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

Senator McALLISTER (New South Wales—Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) (19:29): Senator Roberts, it might assist you if I talk through the background for this amendment that the government has brought forward. At the moment, the legislation that governs the NDIS provides very broad immunities, including for the categories of persons that you just alluded to in your question, and that's for a very good reason.

It's because the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission and the NDIA hold deeply personal information about people with disability. To ensure that that information, which is personal in nature, is protected and that disabled people who participate in the scheme can be confident that their information is protected, there are very strict privacy provisions about what can be shared about an individual person.

On occasion, you may have heard me or another minister being asked about a particular person or a particular case and we declined to answer because, appropriately, a person's individual circumstances held by a government agency may not be disclosed except under very limited circumstances. However, the challenge that we've been observing is that some providers have been arguing that that immunity extends to them.

So when a fraud investigation or some other form of investigation is underway, providers have argued that they are not required or compelled to produce those documents because of this immunity. This amendment essentially seeks to ensure that regulators can compel providers to provide documentation for the purpose of performing their regulatory functions. It would also enable agencies such as the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission or the National Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate serious and organised crime operating in the NDIS.

It will prevent NDIS providers from claiming immunity from the production of documents under 67G of the act. So NDIS providers and their employees would not be able to use this provision of the act to refuse to provide information to a court, a tribunal or other law enforcement agency with the power to seek this information. For example, to date, providers have attempted to rely on this immunity to refuse to provide information during workplace health and safety investigations.

Immunity would henceforth only apply to officers of the NDIA and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. There would be exceptions where disclosure was necessary for the purposes of the NDIS Act, the Royal Commissions Act, the National Anti-Corruption Commission Act and the Australian Crime Commission Act.