NDIS participants, the wider disability community, families and allies rallied across Australia in six locations on Saturday 1 August, warning that the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 (the NDIS Bill) will strip away essential supports and that people with disability will die.
The rallies were part of a national day of action organised by the Protect Our NDIS Alliance, ahead of the upcoming Senate vote on the NDIS Bill scheduled for Friday 14 August 2026.
Nearly 90 organisations nationwide, including People with Disability Australia, the national peak body for the disability community, and Professionals Australia, a national union representing workers and professionals including those providing NDIS funded supports, endorsed the demands to scrap the NDIS Bill.
The Labor Government is proposing changes that will cut essential supports, with participants warning the consequences will be immediate and harmful.
These changes are expected to have a direct impact on daily life, making it harder for people with disability to get out of bed, attend appointments, stay connected to community and work and live independently.
National Spokesperson for the Protect Our NDIS Alliance, Oriela Williams, who also addressed the crowd at the Brisbane rally on Saturday 1 August 2026, explains:
“I’m someone with very high support needs physically. I’m someone that uses a hoist transfer and requires two assists of caregivers daily. The NDIA has currently declined my permanent power wheelchair application that I need to function, and expects me to go back to a manual wheelchair that I cannot physically propel, due to having only primary function in my right dominant arm. We are already experiencing what this Bill would do to disabled people. I invite Disability Minister Mark Butler to spend a day in my shoes. I invite him to spend a day experiencing what it is like to be a disabled person and an NDIS participant.”
Rallies took place across the country, including in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth as participants called for the NDIS Bill to be scrapped before the Senate vote on 14 August 2026.
Alexandra Ellen, disabled artist and advocate, speaking at the Brisbane rally on Saturday 1 August, said:
“For those who just care about the bottom line, the NDIS is an investment. For every $1 put into the NDIS, $2.25 goes back into the economy. It lightens the load on our public hospital system, and it employs thousands of workers around the nation.”
Oriela says:
“Labor will have you believe that cutting costs will reform the NDIS. However, this Bill does not tackle fraud and current estimates in the published FOI suggest around 241,000 disabled people will be removed from the NDIS, with another 106,000 disabled people to be refused access.
“Everyone needs to understand how harmful this NDIS bill is, and not just the real tangible impacts this bill will have on our daily lives as disabled people, but how this will not just impact us, but also the economy, jobs/employment, for all the workers who rely on these jobs. If we lose skilled workers from the scheme it will not be able to function.”
Participants say the NDIS enables people to live independently while reducing pressure on families, hospitals and crisis services.
Oriela points out that:
“You need to collaboratively work with states and territories — if this Bill passes, many disabled people will end up in hospital. The healthcare sector is not prepared for disabled people having to board in hospitals because our NDIS funding has been cut. The states and territory disability ministers submitted evidence to the Senate Inquiry that they cannot meet this need.
“If the government taxed gas corporations at a minimum of 25 per cent the government would save more money in 4 years than if they went ahead with the cuts to the NDIS, which is also the biggest cut to any social service ever in this country. We are calling for the government to tax gas exports, not cut the NDIS!”
The Protect Our NDIS Alliance is a grassroots alliance of disabled people and allies committed to protecting the scheme.
