A key disability advocacy group is calling on Australians to have their say on proposed changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) that would rewrite how the program protects participants and regulates providers. The NDIS (Integrity and Safeguarding) Bill 2025 — introduced into Parliament late last year — contains a range of measures designed to strengthen oversight, prevent harm and improve transparency, but also raises questions about participant rights and administrative impact.

Every Australian Counts (EAC), a grassroots organisation that played a major role in campaigning for the establishment of the NDIS, has urged people with disability, families, carers and service providers to understand what the Bill proposes and to contribute their perspectives before Parliament’s community affairs committee completes its report.

What the Integrity and Safeguarding Bill Proposes

The Integrity and Safeguarding Bill is a substantial piece of legislation that amends the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 with two core aims: improving how disability supports are regulated and enhancing participant protections. It was tabled in Parliament on 26 November 2025 and is currently under Senate review, with submissions accepted until early February 2026.

The Bill is structured into two main parts, known as Schedules, each addressing different areas of reform:

Schedule 1 — Provider Regulation and Enforcement

This section focuses on how disability support providers are regulated under the Scheme. It aims to give the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (NDIS Commission) stronger powers to:

• Investigate and respond to misconduct by providers.
• Issue penalties and sanctions for non-compliance.
• Ban individuals or organisations that demonstrate harmful or unsafe practices from operating in the NDIS.
• Stop misleading or predatory marketing and practices that exploit participants.

These changes align with recommendations from both the NDIS Review and the Disability Royal Commission, which called for more robust safeguards in a scheme that supports hundreds of thousands of Australians with varying and often complex needs.

The strengthened enforcement powers also include the ability to extend bans to roles beyond frontline providers — such as auditors and consultants — and to issue anti-promotion orders that restrict inappropriate marketing directed at vulnerable participants.

Supporters of these reforms argue they are necessary to protect participants from poor quality care, fraud and misuse of funds — issues that have been exposed through various investigations. However, critics warn that without careful implementation, stronger regulation could inadvertently reduce provider diversity or impose administrative burdens.

Schedule 2 — Participant-Facing Changes

The second part of the Bill deals with how administrative decisions are made and how participants interact with the Scheme itself. Key proposals include:

• Mandatory cooling-off period for withdrawal: If a participant chooses to leave the NDIS, a 90-day “cooling-off” period would apply. This is intended to ensure that decisions to exit the Scheme are informed and voluntary, reducing the risk of people losing support in error. The NDIS can extend this period where appropriate.
• Information and payment claims: The Bill would require participants to provide requested information within set timeframes for claims to be processed. Even valid claims could go unpaid if supporting documentation is late or difficult to obtain, raising concerns about potential disruption to services, especially for people who self-manage their plans.
• Plan variation powers: The Bill clarifies that the NDIA can adjust plan funding through variations without a full reassessment. While the government maintains this reflects current practice rather than adding new powers, advocates fear it could enable funding reductions without participant agreement or adequate appeal protections.

These proposed changes strike at the heart of how participants experience the NDIS, prompting scrutiny of whether sufficient protections are in place to safeguard rights and maintain fairness.

Why Disability Advocates Are Engaging the Community

Every Australian Counts has been reviewing the Bill and has summarised its contents in accessible language to help people understand what it means for their supports, rights and daily lives. The campaign emphasises that while safeguards and integrity are widely supported goals, the design and application of these rules matter deeply. Poorly crafted laws can unintentionally create new barriers, delays and administrative burdens, undermining participant control — a core principle of the Scheme.

EAC highlights that reforms of this magnitude offer a rare opportunity to improve the primary legislation of the NDIS, not just rules and guidelines that sit beneath it. Suggestions from advocates include:

• Strengthening review and appeal rights directly in the Act.
• Ensuring integrity measures cover the full spectrum of supports and decision-making processes.
• Enhancing transparency in how budgets and plan variations are decided.
• Promoting a whole-of-person approach rather than purely impairment-based funding.

By encouraging broad participation in the consultation process, EAC aims to ensure that lived experience — that of people with disability and their supporters — is reflected in final legislative outcomes.

How People Can Have Their Say

Every Australian Counts outlines several ways individuals and groups can contribute their views before the parliamentary inquiry closes:

1. Submit Feedback to EAC: People can share their thoughts directly with EAC, which will compile community input into its submission to Parliament. This can include comments about specific provisions, concerns or suggestions for improvement.
2. Make a Submission to the Parliamentary Committee: Anyone can make a submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee reviewing the Bill. These do not need to be technical legal submissions — simple letters, summaries of concerns, personal stories or multimedia submissions are all accepted.
3. Contact Local MPs and Senators: Individuals can contact their federal representatives (Members of Parliament and Senators) to express how they want these reforms to proceed and why the Bill matters to them.

This process empowers people to influence federal lawmaking in a way that is seldom available outside major reform moments. The committee’s report later in March 2026 will potentially shape changes to legislation that could govern the Scheme for years.

Balancing Integrity and Participant Rights

The Integrity and Safeguarding Bill 2025 reflects the federal government’s attempt to strengthen the NDIS against misuse, harm and poor provider conduct while also updating administrative processes. Broader reforms like this follow recommendations from the Disability Royal Commission and ongoing reviews of the Scheme’s performance.

Yet, advocates stress the importance of ensuring that increased regulatory power and administrative change do not compromise fundamental participant rights or reduce accessibility. As EAC emphasises, the disability community has lived experience that is essential to shaping laws that are effective, fair and human-centred — not merely procedural.

For people with disability and the broader community, now is a critical moment to be informed, engaged and vocal about the future direction of one of Australia’s largest and most important social support systems.