Policy + reform
Policy + reform
The reform program, tracked to its instruments: the Bill, the commencement dates, the accountability record.
The NDIS modelling tabled in the Senate has the scheme peaking at 817,000 participants in 2027 and shrinking to 598,000 by mid-2031
Without the reforms, 944,000 at 30 June 2031. Of the 346,000 difference, 241,000 who entered before 2028 are assumed exited; the table leaves 105,000 unlabelled. Ten reform items are costed at $38.1 billion over four years, the largest a $13.2 billion reset of two support budgets for all participants.
22 October 2026
Five NDIS reform consultations have closed. The eligibility thresholds and the budget calculations were not yet in them
Access, new framework planning, support coordination, Supported Independent Living and a $200 million community fund, 3 August to 14 October. The access paper says final eligibility thresholds and transition arrangements are not yet being consulted on; budget calculations come later in 2026; consultation on social and community participation market reform was deferred. What each asked, and every date the documents give for what comes next.
16 October 2026
Families can now access two national Thriving Kids phone lines. Here is what the rest of the Commonwealth’s $2 billion pays for
The department lists a nurse line and the Thriving Kids Autism Helpline as available now, with a Medicare check at age 3 and a digital child health record arriving over time. Budget Paper No. 2 sends $1.4 billion of the Commonwealth’s $2.0 billion to states and territories, holds $139.7 million for early childhood education and care settings in reserve, and a regulation made in August authorises up to $202.9 million of the national services.
8 October 2026
Changes to the public transport disability standards are due to start on 13 October. Staff disability training is not required for five years
The Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport Amendment 2026 commences the day after the last day either House could disallow it, which the Register lists as 12 October. We counted the 86 rows of its application tables: 63 reach only new or newly installed assets, 16 reach existing services after five years and 7 after ten. Staff disability awareness training is in the five-year group, for new and existing services alike.
8 October 2026
Modelling for the NDIS bill assumed 108,359 exits of participants with autism to mid-2031. 18,723 are children under nine
The NDIA’s answers to Senate questions on notice IQ26-000069 and IQ26-000070 put exact figures on hearing estimates: 108,359 assumed exits for participants with autism over the period to 30 June 2031, 91,707 of them autistic children aged 0 to 18 and 18,723 below nine, the first Thriving Kids cohort’s ages. What an exit means here, what the modelling assumed, and the caution officials attached.
7 October 2026
Since 1 October the NDIA can suspend your plan if it cannot reach you. Here is the test it must meet first
New section 40A commenced with the 1 October tranche. The chief executive may suspend a plan after at least 5 failed contact attempts over 3 to 4 months; funding stops for supports bought during the suspension; contact within 90 days starts a 28 day clock; and a plan suspended for 90 days opens a power to revoke participant status. Quoted from the Act, with the review window and where to get help.
The NDIS Act changes nine more times before 2028. Here is every date, and the one part with no date at all
The Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Act passed in August and was reported as though it had happened. Its own table splits it into tranches to January 2028, and the Register’s version list confirms every boundary. The parts headed tightening permanence to reduce access and eligibility based on access to other services are scheduled last, and one part on registered plan management providers carries no date at all.
A four-year disability plan went on exhibition and drew one submission
Lake Macquarie exhibited its Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2026-2030 for 28 days and received one submission, about seating on a walking path. The council also published the whole engagement funnel beneath it, down to 80,558 people reached by paid media and the 95 who clicked, which is rarer than it should be and shows what the statutory step is for.
Having disability supports involved made a child protection report less likely to get a caseworker
The NSW Ombudsman found DCJ closed 65 per cent of the 244,710 risk-of-significant-harm reports it screened in during 2024-25 without allocating a caseworker, citing capacity, and made findings of maladministration. One finding belongs to this sector: where a child or carer had disability, other services being involved was too often treated as a reason not to allocate.
We said we would read the first report on the new action plans. It reports commencement, not progress
States were asked for a Commencement Statement and given an option to add a progress update. The report says all reports include the year-to-year indicators; the word indicator appears once in 835 paragraphs, in that sentence.
30 August 2026
Policy + reform
Australia’s disability strategy is halfway through. Its own advisers are sceptical of the scoreboard
The second implementation report runs 167 pages and mostly lists achievements. It also records the Strategy’s Advisory Council doubting that marginal improvements mean anything, disability organisations describing low completion rates, and the newest action plans dropping targets. The independent evaluation reports late this year.
