Member update – OTA response to NDIS Senate Committee Report

Published: Friday 21 June 2024 

Yesterday the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee released its report into the NDIS Amendment Bill. The report's recommendation was that the NDIS Bill be passed.

OTA is extremely disappointed with the Senate Committee's recommendation. We have been actively advocating for the Bill to be paused until there is a comprehensive response to the NDIS Review, and have written to and met with MPs seeking their support. Members may recall that OTA gave evidence to the Senate Committee in May.

While OTA is still reviewing the Committe's full report and is very disappointed in its recommendation, it does include some elements we are pleased to see. The Committee refers to our concerns about the needs assessment provisions and the ability of NDIS participants to comply with requests for additional information.  We were also pleased to see reference to our concerns about the lack of clarity in the Bill’s provisions surrounding what foundational supports will look like.

Equally, we were pleased to see many of the points raised by the NDIS Occupational Therapy Community of Practice submission referred to across the report.

The Bill will now go to the Senate where its passage is uncertain. We await the outcome of the debate in the Senate, expected to occur during the week commencing 24 June.

Ultimately, we are going to continue to fight for our members to ensure the most outrageous parts of this Bill, namely needs assessments, needs reassessments, provision of information, NDIS supports and foundational supports, are not pushed through without the government providing a clear picture of the future state of the Australian disability system. 

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