Two neighbours, two directions: how Australia and New Zealand moved on disability support in 2026

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By the Living Unlimited Team

Two select committees, one on each side of the Tasman Sea, reported on disability-support legislation a day apart in the middle of August 2026. New Zealand’s committee reported on 13 August. Australia’s reported the next day. Both recommended their bill pass, and yet they pointed in noticeably different directions on the same underlying question: how a public disability-support system should decide what people get, and who gets a say in that decision.

That contrast is the reason we are writing this. It is also why we are going to be careful with it, because the tidy version, one country expanding and one contracting, does not survive contact with the detail. This is reporting, not a verdict on either government.

Australia: a committee clears a bill that cuts and automates

Australia’s Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee reported in mid-August, recommending that the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill pass, after an inquiry that ran for months and drew thousands of submissions, including strong opposition from disability organizations. The Senate passed the bill on 18 August 2026, after the government tabled 63 amendments, and it returned to the House of Representatives, which had passed an earlier version in July. Parliament gave the bill its final passage on 19 August 2026.

The changes are expected to cut 37.8 billion Australian dollars from the scheme over four years, tightening both who can access it and how funding is spent. Health Minister Mark Butler put the government’s case in terms of fraud by “shonks and fraudsters” and costs that had “blown out,” arguing the reforms would keep the scheme going “for decades.” By the government’s own figures, 240,000 existing participants are expected to leave the scheme by 2031, with a further 110,000 diverted from ever joining. From 1 October 2026, budgets for social and community participation supports are being reset toward 2023 spending levels, an average of about 26,000 Australian dollars a year for those activities.

Advocates read it as a contraction. People with Disability Australia chief executive Megan Spindler-Smith said the changes would force people with disability to work less, engage less with their communities and rely more on family, “eroding their independence.” Part of the opposition, reported through the inquiry, was to a shift toward automated decision-making in how plans are handled. We covered that inquiry stage, and what disability groups told it, in a separate piece.

New Zealand: a committee adds consultation and principles

New Zealand’s Social Services and Community Select Committee reported on 13 August on the Disability Support Services Bill, and recommended, by majority, that it pass with a set of amendments the government said came directly from disability-community feedback. More than 3,000 people and groups made submissions.

The amendments run the other way from Australia’s on the decision question. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston said the revised bill would recognize “the importance of choice, safety and dignity,” would require “formal consultation through disabled people’s representative organisations on future Support Programmes,” and would be rewritten to reflect the language of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and New Zealand’s Enabling Good Lives principles, including “a requirement for consultation ahead of decision-making.” The committee also recommended a mandatory review of the law within five years. Upston said the bill “does not change current eligibility, entitlements or support, or introduce income or asset testing where it is not currently used,” and pointed to 2.1 billion New Zealand dollars in additional funding committed through successive budgets.

Why the clean contrast does not hold

Set against Australia’s cut, that reads like New Zealand moving in the opposite direction, and on these two bills’ treatment of decision-making, it is. But the fuller New Zealand picture is mixed, and it is worth saying so.

The same bill has a contested side. It began as a response to a December Supreme Court ruling that found two people paid to care for a family member were employees of the state, and its original purpose, as reported, was partly to manage the Crown’s fiscal and litigation exposure from that ruling. The government says passage “will not affect” those two successful claims and that “no additional expectations will be placed on families.” Critics were less reassured: one advocate told RNZ it was the “worst piece of legislation” they had seen, and CCS Disability Action warned that the changes still did not do enough to address inequities for Māori and Pasifika. Alongside the bill, New Zealand made real cuts across 2026: from July the Total Mobility taxi subsidy dropped from covering 75 per cent of a fare to 65 per cent, and the state housing agency Kāinga Ora removed its target that at least 15 per cent of eligible new social-housing builds meet full universal design standards. So New Zealand is not simply expanding support. It is adding process rights in one bill while trimming spending elsewhere.

The honest summary, then, is not “one country expanded, one contracted.” It is that two committees, reporting a day apart, framed the same question differently: Australia’s cleared a bill built around cost control and automated decisions, New Zealand’s added consultation duties and human-centred principles to a bill that also carries a fiscal-risk purpose and sits beside other cuts.

What it shows for a Canadian reader

Canada watches the NDIS closely, because it is the large, rights-based scheme our own system is often measured against, and because the Canada Disability Benefit is new and still modest by comparison. The lesson from a fortnight like this one in the Pacific is procedural. Disability support levels are not fixed features. They are settings, and they get changed through ordinary legislation, committee reports, budget lines and assessment rules, sometimes toward more consultation and sometimes toward less spending, often in the same season. The people affected are usually the last to be asked and the first to feel it. Watching how these decisions are made, and whether people with disabilities have a guaranteed seat at the table, is not abstract. It is how you see a change coming before it reaches your own plan.

Frequently asked questions

What did Australia’s NDIS amendment do?

Australia’s Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee recommended in mid-August 2026 that the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill pass, and Parliament gave it final passage on 19 August 2026. The changes are expected to cut 37.8 billion Australian dollars from the scheme over four years, tightening both who can access it and how funding is spent. By the government’s own figures, 240,000 existing participants are expected to leave the scheme by 2031, with a further 110,000 diverted from ever joining. From 1 October 2026, budgets for social and community participation supports are being reset toward 2023 spending levels.

What did New Zealand’s select committee recommend?

New Zealand’s Social Services and Community Select Committee reported on 13 August 2026 on the Disability Support Services Bill and recommended, by majority, that it pass with amendments the government said came directly from disability-community feedback. More than 3,000 people and groups made submissions. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston said the revised bill would recognize the importance of choice, safety and dignity, would require formal consultation through disabled people’s representative organisations on future Support Programmes, and would be rewritten to reflect the language of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and New Zealand’s Enabling Good Lives principles. The committee also recommended a mandatory review of the law within five years.

Is New Zealand simply expanding support while Australia contracts?

No, and the tidy version does not survive the detail. The same New Zealand bill began as a response to a December Supreme Court ruling that found two people paid to care for a family member were employees of the state, and its original purpose was partly to manage the Crown’s fiscal and litigation exposure. One advocate told RNZ it was the worst piece of legislation they had seen, and CCS Disability Action warned the changes still did not do enough to address inequities for Maori and Pasifika. Alongside the bill, New Zealand made real cuts across 2026: the Total Mobility taxi subsidy dropped from 75 per cent of a fare to 65 per cent from July, and Kainga Ora removed its target that at least 15 per cent of eligible new social-housing builds meet full universal design standards.

What does this show for a Canadian reader?

The lesson is procedural. Disability support levels are not fixed features. They are settings, and they get changed through ordinary legislation, committee reports, budget lines and assessment rules, sometimes toward more consultation and sometimes toward less spending, often in the same season. Canada watches the NDIS closely, because it is the large, rights-based scheme our own system is often measured against and because the Canada Disability Benefit is new and still modest by comparison. Watching how these decisions are made, and whether people with disabilities have a guaranteed seat at the table, is how you see a change coming before it reaches you.

Sources

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