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

Parliamentary Library (2026). Bills Digest 65, 2025–26.

Population: NDIS applicants and participants (legislative analysis)
Sample: Parliamentary digest of the introduced bill (not a sample)
Condition: Proposed s 9B functional capacity; s 25A appropriate treatment including financial and geographic access; alternative-support and automation provisions
Medication focus: Not a medication source
Jurisdiction: Australia
Last reviewed: 2 September 2026
Measurement period: Digest of introduced text; updated 16 June 2026

Plain-language finding

The digest of the introduced bill records proposed s 9B: functional capacity as the ability to undertake an activity without assistance from other people, assistive technology or modifications, and in a context that excludes, as far as possible, the impact of the person’s environmental and personal circumstances. Proposed s 25A defines appropriate treatment as evidence-based, reliably expected to materially improve, reverse or alleviate the impairment, and regularly undertaken in Australia, and records that treatment may still count as appropriate regardless of whether individual circumstances — including financial circumstances and geographical location — restrict access. Independent Member Helen Haines proposed that treatment may not be appropriate if circumstances restrict access; that amendment was not agreed in the introduced House debate. The digest also records automation of specified administrative actions and alternative-support / compensation exclusions.

Important limitation

This digest describes the introduced bill (updated 16 June 2026), before House and Senate amendments. Do not treat every introduced subsection as unamended. It remains the most detailed public parsing of s 9B and s 25A(2) available to this library.

Why we cite this

Closest public statutory reading of the introduced functional-capacity vacuum test and the treatment-gate access rule.

ndis · access · service-design · australia

Research demonstrates a statistical relationship. Association is not causation. Timing, dose, confounding and missing data still matter.

Original source

Claims this source supports

The Bills Digest of the introduced bill records a proposed definition of functional capacity that assesses the ability to undertake an activity without assistance from other people, assistive technology or modifications, and in a context that excludes, as far as possible, the impact of environmental and personal circumstances. The government later said functional-capacity provisions were revised. New-framework planning is described as considering environmental factors. The public FAQ does not republish the final subsection.
This claim retains disagreement in the literature. Open the classification to read both sides.
Last reviewed 2 September 2026
From 1 January 2028, permanence for NDIS access requires ‘appropriate treatment’ subject to specified exceptions. The introduced digest records that treatment may still count as appropriate even where financial circumstances or geographical location restrict access. House amendments defined appropriate treatment as publicly funded care regularly undertaken in Australia and excluded restrictive practices. They did not remove the basic requirement.
Last reviewed 2 September 2026