We made a submission to the Senate Committee Inquiry into the NDIS Amendment (Integrity and Safeguarding) Bill 2025 – also informally known as the ‘NDIS reform Bill No. 2’. The Bill forms part of the large package of legislative reforms to the NDIS begun by the Australian Government in 2024.
Most of the Bill concerns new powers and functions for the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. We do not comment on these provisions as they are beyond our expertise.
However, the Bill also contains other provisions relating to specific and important legislative mechanisms. In relation to these, we proposed:
- amendments to the Bill’s provisions giving the NDIA the power to request information from participants to support claims for payment, to prevent this power from being used inappropriately, avoid unintended consequences, and allow decisions about this power to be reviewed;
- the NDIA’s power to vary a participant’s plan be broadened to ensure minor changes to increase funding to participants can be implemented easily without the need for a full plan review; and
- the Act otherwise be amended to clearly set out participants’ rights to replacement needs assessments under the new framework planning process.
