled people. Across the decades in Australia and across the world, there have been different words used to provide description for what community looks like when it's built in this way.

What we talk about at this moment, in this time, is disability pride. As we come, in this moment, to the end of this road, I am filled with pride in my community and in the work that we have done together to push back on this bill, to provide evidence to the government as to the harm that it may do and the harm that it will do, to share our lived experience and our expertise, and to organise together in defence of our rights and of our friends. 4,500 or more of us gave evidence to the Senate inquiry.

So many of us took time, effort, energy and emotional labour to give testimony, with everything else we had on our plate, or to organise rallies online forums to get the word out, to organise, to connect together. We did such a good job. We have so much to be proud of.

Disability pride drove us on. Disability justice was our goal. 'To leave no body or mind behind' were the words that bound us together, lifted us up and gave us power. People have connected and organised during the course of this campaign in ways that we have not seen before but will see again.

The result of our pressure and our advocacy together has been, and is now in this moment, amendments to this legislation which we as a community have a right to claim as the result of our work. The bill remains an existential danger to our lives and safety—that is not in dispute—but, as we come to the close of this debate, it is important to recognise that our effort and energy has borne fruit.

Because of the work we have done together, we have been able to secure improvements to this bill. There is now to be an appeals pathway so that for the larger scale cuts that may be imposed by a minister, should they have impacts on the safety of participants, those participants can flag that and potentially find a way to have them reversed. There is a clearer definition of parental responsibility, recognising disability supports are different from ordinary responsibilities.

There are whistleblower protections now within this legislation for people who report fraud to the NDIS. We have stronger protections around debts that can be raised by the NDIS, and there are expanded rights for reassessments from the NDIA. All of these things are the results of our collective pressure together.

Every single one of them is a credit to the disability community and to our campaigning together. I want to thank and I want to honour every single person that got involved with the Protect Our NDIS Alliance and Disabled People Against Cuts. You did so well.

You did us so proud. I want to thank my team, who have worked so diligently with me for so long to fight this bill and get what improvements there were to be made and to raise alarm where it needed to be raised. Every day I get to come to work alongside some of the most brilliant people I've ever met, and I am grateful for it every single day.

To every person out there right now feeling the heaviness of this moment, the toughness of this moment, know that we are not alone and that there is power in our community. And, though this bill is about to pass—and will pass—this parliament, our power does not pass away. It will continue to build among our community.

We will put our arms around each other and support each other. We will ensure that the impacts of this legislation are laid at the doors of those responsible. We will continue to fight together and grow together and laugh together and build community and power together—because we fought these buggers so well.

A lot of people in this place thought this legislation would be easy work. We proved them wrong. We won time for additional scrutiny, for additional voices to be heard and for improvements to be made.

That is something to be so proud of. And now we move forward together to the next opportunity to advance the rights of disabled people and our families, to move us closer to a community based on inclusion where things like consultation and co-design are not optional extras but things that government either does or pays an electoral price. In that spirit, I ask the minister: will the disability community be consulted on the implementation of these changes?