National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1114
To the Australian government
I am writing as an occupational therapist but also as a person who lives with multiple disabilities herself. Disabilities that are dynamic in nature, one week I can work full time and potentially the next I can’t work at all. I, myself, are not eligible for the NDIS because my disability is too “mild†like we’re treating people with a disability like nandos periperi chicken spice levels… (disgusting) but I bring this to your attention to show that if my disability can fluctuate that significantly week to week, I bet you cannot even imagine the difficulties someone else with dynamic disabilities will face. Something that tick box style, automated, uneducated assessor’s will do. As a result we will see only the consistent, high needs support disabilities get the support they need, the spiciest of all the levels, if you will. Having access to necessary supports should not rely on something as simplistic as that. It needs HUMAN assessment, TRAINED assessor’s such as OT’s - not like we went to uni for 4years just to do that as our career!
Can I ask how you’d feel if you were trapped inside your house all day, weeks on end? Ever had a surgery or illness and needed significant recovery time?? Imagine that’s your life, every day. Part of my apartment complex that I reside in is specialist disability accommodation (SDA), many of whom are wheelchair bound and the best they can do for the majority of their day is go to the local coffee shop that is literally right on our doorstep, if it wasn’t for the support workers who are able to take them out, to work, to community events, to the shops and more. Removing social and community participation is removing someone’s livelihood, their occupations, their ability to be part of society, and a HUGE risk to their mental health, which in the longterm is only going to drain the system of more $$$ whether that be PBS medications for physical deteriorating, need for more Medicare funding, added pressure to an already overloaded mental health system.
“The disability community is the only community that we will ALL become a part of one day, it’s only a matter of time.†Think about that before you decide.
Picking on the vulnerable is not the way to go, there’s so many other areas you can take funding from. And sorry if you under estimated your budget, you clearly didn’t have the right telescope to see all the stars, but it’s not the stars problem to fix that.
Sincerely, A very VERY concerned OT, on behalf many