29 August 2026
Policy + reform
Your NDIS decision is wrong. You have three months, you can ask by phone, and the person who decided cannot review it
Section 100 of the NDIS Act, read in full. Written reasons by default, three months from receiving the notice, a request that can be made by telephone with the agency obliged to write it down and date it, a bar on the original decision-maker reviewing their own decision, and 90 days to decide.
26 August 2026
From 1 October the minister can cut part of your NDIS plan. The determination is now written: 50 per cent off one group of supports, 10 per cent off another
Section 34A commenced 1 October. The Act closes the list of supports that can be reduced; the instrument made on 28 September sets the percentages, names six excluded subgroups and defines the high support needs class the 24/7 assurance depends on.
26 August 2026
We read all 56 supported employment submissions. The words subminimum, segregated and 2034 appear in none of the Department's eight themes
291,496 words of submissions against an eight-line summary. Both sides of the argument, quoted, and a provider's own date of 1 July 2028.
25 August 2026
Securing the NDIS for Future Generations is law. The Senate changed the functional capacity test first
Assent on 20 August as Act No. 66 of 2026, after 32 government amendments in a single Senate sitting. The whistleblower protections it added start in July 2027.
25 August 2026
Policy + reform
Queensland has not signed the foundational supports agreement. We checked the document
The signed national agreement carries the Commonwealth and seven of eight states and territories. Queensland appears once, in the parties list, and not in the signature block. Seven Thriving Kids bilaterals are published and none is Queensland's.
Policy + reform
The Foundational Supports agreement is signed. It commits to one cohort, inside a $10 billion cap
We read the signed national agreement rather than the announcements. It commits the Commonwealth and the seven states and territories that signed it to one group, children aged 8 and under with autism or developmental delay and low to moderate needs. Everyone else is a future negotiation from the same capped envelope, which the agreement says will be sustained by demand management.
Policy + reform
The NDIS bill never names the Thriving Kids cohort, but it starts two parts on 1 January 2028 to make way for it
The bill names no age-limited cohort, but its parts on permanence and other service systems start on 1 January 2028, timed by its explanatory memorandum for Thriving Kids. Corrected 11 October 2026.
31 July 2026
Policy + reform
Thriving Kids starts on 1 October. The part that moves children off the NDIS now waits on rules every state must agree
What starts on 1 October 2026, what does not change until 2028, and the protection written down for children already in the scheme.
31 July 2026
Policy + reform
Every NSW council had to remake its disability plan by 1 July. There is no public register to check who did
The Act requires councils to give their plans to Disability Council NSW for publication on its registry of DIAPs. The guidelines still point to a reporting portal with the placeholder text “[add link once online]”, and have since November 2022. We could not find the registry through four routes.
18 August 2026
Policy + reform
Five attempts over three months, and homelessness does not count. What the NDIS bill’s 30 amendments actually say
The committee credited the House amendments with answering every objection, and nobody had read them. We compared the bill as introduced with the bill as read a third time. A hard-edged contact test, a fenced-in support determination power, and a new independent review clause nobody has mentioned.
16 August 2026
Policy + reform
The committee said pass it, because the amendments already answered the objections. Three senators disagreed, from two directions
The committee view answers concern after concern by pointing at the House amendments of 1 July. Four of the five sector positions we track were stated before those amendments existed. Coalition senators say it does not go far enough, the Greens say it should not pass, and Senator Pocock files seven fixes.
16 August 2026
Policy + reform
Sixty submissions, eight themes and a timetable that ran out in February. Where supported employment reform actually is
The Department received 60 submissions on the future of supported employment and published 55. It set out eight emerging themes, then extended the process into 2026 on a schedule that ended on 27 February. The page still says stage two is underway.
25 August 2026
Policy + reform
The NDIS Bill is argued on fraud. Here is what the police actually told the Senate
The AFP and the ACIC gave evidence on 30 July. Asked four times how much scheme fraud comes from large providers versus small ones, the AFP said it has no system that can answer.
3 August 2026
One Bill, five peak bodies, four positions. The Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill, decoded
Reject, redraft, sector-specific concern, or negotiate the implementation: where the peaks actually stand on the 2026 Bill, in their own words. The Senate committee reported on 14 August 2026 and recommended the Bill pass.
19 July 2026
The reform countdown: every hard date on the NDIS calendar for the next two years
SIL registration is law with a criminal penalty, Thriving Kids began rolling out in October, and the new Act’s implementation dates run to 2030. The full calendar, cited to its instruments.
19 July 2026
The Royal Commission got a scorecard: 8 of 172 complete. The NDIS Review never got one
The government’s own progress report counts 8 of 172 Commonwealth recommendations complete. The NDIS Review has no public count at all. Both facts, from the government’s own pages.
19 July 2026