We, the undersigned academics and community organisations, urge Parliament not to proceed with the mechanism proposed by the NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 that enables broad reductions to Social, Community and Civic Participation supports. Research evidence shows these changes are likely to carry significant risks for people with disability, with consequences for peoples’ health, safety and employment. If Parliament proceeds with changes that will cause foreseeable harm, it must legislate safeguards and not rely on review and appeal processes after harm has occurred.
The NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 (the Bill) proposes support determination powers that would enable the Minister to reduce funding across categories of NDIS supports for the purpose of achieving financial sustainability for the Scheme. The Government has indicated these powers would initially be used to reduce Social, Community and Civic Participation (SCCP) supports by 50% and capacity-building daily activities by 10%.
We acknowledge the amendments made to the Bill in the House of Representatives and the additional clarification provided in the revised Explanatory Memorandum that was released on 17 July. These changes recognise many of the concerns raised by people with disability, families, academics and the broader community that the proposed cuts will cause significant harm to people who rely on the NDIS to live an ordinary life.
However, these updates do not address the fundamental issue with these proposed cuts.
For many people with disability – and especially people with an intellectual disability and people with psychosocial disability – SCCP supports are the practical supports that make inclusion possible. They enable people to take part in ordinary community life, develop trusted relationships and maintain the informal networks that the Disability Royal Commission identified as critical safeguards against violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation[i].
Alternative supports are not yet available, and because many people with disability live on low incomes and experience persistent poverty, these supports cannot be replaced or self-funded when they are removed. Reducing them weakens the very safeguards enable people to live safely and independently in their communities.
While the Government has made clear that it does not intend these changes to “affect supports that are essential to a participant’s health, safety or continuous 24/7 care and support”, the Bill nonetheless creates broad powers to reduce supports in a way that makes those outcomes predictable.
We are already seeing the impacts
Advocates across Australia are hearing consistent reports of significant reductions to SCCP supports through NDIS plan reviews. People with disability and families describe losing supports that assist with medication management, meal preparation, attending medical appointments, maintaining employment, remaining visible and connected in the community and staying safe at home.
These outcomes do not constitute reductions in “social activities” alone – they are reductions to preventative supports that enable people to remain healthy, safe and connected while reducing reliance on more intensive and costly service systems like hospitals.
The experiences being reported show that the kinds of harms the Government says it does not intend are already occurring for many people who rely on the NDIS, and will only increase because of the Bill if it is passed.
The research evidence tells us
Research evidence shows a clear connection between social isolation and foreseeable risks of harm, including violence and abuse[ii]. It has demonstrated over time that generating community participation and inclusion is a reliable way to prevent and reduce harm[iii].
It also has many other benefits, both for people with disability and for other community members[iv]. Community participation gives people a sense of belonging and connection, strengthens relationships, reduces isolation, builds confidence and helps people feel safer in the community[v].
Community inclusion is a key component of abuse prevention, which builds natural safeguarding mechanisms and relationships which can help detect risks and foster resilience[vi]. There are many ways in which risk of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation is heightened when people with disability are isolated from community and relationships. People often lack the protective networks who can detect and respond to harm, or provide support to people to escape harmful situations[vii]. They have fewer avenues to share concerns or seek help[viii], and poor quality practice from support services such as overly controlling or neglectful actions are less likely to be noticed and acted on[ix].
Many people with cognitive disability remain socially isolated and participate in few community or political activities[x]. Making community participation meaningful for people with significant support needs has been demonstrated to require sustained support – practical strategies, skilled support, decision-making support, relationships and accessible community opportunities[xi][xii].
This evidence makes clear that community participation is a safeguarding issue, not simply a lifestyle preference. Elevated risks of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation for people with disability are well documented.[xiii] Ways to address these risks and experiences are known, and high among them are building and sustaining informal supports; increasing active involvement and relationships; and addressing negative community attitudes towards people with disability[xiv]. Reducing community presence and involvement not only increases risk to people with disability, it runs counter to evidenced abuse prevention strategies and the recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission[xv]. It is also at odds with the stated human rights objective of the Scheme to enable people with disability to live independently and be included in the community.[xvi]
SCCP supports therefore operate as protective and empowering: they help people build relationships, be visible to others, exercise choice, seek help and remain connected to ordinary places where harm is more likely to be noticed and challenged. Cutting these supports will not merely reduce “activities”; it will reduce safeguards and increase preventable risk.
What must happen next
The undersigned academics and community organisations firmly believe Parliament must not proceed with a mechanism enabling drastic reductions to SCCP supports that will create avoidable harm for people with disability, and especially people with cognitive disability.
The Government has confirmed its intention not to affect supports that are essential to a person’s health, safety and access to 24/7 supports. If that is truly Government’s intent, then the legislation must be amended to ensure those outcomes cannot occur.
The most sensible and straightforward way to achieve this is to remove the support determination power and proposed cuts to SCCP from the Bill.
