The Curtin Student Guild has made a submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026.
The submission was created by the Guild and the Guild’s Accessibility Department, led by Accessibility Officer Mia Antenucci.
The Guild does not believe the Bill should be passed in its current form. We are deeply concerned that the proposed changes will harm people with disability, including students with disability who rely on the NDIS to study, work, participate in community life and live with dignity.
For many students with disability, NDIS supports are not optional extras. Support workers, assistive technology, transport assistance, communication support, social and community participation supports and individualised disability supports can be the difference between being able to attend university and being forced out of higher education.
The submission raises serious concerns about reduced access to the NDIS, unnecessary reassessments, cuts to social and community participation supports, opaque functional capacity assessments, automated decision-making, broad ministerial powers and the risk of moving children and young people into support systems that are not yet ready.
Students with disability already face inaccessible campuses, inconsistent reasonable adjustments, financial pressure, transport barriers, housing stress, stigma, fatigue and administrative burden. These reforms risk making those barriers worse.
The Guild supports strong action against fraud, unsafe providers and exploitation. Public money intended for people with disability should support people with disability. But sustainability must not be used as political cover for cutting participant access or reducing essential supports.
The NDIS must be protected for future generations, but protecting the NDIS means protecting the people it exists to support. Any reform must be transparent, rights-based, disability-led and genuinely shaped by the principle of “nothing about us, without us”.
You can read the full submission here.