Submission: Gendered Risks of the NDIS Amendment Bill 2026

Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) has published a submission and supporting evidence paper on the gendered risks of the proposed National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026.

The submission argues that the reforms risk deepening existing inequalities for women, girls and gender-diverse people with disability. WWDA is deeply concerned by the Bill, and the broad powers it gives the Government to tighten access, reduce supports, cap funding and shift people to other systems before new rules, safeguards and tools have been designed.

These changes could exclude people with fluctuating, psychosocial, chronic, pain-related and trauma-related disabilities, particularly women and girls. Many people who live with and experience these conditions already face delayed diagnosis, clinical dismissal and barriers to evidence within health systems.

WWDA has identified three immediate risks:

  1. People may lose access before any alternatives exists.
  2. Costs and care will shift onto families, especially women.
  3. Future rules, tools and evidence settings may reproduce existing gender bias.

WWDA recommends that the Bill not proceed until a comprehensive gender impact analysis has been released, and gender-responsive reforms have been co-designed with women, girls and gender-diverse people with disability.

Read the full publication to see WWDA’s key messages, concerns and supporting evidence. Available in Word document and PDF versions.

Letters in support of this submission are available below.

Letter – Australian Multicultural Women’s Alliance (AMWA)
Letter – Full Stop Australia
Letter – National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance (NATSIWA)
Letter – National Rural Women’s Coalition (NRWC)
Letter – Working with Women Alliance (WwWA)

Organisational Endorsements

  1. Antipoverty Centre
  2. Australian Autism Alliance (AAA)
  3. Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO)
  4. Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR)
  5. Australian Women’s Health Alliance (AWHA)
  6. Australian Multicultural Women’s Alliance (AMWA)
  7. Central Australian Women’s Legal Service
  8. Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) 
  9. Disability Advocacy Network Australia (DANA)
  10. Down Syndrome Australia Consortium
  11. First Peoples Disability Network (FPDN)
  12. Full Stop Australia
  13. GOGO Foundation
  14. Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC)
  15. Inclusion Australia
  16. Intrepidus Law
  17. Jean Hailes
  18. JFA Purple Orange
  19. Mid North Coast Legal Centre
  20. MS Australia
  21. National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance (NATSIWA)
  22. National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA)
  23. National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW)
  24. National Regional, Rural, Remote and Very Remote Community Legal Network (4Rs Network)
  25. National Rural Women’s Coalition (NRWC)
  26. Older Women’s Network NSW Inc (OWNNSW)
  27. People with Disabilities Australia (PWDA)
  28. Physical Disability Australia (PDA)
  29. Safe and Equal
  30. Self Advocacy Resource Unit (SARU)
  31. Single Mother Families Australia (SMFA)
  32. SydWest Multicultural Services
  33. Team DSC
  34. Villamanta Disability Rights Legal Service
  35. Wesnet
  36. Women In Poverty Inc.
  37. Women’s Legal Centre ACT (WLCACT)
  38. Women’s Legal Services Australia (WLSA)
  39. Women’s Legal Service NSW
  40. Women with Disabilities ACT (WWDACT)
  41. Women with Disabilities Victoria (WDV)
  42. Working with Women Alliance (WwWA)
  43. Working Women’s Centre ACT (WWCACT)
  44. Working Women’s Centre Australia (WWCA)
  45. Young People In Nursing Homes National Alliance (YPINH)

Academic/Disability Leaders Endorsements

  1. Dr. Jane Alver, Canberra University
  2. Leslie Arnott, Centre for Digital Transformation of Health
  3. A/Professor Anna Arstein-Kerslake, University of Melbourne
  4. Professor Deborah Bateson AM, University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
  5. Jax Brown OAM
  6. Dr. Chloe Bryant, Torrens University Australia
  7. Professor Angela Dew, Deakin University
  8. A/Professor Caroline Ellison, Adelaide University
  9. Dr Mahima Kalla, University of Melbourne
  10. Professor Jackie Leach Scully, Disability Innovation Institute at UNSW
  11. A/Professor Yvette Maker, University of Tasmania
  12. Tricia Malowney OAM
  13. Dr. Bronwen Merner, Centre for Health Equity at University of Melbourne
  14. Dr. Darren O’Donovan, La Trobe Law School
  15. Dr. Amie O’Shea, Deakin University
  16. Dr. Maya Panisset, University of Melbourne
  17. A/Professor Tania Penivic, Deakin University
  18. Dr Rosalie Power, Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University
  19. Christina Ryan
  20. Dr Natalie Sheard, University of Melbourne
  21. A/Professor Louisa Smith, Deakin University
  22. Professor Linda Steele, University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
  23. Dr. George Taleporos
  24. Professor Jane Tomnay AM, University of Melbourne
  25. Dr. Georgia van Toorn, University of New South Wales (UNSW)
  26. A/Professor Jo Watson, Deakin University
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