National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 125
Submission Regarding Proposed NDIS Changes
My name is , was a teacher before my son was born, working a lot with additional needs and alternative settings, and didn’t return so that I could support him full time in early intervention. I’ve almost completed my masters in autism and neurodivergent studies to become a Developmental Educator to support other families and provide education to educators to better support and include disabled children. That’s just to give you a little context about me.
In my family, both my son and my husband are NDIS participants and both are at risk of losing significant supports, or access altogether.
My son is 6 years old. He has been on the NDIS since before he turned 3. He is autistic level 2, ADHD, PDA, and has anxiety and a sleep disorder.
People in the community hear “funding” and picture extras or luxuries. Our reality has been years of intensive early intervention therapy just to help him access the world safely and meaningfully.
Speech therapy so he could communicate his needs instead of living in constant distress.
OT to help with regulation, sensory overwhelm, motor skills and self care.
Support around sleep because chronic sleep deprivation was impacting his entire functioning.
Therapies and supports that taught us how to co-regulate, reduce distress, support transitions, and help him feel safe enough to learn and engage with the world.
For years, my life revolved around nervous system management. Constant co-regulation. Watching for triggers. Preventing escalation. Structuring every part of the day around capacity, overwhelm, and survival.
And it worked.
This year, after years of support, my son started school part time. He is engaging. He is building friendships. He is finding belonging and acceptance amongst his peers. He still struggles significantly and life is still very hard for him, but the supports have given him a chance at some sense of normalcy and quality of life.
Without those supports, he will not cope at school. He will lose the regulation and behavioural supports that allow him to participate. He will likely regress in communication, emotional regulation, motor skills and independence.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 125
My husband is also autistic level 2 and ADHD, alongside having a psychosocial disability, schizoaffective disorder, a severe mental illness involving ongoing psychosis combined with a mood disorder.
Without his supports, we would immediately return to crisis. Back to psychiatric admissions. Severe mental health deterioration. Me becoming responsible for all practical living tasks, emotional regulation, crisis management and constant co-regulation again while also trying to support our son.
And this is what people do not understand. Neither my husband nor my son are a burden. They are people I love deeply.
But carrying the full support load for both of them, completely unsupported, by myself, is not sustainable. The invisible labour involved is enormous. The mental load, emotional load, advocacy, supervision, regulation support, appointment management, crisis prevention and day to day functioning support never stops.
If either of them lose supports, our family will be in crisis.
If both lose supports, I will literally have to choose between supporting my husband or supporting my son, because I cannot sustain the level of care both of them require on my own. My family and marriage will crumble. That is the reality these cuts create for families like mine.
These are the exact kinds of disabilities the government is now trying to cut support from. Early intervention, autism, psychosocial disability. They are implying that the functional impact of these disabilities is exaggerated, temporary, or not significant enough to warrant ongoing support.
But the functional impact is very real in our home.
It affects communication, emotional regulation, safety, education, sleep, independence, relationships, mental health, and the ability to participate in everyday life.
Without support, people do not magically become less disabled. Families simply absorb the collapse behind closed doors until they cannot anymore.
Please listen to our stories.
Please understand and communicate on our behalf that these are not abstract “budget measures”. These are real people, real families, real children.
If there is fraud, absolutely address it. But also address the administrative waste.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 125
Address the issues within the big providers. Address the millions spent fighting disabled people for supports they clearly need. Address the endless hoops, reports, reassessments and bureaucratic processes that exhaust families already at breaking point.
Please get them to start there.
Not with our lives.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.