25 June 2026

With the NDIS reform bill delayed, physicians are highlighting elements of the bill that need to change, lest the reform package undermine fair access, clinical safety, and the rights of people with disability.

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) supports the aim of strengthening the integrity and long-term sustainability of the NDIS but highlights key concerns about how the reforms will work in practice, especially for children.

Dr Niroshini Kennedy, President of the RACP Paediatrics and Child Health Division, said the proposed use of automated and standardised tools would create problems.

“Children and adults who have developmental, cognitive and complex conditions do not fit into standardised assessment frameworks – they never will. Standardisation does not translate to fairness,” Dr Kennedy said.

Dr Caitlin Anderson, President-elect of the RACP Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine agrees.

“Disability cannot be reduced to scores or automated outputs. We need to take a whole-of-person approach that includes a multidisciplinary support team,” Dr Anderson said.

Both physicians gave evidence to the Senate Committee examining the bill, which this week released an interim report with the final report to come in another eight weeks.

The RACP commends the Committee for taking additional time to carefully consider the proposed NDIS reforms. Any changes must ensure health, education and community services are appropriately resourced and equipped to provide adequate support for people with disability.

“The interim report addressed some of our concerns, but it left some gaping holes in terms of the legitimate concerns people with disability, and their healthcare providers have about how these reforms will impact them,” Dr Kennedy said.

“Children develop and change rapidly, and we are concerned that they won’t be able to get timely reassessments.

“Delaying or interrupting supports during critical developmental windows can cause lasting harm. Families shouldn’t have to wait for a severe deterioration or reaching crisis point before getting a reassessment.”

Dr Anderson said the RACP was also concerned changes to the reassessment process encroaches on people’s rights to review and reassess their support packages.

“We should not be tightening restrictions when it comes to people’s ability to respond to their own needs,” Dr Anderson said.

“All people with disability, including carers and families, can experience a rapid change in their needs, and we should not delay their ability to access care.”

Dr Anderson said criteria needs to be based on realistic access to treatment, not hypothetical availability.

“Under the proposed bill, people are required to take ‘all appropriate treatment’ before accessing the NDIS – but this is an example of a rigid definition that doesn’t consider the realities families face.

“The existence of any treatment – regardless of whether it is actually affordable, available, or geographically accessible – can be used to deny people access to the NDIS.

“People shouldn’t fall through the cracks because of a technicality.”