National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1103
I live with my 25 years old daughter, Grace, who has Down syndrome (intellectual disability), significant visual impairment and moderate to severe hearing impairment.
I want to express my serious concerns on the proposed changes to NDIS.
Please remember that my daughter did not choose to have disabilities. I did not choose for her to have so many challenges.
Here are my concerns:
- Reduce fundings to ‘Social and Community Support’ a. ‘Social and community support’ is the support Grace receives for her to get out of the house. She gets approved 2 hours a day to be able to get out. Without this funding, and without the family support, Grace will be isolated. For people without disabilities, you can go for a walk any time, you can go to appointments, grocery shopping… All these that you take for granted is not achievable with this funding. b. For family members: I get to do things on my own only when Grace has a support worker with her. This support allows me to go to appointments, go for a walk to clear my head, to meet up with friends very occasionally. Reducing this support means parents and carers also become more isolated. c. This is the support that allows Grace to be part of a community, to have a life, instead of left at home, locked in an invisible jail! d. NDIS has set prices for disability support workers at close to $70 per hour. This would have priced out the possibility for family to privately increase support for their loved ones with disabilities, even if they want to do so.
- Health minister to have power to reduce support to any group at any time, up to 99.5% a. It is Not reasonable for ANYONE to have this power to change rules that affect all the people with disability at any time he wants. b. The Health Minister does not have lived experience of disabilities. If his decisions are based on finance/ budget, it will have detrimental effect on the life’s of people with disabilities, without him even realising the harm he causes. c. For the general population, we will never allow a single person to hold the power to make changes to people’s life without proper consultations. Treating people with disabilities with this overwhelming power of authority will constitute clear DISCRIMINATION to people with disabilities.
- Using AI tool to categorically assess people’s needs. a. Each person is an INDIVIDUAL. Even if two people have the same category of disabilities, they have different needs. Using AI tool to assess the need for people with disabilities is DEHUMANISING them. b. People with disabilities have their own goals and own personalities. They have their own needs. What work for one may not work for others.
Suggestions of how to save the budget. A. Review of pricing for allied health and support workers. The price should match the general population cost.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1103
a. Currently we get charged over $220 per hour for an assessment, often when the assessment goes over an hour, we are billed for 2 hours. This follows with 2 hours of report writing, so one assessment cost almost $1000 of NDIS funding. b. If the assessment is not under NDIS, the cost of assessment is about half. In general, letters of communication for medical doctors do not come with extra cost. Why is it that allied health under NDIS charges excessively. c. They can also bill you for an email for $100, which does not generally applied in the general population setting, unless it is a legal firm. d. This funding for providers and allied health needs to be reviewed and adjusted to match the general population cost. B. Review provider’s activities and claims a. If the government monitors the providers claims and activities, you will be able to identify the providers that are rotting the system. These providers may include big organisations.
No one chooses to live with disabilities, they can’t be punished for who they are. People with intellectual disabilities find it very difficult to have their voice heard. It is almost impossible for an intellectually disabled person to participation in any consultations, and we should never see them as easy target to cut supports and fundings.