The Albanese Labor Government and the Council for the Australian Federation (CAF) have in the past 24 hours agreed to significant changes to enhance co-governance arrangements, rulemaking and approval processes for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

These are the first and most significant set of co-governance changes since the inception of the Scheme a decade ago.

The Albanese Government and CAF have agreed to a number of proposed amendments to the NDIS Bill currently in the Senate, that will strengthen how state and territories work together with the Commonwealth on NDIS reforms, once the legislation is made law.

Specifically, there has been an agreement to introduce faster timeframes for approving NDIS rules, a new dispute resolution approach to escalate issues to First Ministers, and a move from unanimous to majority First Ministers’ support for any rules with any significant impacts for people with disability and governments.

These changes fully respond to the concerns originally raised by CAF on the legislation.

These changes will also ensure Scheme sustainability is protected in the short to medium term and support the National Cabinet decision to achieve the 8 per cent growth target.

Critically, today’s agreement secures the support of states and territories for the Government’s legislation and reform agenda and will help ensure the Scheme is here for future generations of Australians.