National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the Ndis for Future Generations) Bill 2026

Helen Haines

by leave—I move:

(6) Schedule 3, page 101 (after line 12), at the end of the Schedule, add:

Part 4 — Whistleblower protections

National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013

18 After subsection 73ZA(2)

Insert:

(2A) The disclosure of the information by the discloser qualifies for protection under this Division if it is made for the purpose of seeking assistance, advice, treatment or counselling in relation to the disclosure and is made to:

(a) a legal practitioner; or

(b) a medical practitioner or psychologist; or

(c) a union or professional association.

Again, I will make a brief remark. This amendment ensures whistleblowers are able to make disclosures in the context of seeking support for themselves—for example, in seeking support from a legal or a medical practitioner. Now, the government's recently made improvements to NDIS whistleblower protections, and I really welcome those. But I think many Australians, in fact all Australians, would be very surprised to learn that, under this legislation more broadly across the NDIA and NDIS, whistleblowers may not legally be allowed to talk about their own situations to their own doctor or lawyer. I've been on the record very strongly in this place calling for whistleblower reforms to be strengthen. Under this particular situation, we need to make sure that every protection is afforded to people who are whistleblowers through the NDIS system. So I put this to the minister, and I hope the government can support me on this really important amendment.

Mark Butler

The member for Indi is right in saying that she has a deep interest and deep understanding of this area. We consider ourselves a government that has tried to work with the member for Indi and others in improving supports for whistleblowers across government programs, including the NDIS. I'm quite attracted to the idea behind this amendment. The advice I've received is that we would need to do quite a bit more work. There are some very complex issues the member's amendment raises that really flow from the nature of this scheme. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to support this amendment today, but I am keen to, if the member is interested, keep working with the member on ways in which we can continue to improve supports for whistleblowers in this critically important scheme.

Lisa Chesters

The question is that amendment (6) on sheet 1, as moved by the member for Indi, be agreed to.