The evidence is clear, and the risks are foreseeable. Parliament must now act to ensure the legislation delivers the outcomes it says it intends to achieve.
Media contact:
- Professor Sally Robinson, Flinders University, [email protected], 0410 484 405
- Maeve Kennedy, CEO, Inclusion Australia, [email protected], 0448 623 834
To sign the statement, please add your details to this google form: Signatories of the joint statement from academics and advocates: NDIS cuts to social and community participation will cause preventable harm – Google Forms
Signed:
- Professor Sally Robinson, Flinders University
- Dr Laura Davy, Australian National University
- Professor Linda Steele, University of Technology Sydney
- Associate Professor Dinesh Wadiwel, The University of Sydney
- Professor Alastair McEwin AM, UNSW Sydney
- Professor Emerita Gwynnyth Llewellyn, The University of Sydney
- Inclusion Australia
- Scientia Professor Julian Trollor, UNSW, Sydney
- Hunter Circles
- Associate Professor Shane Clifton, The University of Sydney
- Dr Amy Conley Wright, The University of Sydney
- Dr Georgia Van Toorn, University of New South Wales, Sydney
- Down Syndrome Australia Consortium
- Kate Swaffer, PhD Candidate, Adelaide University; Co-founder, Dementia Alliance International
- Dr Lisa Stafford, Griffith University
- Elvira Pertego Andia, University of Technology Sydney
- Professor Angus Buchanan, Curtin University
- Jemma Tilley, Western Sydney University
- Professor Elizabeth Kendall, Griffith University
- Dr Alex Devine, The University of Melbourne
- Associate Professor Georgina Sutherland, The University of Melbourne
- Georgia McKenzie, La Trobe University
- Rhys Evans, University of Technology Sydney
- Spiral Inc
- Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA)
- Professor Keith McVilly, The University of Melbourne
- Emily Rosenthal, The University of Melbourne
- Professor Christine Imms, The University of Melbourne
- People with Disability Australia (PWDA)
- Brianna Lee, University of Technology Sydney
- Dr Claire Quilliam, The University of Melbourne
- Professor Libby Callaway, Monash University
- Professor Jackie Leach Scully, UNSW, Sydney
- Dr Mariko Francis, RMIT University
- Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA)
- Professor Paul Harpur, The University of Queensland
- Brain Injury Australia
- Able Together Pty Ltd
- Associate Professor Kathy Ellem, The University of Queensland
- Dr Samitha Gowinnage, The University of Queensland
- Dr Jodie Bailie, The University of Sydney
- Ryan Olsen, Monash University
- Zoe Chambers, Swinburne University
- Katherine Heseltine, The University of Queensland
- Associate Professor Steven Rynne, The University of Queensland
- Associate Professor Lyn Phillipson, University of Wollongong
- Erin Fearn-Smith, The University of Sydney
- Physical Disability Australia
- Associate Professor Ceridwen Owen, University of Tasmania
- Victorian Advocacy League for Individuals with Disability (VALID)
- Dr Gemma King, Australian National University
- Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion
- Queensland Independent Disability Advocacy Network (QIDAN)
- Dr June Alexander, Flinders University
- Mat Teubert, Monash University
- Deaf Victoria
- National Mental Health Consumer Alliance (NMHCA)
- Dr Jenna Taylor, The University of Queensland
- TASC Community Legal Centre
- Luke Caughey, The University of Queensland
- Dr Ingrid Wijeyewardene, University of New England
- Stella Boyd-Ford, The University of Queensland
- Dr Jacqueline Walker, The University of Queensland
- Deafblind Australia
- Dr Perri Cambell, Swinburne University of Technology
- Professor kylie valentine, UNSW, Sydney
- Dr Tessa Zirnsak, La Trobe University
- Self-Advocacy Resource Unit (SARU)
- Dr Lewis Johnstone, Monash University
- Professor Leanne Hassett, The University of Sydney
- Dr Chabel Kahn, The University of Melbourne
- Dr Sophie Yates, Australian National University
- Dr Ariella Meltzer, UNSW Sydney
- Family Advocacy NSW
- Professor Helen Dickinson, UNSW Sydney
- Dr Tess Bright, The University of Melbourne
- Consumers of Mental Health Western Australia
- Dr Piers Gooding, La Trobe University
- Associate Professor Sue Olney, The University of Melbourne
- Professor Jo Watson, Deakin University
- Associate Professor Angela Dew, Deakin University
- Dr Amie O’Shea, Deakin University
- Dr Shoshana Dreyfus, La Trobe University
- Professor Sharon Lawn, Flinders University
- Associate Professor Michelle King, Griffith University
- Parent 2 Parent (P2P) Queensland
- Dr Philippa Duell-Piening, University of Galway
- Professor Sean Tweedy, The University of Queensland
- Professor Erin Wilson, Swinburne University of Technology
- Dr Lewis Johnstone, Monash University
- Associate Professor Yvette Maker, The University of Tasmania
- Lucy Macali, Swinburne University of Technology
- Associate Professor Michelle Bellon, Flinders University
- Associate Professor Jane Lloyd, UNSW Sydney
- Emeritus Professor Simon Darcy, University of Technology Sydney
- Dr Georgia McKenzie, La Trobe University
- Associate Professor Louisa Willoughby, Monash University
- Professor Nora Shields, La Trobe University
- ACT Down Syndrome & Intellectual Disability Association Inc.
