Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee

PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Australia

deep-indent: Dear Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee,

I am writing to share my concerns about the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024. I am the mother of a young woman with extremely complex support requirements. The NDIS is very important to me, my daughter and our family. It provides the funded support my daughter requires to live successfully in her own home. We have fought hard and long to achieve the fully range of supports she has now, and we will continue to fight for her right to live in her own home with the supports she requires to do so

I am worried about the following parts of the Bill:

• Reasonable and Necessary Budgets I believe the proposal to change from ‘reasonable and necessary supports’ to ‘reasonable and necessary budgets’ will limit the funding my daughter will receive by standardising the funding allocated to her various supports rather than taking into consideration her individual circumstances and the impact that has on setting her budget. I do not want my daughter to be significantly disadvantaged and facing unimaginable abuse if laws are passed that place arbitrary limits on her funding.

• Narrower Definition of Supports The new definition of supports is too narrow. I have fought long and hard to have the range of supports my daughter requires. I have steadfastly resisted the push by the NDIA to force my daughter into a group home facility. The assumption that an NDIS decision maker, who does not know my daughter, can decide that she would be better off living in a group home facility is deeply offensive to me and a denial of her basic human right to live where she

Increased Powers for the NDIA

The NDIA would have more power to make people undergo assessments or provide information. If people do not comply, their plans could be suspended or revoked. These powers will add further to the uncertainty and apprehension I already feel as a result of the increasingly punitive and dogmatic approach taken by the NDIA in response to my desire to get the best outcomes possible for my daughter. My anxiety about these powers is further exacerbated by the proposal in the legislation that the NDIS can raise a “Robodebt” style debt if they believe I have purchased supports outside the arbitrary funding and support parameters they have set, without my knowledge, without providing any proof to substantiate their claim.

Restrictions on Self-Managing Funding

The NDIA could stop me from self-managing my daughters funding if they believe I have not purchased support inline with her plan, even though these errors may not exist, they are based on poor communication from the NDIA or are isolated and entirely innocent. This goes against the principle of choice and control.

Overall, I am very concerned that this Bill gives current and future bureaucrats and NDIS Ministers unprecedented powers to control and manipulate my daughter’s lifestyle in ways that will significantly disadvantage her, expose her to risk of abuse

Submission Regarding the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Legislation

and force her into the institutionalised forms of service delivery the Royal Commission into abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence have said still exist and the Quality and Safeguards Commission has failed to protect people from.

This Bill moves away from the original vision of the NDIS. It is a step back in time to the era where service providers controlled the lives of people with disability. The era of a broken and ineffective disability care and support system. The NDIS is meant to give people with disability choice and control over their supports. This Bill is more focused on saving money than helping people with disabilities.

I think the Bill should be paused or stopped. There should be real co-design with people with disability. We need changes that truly meet the needs of people with disabilities.

I urge the Committee to recommend that this Bill be withdrawn or be subject to significant amendments. The current Bill and it proposed amendments are entirely inadequate, and any further changes must be done through thorough co-design with people with disabilities and/or their allies and supporters.

The NDIS is too important to get wrong. We must get this right, with people with disabilities at the centre of the process.

Thank you for considering my submission. I would be happy to provide more information if needed.

Yours sincerely, Maria McCaffrey