2026-09-03
Battling NDIS cuts while gaining some alleviating amendments, a Select Committee on Intergenerational Housing, and taxing billionaires and corporates
By Senator Jordon Steele-John
The Fight for the NDIS
This month brings to a close a long chapter in the fight for disability justice. Since April, when Mark Butler announced the government’s plans to cut funding to NDIS participants, my team and I have joined forces with mighty disability advocates across the country to fight back.
Labor wanted these cuts to happen quickly and quietly. They spun a dramatic media narrative about fraud and waste while writing legislation focused almost exclusively on bringing down the bottom line of the scheme, regardless of the amount of suffering that would cause to disabled people, their families, and the disability support industry.
What they got instead was an overwhelming campaign of community resistance. Supported by the Greens in parliament, thousands of advocates held rallies, gave evidence to the Senate inquiry, and made sure that every politician in Canberra knew exactly why the bill should not pass.
But they did not listen. Labor, the Liberals, and One Nation chose not to tax gas corporations or billionaires to deliver services to Australians. Faced with a choice between withdrawing funding for imaginary AUKUS submarines or removing life-changing supports for disabled people, they chose cruelty.
The Small Wins
The bill has passed, but the fight has not been pointless. Because we were able to delay the bill and secure a senate inquiry, the parliament was forced to hear directly from disabled people, families, advocates, and service providers. The consensus from the community was clear: these changes will cause harm.
This evidence empowered us to negotiate important amendments which remove some of the most dangerous elements of the bill, while still arguing that the bill should not pass at all.
Our amendments will:
- Limit ministerial powers to impose sweeping cuts to people’s supports budgets
- Provide an appeals pathway for participants who are harmed by these cuts
- Ensure greater transparency on automated decision-making
- Provide greater protections for disabled people by ensuring that they cannot be forced to undergo harmful restrictive practices to gain access to the NDIS, and that any treatments required must be available in the public healthcare system
- Protect whistleblowers who report fraud
And importantly, we have shown the major parties that the disability community is not the easy target that they thought we were. Disabled people will not give up fighting for their rights and neither will the Greens.
Housing
Early this month, the Greens-led Select Committee on Intergenerational Housing Inequity held a hearing in Perth. This was an important opportunity to hear from local housing and homelessness organisations about the ways that the housing crisis is unfolding across WA.
The Australian Greens housing spokesperson, Senator Barbara Pocock, flew over for the hearing and we took the opportunity to engage in some fact-finding. We took a tour of Wynn Carr House in Fremantle, exploring examples of housing and accommodation models.
My team organised an intergenerational housing event in Secret Harbour with Senator Pocock, Tim Clifford MLC and councillor Sophie Greer. Thanks to all the members and local supporters who attended and participated in the discussion.
What has become clear throughout this inquiry is that there is a real need for innovative, affordable and accessible housing options, while also pulling the systemic levers to address housing availability and affordability.
Taxing Billionaires
Your federal Greens team has been fighting hard for a fairer deal for Australia. Billionaires and multinational mega-corporations simply don’t pay what they owe, and we are all worse off because of it.
That’s why we are working to shine a light on the special influence and access that big money has to our political system. Canberra shouldn’t be writing laws with corporate lobbyists looking over their shoulders while the doors are shut to everyday people.
The pressure point that we have been pushing hardest has been the gas corporations that can extract Australian gas for free and send it overseas. The current PRRT gas tax gives ample loopholes for gas companies to avoid it completely.
Putting a minimum 25% tax on revenue from exported gas will incentivise gas companies to sell more to the Australian market, bringing down domestic gas prices. It will raise $17 billion every year, which we can spend on providing vital services to ease cost of living pressures. And, it will mean less money in gas company bank accounts, hindering their ability to prop up their obsolete industry as we continue to transition to renewable energy.
Looking Forward
I’m writing this just over a week before the Secret Harbor by-election. Next week I’m looking forward to connecting with members at prepoll and on election day. Rhi and the team have run a remarkable campaign full of hope and that unmistakable Greens sense of community and camaraderie. Wishing everyone the best of luck for the 29th and I’ll see you at the afterparty!
Header photo: Disability advocates and allies gathered in Perth on the 1st of August as part of a National Day of Action to protest cuts to the NDIS.