Australia’s NDIS regulator has nearly 13,000 open complaints — ABC News Australia
In Australia, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, which handles complaints about service providers and support workers for people with disabilities, has just under 13,000 open complaints. ABC News Australia reports.
Data obtained through a freedom of information request showed that as of March, the commission had more than 15,000 open complaints. In January 2025, their number exceeded 25,000. Acting Commissioner Natalie Wade said that since July 2025, the number of complaints awaiting processing had fallen by 52% due to organisational and regulatory changes.
Complaints about alleged violations
Program participant Becky Green, who has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair, complained about a service provider over alleged abuse and negligence. She said she waited on the phone line for one hour and 40 minutes but never spoke to a commission staff member. An investigation into her complaint was opened after an ABC inquiry, although Green said she had been told that the case had been assigned priority level one.
Activist Ellie Desmarchelier said that she lodged a complaint against a former independent support worker at the end of the previous Christmas-New Year period but has still not received a response. She claims that after ending work, the worker submitted payment claims for shifts they had not worked, amounting to 16,992 Australian dollars. In a letter to her plan manager, the worker called it an internal administrative error and offered to return the money, but Desmarchelier said the funds were not reimbursed. According to her, she was left without support for three weeks as a result.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Assessments of the commission’s work
A former senior manager at the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, who spoke anonymously, said that the complaints unit had been understaffed since the body was established in 2016. According to the former employee, complaints were regularly closed without staff speaking to complainants.
Former senior executive of the National Disability Insurance Agency Mark Sweeney believes that the regulator is not meeting its own benchmark of closing half of complaints within 90 days. According to him, during the past two quarters, approximately one in three complaints was closed within that period. Sweeney asked the Commonwealth Ombudsman to investigate the systemic reasons for the accumulation of complaints.
Natalie Wade said that the commission prioritises cases according to urgency, seriousness and complexity. According to her, when assessing complaints, the regulator uses information from various sources, including written complaints and online forms, and complainants may be contacted if additional information is needed.
