The Senate has passed a bill on Tuesday that delivers tough new laws to protect people with a disability and safeguard the NDIS from exploitation at the hands of fraudsters, predators and shonks.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Integrity and Safeguarding) Bill 2025 throws the book at those responsible for serious misconduct and unsafe practices within the scheme.
Key measures include;
- Making it a crime to fail to comply with a banning order – carrying a maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment.
- Making it a crime to provide supports that require registration without being registered – carrying a maximum sentence of 2 years imprisonment.
- Increasing fines by up to 40 times for serious code of conduct breaches including from a maximum of $412,500 to more than $15 million when serious misconduct leads to death or serious injury.
- New anti-promotion orders designed to crack down on businesses that advertise NDIS supports in ways that undermine the scheme’s integrity and trick NDIS participants into misuse of their funding.
- Expanding banning order categories so the NDIS Commission can ban bad actors from being NDIS auditors, business advisors and consultants.
- Stronger whistleblower protections to ensure individuals can safely report concerns about unsafe or unlawful practices within the Scheme.
- Strengthened monitoring, compliance and enforcement powers of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
The Bill will also modernise NDIS claims by introducing mandated electronic claim forms to prevent fraud and abuse of the system at the expense of participants.
It also creates a new power for the National Disability Insurance Agency to request evidence before claims are paid.
The Bill will be sent to the House of Representatives now that it has passed the Senate.
Minister for the NDIS Jenny McAllister said: “The NDIS is meant to be a disability support scheme, not a get rich quick scheme.
“If you are banned from the NDIS but then choose to contravene that banning order, then you do not belong in the disability sector, you belong in prison.
“If you think you can get rich quick and cut corners by operating without registration when it is needed then you are engaging in predatory and dangerous behaviour and you also belong in prison.
“And if you think you can get away with shonky marketing which tricks NDIS participants into misusing their funding, tricks investors into disability housing scams, or promotes fake deals that tell participants they can use their plans to fund holidays then we will fine you $400,000.
“These are common sense measures, but we know there’s still more work to do to get the fraudsters, predators and shonks out of the disability sector.”
NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commissioner Louise Glanville said: “These new laws will support the NDIS Commission to take more effective action to prevent harm and improve quality across the sector.
“They strengthen our ability to identify and respond to risks, take timely enforcement action, and drive better practice across providers.
“These reforms reflect extensive consultation with people with disability, families, advocates and providers.”
