National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1068
Committee Secretary Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600
26/05/2026
To the Community Affairs Legislation Committee,
My name is . I am writing to you in my private capacity as an NDIS Participant, I am also a PhD Candidate at Adelaide University researching Australian autism policy.
I oppose the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026.
Introducing a new functional capacity test and reassessments from 2028 will be disastrous for disabled people. Disabled people are already subjected to intense medical scrutiny which is demoralising and makes it difficult to understand ourselves in terms other than perceived deficits - processes like functional capacity assessments are themselves further disabling because they are yet another voice and report detailing the ways we are “abnormal.” The changes to the NDIS proposed in this Bill will mean that disabled people are further subjected to processes which teach us to view ourselves as lacking, only to receive no or fewer supports. This will not save money, it will only push people towards other services that do not meet our needs, and towards extreme hardship or death.
I am taking the time to write to you, despite being in the final stages of writing my PhD thesis, because I would not be where I am today without NDIS supports. The supports I have received have changed my relationship to disability for the better, they have positively impacted my relationships with my family and my community. I am about to complete a PhD because I have been supported with things like: developing connections with my peers, planning and eating three meals a day consistently, and learning ways to manage challenging situations and emotions. These supports assisted me to serve as President of my university disability student club from 2024-2026, where I ran peer-support sessions for other disabled students and shared what I know about navigating disability and university life. The fullness and richness of my life at present is bound to the fact that I am well- supported by the NDIS – because of the NDIS, I have been able to realise the generative potential of disability in my life and in my community. Without the NDIS I wouldn’t be where I am, and a future without the NDIS is a bleak one.
Losing or reducing access to supports will impact all disabled people, because these changes reinforce harmful logics about disability as a burden or shameful – this couldn’t be further from the truth. By narrowing the terms through which disability is recognised by the NDIS, we narrow the terms through which disability (and disabled people) are understood; if we want to live in a world where disability is not stigmatised and disabled people are not viewed as a burden, then NDIS eligibility must reflect the material reality that disability is all
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1068
around us, disability is, and will always be, part of our society and communities. All of us are better off when policy reflects this understanding; because we are all proximate to disability, whether that is because we experience it, or because we all have the potential to experience it.
Changes in this Bill are broad and sweeping, and I realise I have only spoken to one element of them. However, I am sure you have received many submissions from other disabled people about how the other components of this Bill will impact our community; I implore you to read these and carefully consider the impacts of these changes for disabled people - in order for disability to be valued and valuable, in order to realise the generative potentials of disability, these changes to the NDIS must be opposed in full.
Regards,