National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1184
Submission to the Senate Community A1airs Legislation Committee Re: NDIS Amendment Bill 2026
I am writing this submission as a disabled person currently on the Disability Support Pension. The degenerative physical nature of my condition means that it is highly likely I will require additional support measures that are currently not covered by the DSP in the near future. As my condition is rare and poorly understood, and it is considered a dynamic disability (i.e. physical and mental capacity fluctuates day to day), I am not currently disabled ‘enough’ to qualify for support under the NDIS. However, medical professionals agree that my disease is permanent and progressive - and there is no medical treatment or cure for it. I currently rely on friends as support workers to provide personal and other care (such as grocery shopping, cleaning, transport to appointments etc.). Looking to my future, I see that NDIS support will be necessary in order for me to lead a life that is dignified, meaningful and safe.
As such, this Bill aLects me (as well as several of my disabled loved ones) directly, and my concerns about the proposed changes are… many! In the interests of keeping this succinct, my primary concerns are as follows:
• The amendment of items included in lists of approved or excluded supports: these lists don’t respond to disabled peoples’ highly unique and individual circumstances. They do not take into account our fluctuating impairments and support needs day to day; • Changes to the definition of permanence in regard to disability, and the need to have exhausted all available and appropriate treatments before qualifying for NDIS funding: fails to take into account participants’ agency in managing their disability. An experimental or other treatment may be available, but is inaccessible due to cost/time/conflict of values; it may also ultimately be unsafe/more harmful/reduce quality of life. What’s more, it will render disabled people whose treatment may only temporarily relieve symptoms ineligible for funding. Requiring someone to undertake all ‘appropriate’ treatments simply to tick a box is highly unethical; • Standardised functional capacity assessments: fail to take into account the intersecting nature of multiple disabilities, and how the symptomatic impact of multiple diagnoses can be cumulative – leading to greater functional impairment on one day as opposed to another; • Suggesting participants who have their funding or supports removed can access other ‘Foundational Supports’: this system is not yet operational in any meaningful way. What happens to participants whose cuts begin later this year?
I do not oppose NDIS reform. I vehemently oppose the fact that the proposed changes to this Bill: • Are incredibly rushed; • Are not designed in collaboration with disabled people, or with their best interests at heart;
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1184
• Force the burden of proof onto disabled people, and penalise the most vulnerable in our community, rather than the support providers rorting the system; • Will strip away our dignity, independence, and participation in community life.
This Bill as it stands will result in increased institutionalisation, huge pressure on already burdened health and other public support systems, homelessness, and our deaths. These are foreseeable outcomes, not just hypotheticals.
Me and my disabled friends are so tired from having to continually justify our basic human rights – and the simple fact of our existence – on top of the exhaustion that comes from having to manage the daily impacts of our disabilities on our bodies and minds. I urge the Committee to seriously review my, and others’, submissions – and not allow this Bill to pass without genuinely considering how we will be aLected in all of this.