The Barr government has come under fire for declining an invitation to appear at a Senate inquiry into the Albanese government's NDIS cuts.
ACT independent senator David Pocock and Greens MLA Laura Nuttall said it was disappointing that territory health and disability ministers would not make themselves available to answer questions about the proposed new laws' impact.
"The Legislative Assembly is walking distance from Parliament House," Senator Pocock told The Canberra Times.
"Surely it's not too onerous to appear at the inquiry to answer the questions that are being raised by Canberrans about the impact of this bill."
Ms Nuttall, the ACT Greens' disability spokesperson, will move a motion in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday calling on the ACT government to "stand up to their federal Labor counterparts' cuts to the NDIS."
She said it was "extremely inadequate and disappointing" for ACT ministers to skip the Senate inquiry hearings to be held in Canberra over two days from Wednesday.
Thousands of ACT residents who face being removed from the National Disability Insurance Scheme are waiting to learn what, if any, local services they will be able to access if the new laws - which aim to slash $35 billion from NDIS spending over a decade - pass the federal Parliament.
Senator Pocock said Canberrans needed to know about the timeline for the changes, the mix of services that would be available and how they would be designed - and that these questions "deserve to be answered as part of the inquiry".
Ms Nuttall will also call on the territory to ensure foundational supports are fully funded before the proposed changes are implemented.
The Labor-led Senate committee examining the bill invited ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith and Disability Minister Suzanne Orr to give evidence, along with all other jurisdictions, but made this optional.
It is understood that state and territory disability ministers are preparing a joint submission to the inquiry.
An ACT government spokesperson said Ms Orr and the territory would "continue to work with Commonwealth, state and territory colleagues through the Disability Reform Ministerial Council" on the proposed changes.
"Minister Orr continues to advocate for the services and system that meets the needs of Canberrans with a disability," the spokesperson said.
Senator Pocock said it was disappointing that no state or territory ministers would appear before the inquiry.
He said the changes would mean the ACT, and all states territories, needed to establish new public services for children under 9, for people with psychosocial disability "and potentially even for people who are in the early stages of diseases like Parkinson's disease."
The new laws, if passed, will result in 240,000 current NDIS participants losing access to the scheme in the four years to July 2031, according to Treasury modelling.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler says they are necessary to make the NDIS sustainable, but disability advocates are concerned that people will be left without adequate supports.
The ACT government has been broadly supportive of the plan, but other jurisdictions have raised concerns about the impact on their health systems - including "bed block" in state-run hospitals.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park will release data on Wednesday showing the number of patients "stranded" in his state's hospitals as they wait for an NDIS placement had risen from 274 to 328, while those waiting for an aged care placement had increased from 597 to 948.
Mr Park will announce that the state government will pursue its own strategy "to address the Commonwealth government's bed block of NSW hospitals," declaring that the Albanese government had left him with no choice because the current situation was "unsustainable".
Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls has made similar comments.
Last month's federal budget included $3.7 billion to deliver an extra 5000 residential aged care beds and more home care packages from 2029, but state governments say this will not relieve the imminent pressure on their hospitals.
Advocacy for Inclusion chief executive Nicolas Lawler said it was unclear what support would be available for Canberrans who would be removed from the NDIS if the bill passed.
"I have significant concerns about the impact on people with disability if supports they currently rely upon are reduced or withdrawn before there are established, accessible and adequately resourced alternatives available," Mr Lawler said.
"It is easy to talk about reducing supports in the abstract. It is much harder when the support being discussed is the reason someone can leave their home, see friends, work, study or be part of their community.
"For many people with disability, support is not what makes life easier. It is what makes everyday life possible."
He said states and territories faced significant challenges to build "effective supports" that did not currently exist and needed to be co-designed with the disability community.
"It's not simply a matter of announcing a program or allocating funding," Mr Lawler said.
"It requires workforce, service capacity, community awareness, referral pathways, and time for those systems to mature.
"People with disability need confidence that if they are expected to rely on supports outside the NDIS, those supports will actually exist, be accessible, and be available when they are needed."