- Blind Citizens Australia
- Dr Louise Pearce, The University of Sydney
- Emeritus Professor Christine Bigby, President Australasian Society for Intellectual Disability
- Deafblind West Australians
- Professor Melissa O’Donnell, Australian Centre for Child Protection, Adelaide University
- Antipoverty Centre
- Developmental Disability Western Australia (DDWA)
- Australia Council of Social Service (ACOSS)
- Australian Autism Alliance
- Edward Jegasothy, Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney
- Occupational Therapy Society (OTSi)
- Ability Pathways Australia
- Adjunct Professor Jeffrey Chan, University of Queensland
- Dr Judith Gould Solid Foundation Allied Health Murray Bridge SA
- Dr Robert Pereira, University of Canberra, and Pear Tree Occupational Therapy
- Jesuit Social Services
- Dr Patsie Frawley, Professor Disability and Community Health, University of Canberra
Professor Scott Avery, a First Nations academic at Girra Maa Indigenous Health UTS, supports the retention of community participation supports within the NDIS but has abstained from signing the Statement, pending a respectful engagement processes with First Nations people with disability utilising legitimised community consultation practices.
[i] Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, 2023. Final Report – Volume 3: Nature and Extent of Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation https://.disability.royalcommission.gov.au/publications/final-report-volume-3-nature-and-extent violence-abuse-neglect-and-exploitation, page 6.
[ii] Starke M., Larsson, A., & Punzi, E. (2024). People with intellectual disability and their risk of exposure to violence: identification and prevention – a literature review. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17446295241252472
[iii] Davy, L., Robinson, S., Idle, J. & valentine, k. (2024) Regulating vulnerability: policy approaches for preventing violence and abuse of people with disability in Australian service provision settings. Disability & Society, 40, 1039-1060 https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2024.2323456
[iv] Purcal, C., Fisher, K.R., Robinson, S., Idle, J., Giuntoli, G., Newman, C. (2024) Five factors for effective policy to improve attitudes towards people with disability. Social Policy and Society https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746424000198
[v] Bigby C, Anderson S, Cameron N. Identifying conceptualizations and theories of change embedded in interventions to facilitate community participation for people with intellectual disability: A scoping review. J Appl Res Intellect Disabil. 2018; 31: 165–180. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.12390
[vi] NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (2025) Evidence Review: Risk Factors and Prevention of Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation https://www.ndiscommission.gov.au/about-us/what-we-do/our-research/risk-factors-and-prevention-violence-abuse-neglect-and#paragraph-id-107590
[vii] NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (2025) Evidence Review: Risk Factors and Prevention of Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation https://www.ndiscommission.gov.au/about-us/what-we-do/our-research/risk-factors-and-prevention-violence-abuse-neglect-and#paragraph-id-107590
[viii] Tomaszewski, T., Fisher, K.R., Robinson, S. & Ikaheimo, H. (2026) Rethinking how people with cognitive disability complain. Disability & Society, 41 (2), 521-541 https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2025.2536586
[ix] Robinson, S., Ikaheimo, H., Fisher, K.R., Idle, J., Cresciani, R. & Smyth, C. (2026) Understanding everyday harm between young people with cognitive disability and support workers. Disability & Society https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2026.2615721
[x] Robinson, S., & Idle, J. (2023). Loneliness and how to counter it: People with intellectual disability share their experiences and ideas. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 48(1), 58-70.
[xi] Boland, G., de Paor, E., & Guerin, S. (2023). Living in Localities: The Factors That Influence the Social Inclusion in Neighborhoods of Adults With Intellectual Disability. A Systematic Scoping Review. Inclusion, 11(1), 55–77. https://doi.org/10.1352/2326-6988-11.1.55
[xii] Simplican, S. C., Leader, G., Kosciulek, J., & Leahy, M. (2015). Defining social inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities: An ecological model of social networks and community participation. Research in developmental disabilities, 38, 18-29.
[xiii] CRE-DH (Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health). 2021. Research Report: Nature and Extent of Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation against People with Disability in Australia. Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability
[xiv]Araten-Bergman, T., & Bigby, C. (2020). Violence Prevention Strategies for People with Intellectual Disabilities: A Scoping Review. Australian Social Work, 76(1), 72–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2020.1777315
[xv] Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. (2023). Final Report. https://disability.royalcommission.gov.au/publications/final-report
[xvi] The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights, Explanatory Memorandum, National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012.