I move the amendment circulated in my name and I move this amendment to strengthen consultation requirements for the key National Disability Insurance Scheme rules. This amendment goes to a simple but fundamental principle that decisions about people with disability should not be made without them.

It speaks to the profound truth contained in the slogan ‘Nothing about us without us.’ As this bill stands, critical aspects of the scheme, including eligibility criteria, functional capacity assessment, assessment methodologies and funding rules, are not set out in the primary legislation, but left instead to future rules made by the Minister.

Those rules will determine who can access the NDIS, how their needs are assessed and what supports they ultimately receive. These are crucial considerations with serious implications for people's lives. And yet there is currently no minimum requirement in this bill for how people with disability are consulted before the rules are made.

This is a serious gap. The independent NDIS review released in 2025, was clear in calling for deep and ongoing consultation on reforms with people with disability, their families, their carers, representative organisations and disability service providers and workers.

While the new Technical Advisory Group will undertake consultations when developing their expert advice, the legislation does not set out how comprehensive this consultation needs to be. And although consultation is required with states and territories, there are minimal guarantees this will involve the kind of deep consultation called for in the independent review.

My amendment would give effect to the review's recommendation and aligns the bill more closely with the principle of inclusive  co-design. It would require the Minister, before making rules regarding eligibility assessment methodologies and support determinations, to publish an exposure draft and allow at least 28 days for public submissions.

It would require genuine engagement with people with disability organisations, representation representing the disability community and sector and other relevant stakeholders during that period. And importantly, it would require transparency by mandating the publication of a summary of feedback received along with the Minister's response and a disability impact statement outlining how the proposed rules are expected to affect participants and prospective participants.

As responsibilities across the disability ecosystem shifts across jurisdictions, it is more important than ever that thorough, meaningful consultation is undertaken to understand and to avoid unintended consequences.

A related example is the new South Wales Government's recent decision to potentially lock out small businesses from providing services under thriving kids by limiting tenders to non-profit providers only. And I've heard from many allied health and disability small businesses in Bradfield.

People with deep connections to local community and, vulnerable children they provide services to who fear for the futures of their businesses and equally, parents are concerned about the continuity that these vital services provide for their children.

Thorough consultation can help mitigate problems such as these from arising. And the changes proposed by my amendment would ensure that reforms are considered systematically and holistically, and be informed by lived experience. These changes, if adopted and implemented, would strengthen the quality of decision making, and they would build trust in a system that, for many people, currently feels opaque and unpredictable.

And they would build a social license for a reform process which many feel has been, frankly, too rushed and exclusionary. If we are asking people to place their confidence in these significant changes to the NDIS, then we must legislate our commitment to including them in the process with openness, with respect, and a spirit of genuine partnership.