Participants in the national disability insurance scheme will in most cases no longer be able to appeal against their total amount of funding support to any external review body, executives have confirmed.
The minister for disability and the NDIS, Jenny McAllister, and National Disability Insurance Agency bosses were peppered with questions at Senate estimates on Thursday about changes to the way NDIS support plans will be generated under a new planning model coming into effect from mid-2026.
Details of the changes were revealed by a Guardian investigation this week, which found that support plans for participants will be generated by a computer program and staff will have no discretion to amend them, dramatically reducing human involvement in the process.
An NDIA executive confirmed to the Senate committee that it had conducted modelling that found the new planning system – which has been labelled “robo-planning” – would save the NDIA money.
The Guardian’s investigation revealed that an NDIA boss in Queensland had told hundreds of staff in an internal briefing that under the new model, if NDIS participants appeal against their plans to the administrative review tribunal, the ART will no longer have the authority to alter a person’s plan or reinstate funding. It will only be able to send the plan back to the NDIA for the agency to conduct another assessment.
Pushed repeatedly on that topic by multiple senators, Matthew Swainson, a deputy CEO of the NDIA, eventually confirmed that NDIS participants will no longer be able to appeal against the total amount of funding support they get in their NDIS support plan to the tribunal. The Greens senator Jordon Steele-John called the revelation a “significant change in the role of the ART”.
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“The total budget amount given to participants, is that or is that not a reviewable decision of the act?” Steele-John asked.
“Currently, it is a reviewable decision,” Swainson said.
Later, Steele-John pushed Swainson, saying: “Under the new model you’re proposing, the total funding amount is not a reviewable decision – absent a potential variation under [Section] 47A, which is not at a common occurrence – the total funding amount is no longer a reviewable decision?”
“That’s correct, senator,” he said.
“OK, so this is what we’re trying to get to, right?” said a clearly frustrated Steele-John.
“For the purposes of answering what was now a question put to you about 40 minutes ago by Senator Ruston, there is significant change in the role of the ART here. We are going from a space where the ART has a role in ordering that additional funds be allocated to the total funding amount given [to] a participant to a model in which that is not a question before the tribunal.”
The question concluded a series of exchanges throughout the estimates session that clearly frustrated and confused senators, who were pushing for clarity.
Earlier in the session, Swainson appeared to say the opposite of what he eventually confirmed to Steele-John, saying that under the new model the ART may be able to amend NDIS plans, depending on the rules “and the rules are still being developed”.
“So the ART will have the same discretions as will be available to agency delegates, and they will be subject to the same rules. So the rules are still being developed, senator, so the rules, which are in development, if those rules allow for an agency delegate to alter a plan, the ART will be allowed to alter a plan,” he said.
The Liberal senator Anne Ruston pushed the NDIA executives on how such changes could be made without further amendments to legislation.
“It’s not up to the NDIA to determine how the ART works,” she said.
Robyn Shannon, a deputy secretary in the department of health, confirmed the legislation allowing for these changes had passed parliament last year.
“The arrangements for the way new framework planning operates and the role of the ART as the reviewer are set out in the primary legislation, as well as their own operating legislation.”
