National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1300
To those deciding the monetary value of our lives.
I am a 61-year-old widow, mother of three adult children, and grandmother of three young children. I am the youngest of eight children, born to a fifth-generation woman of Scottish/Irish descent, and a Jewish man who escaped Hitlers Germany during WWII, arriving in Australia via England aboard the Dunera. My family and I are survivors.
But my middle child and I will not survive the changes under the proposed NDIS Bill.
We are highly invested in seeing an NDIS that is fair, equitable, and sustainable. However, I do not support this Bill.
The NDIS has meant amazing things to us by supporting my adult son with level V C.P. to live with me at home. He also has an intellectual disability and is non-verbal, making his care needs complex and difficult to learn. For him, the NDIS has meant building his capacity in ways his father and I did not have the time or energy to manage. This understanding of his communication continues to grow with the addition of a behavioural specialist, a speech therapist, and a dietician all working together to collect, disseminate, and analyze data.
Some of the ways this new Bill would mean we cannot survive are explained below. I do not have the capacity to answer each point within the time given as I need time to process information beyond what is usually expected, due to my own disability.
- The 50% cut to social and community access. It is just bizarre to cut this. It is a safety issue, and it is in direct opposition to the purpose of the scheme, which was to provide reasonable and necessary support so that people with disabilities can live an ordinary life. Many things that people do need to happen outside of the home. And plans need to remain individualized as disability varies too much for blanket rules such as this.
- Changes to registration requirements. We tried a large provider but the rotating staffing model they need to use to maximise their profits does not suit my son as he needs a relationship of trust before someone touches him all over his naked body. Large providers cannot or will not allow these relationships and have actively discouraged them. This has led to him refusing care in the only ways he can. It almost killed him. Now he has a bespoke provider; a small business that was born just for him. He is safer and better supported than ever before. This is top shelf support in action. This would not be possible under this Bill as small providers would be unable to compete. Costs and time requirements would mean they can no longer operate.
- Ministerial powers. This Bill gives extraordinary new powers to the Minister, who will be able to make changes across the board from plans with no appeal rights. This destroys the premise of individualized plans and can disproportionately affect some participants more than others. It also means that people with disabilities have far less confidence in their own future than others in the community and have no sense of permanence and no point in having any life goals. I strongly object to these extended powers.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1300
- Changing access for new participants and reassessments of current participants. There are so many hurdles just to live when you or someone you care for has a disability. This Bill builds these hurdles so high we wont even be able to peek over, let alone plot a climbing course. If access rules must be tightened, we will need financial pathways in place prior to changes that allow us to try all treatments. I mean, people do not actually want to be disabled. If we could build our capacity and those options are not open to us, and neither is support, that stinks of discrimination. Talk about a rock and a hard place!
- Automated decisions with reduced appeal rights. If automated decisions are so great, there would be no need to remove appeal rights as we would rarely need them. Automated systems of measure cannot be applied to fund disability support. There are too many variables, and human intervention needs to be employed to keep people safe. As appeal rights are removed, waiting for any errors to be corrected can mean lives are lost.
- Tighter rules around unscheduled reviews. The way this stands in this Bill would mean that if I went to hospital for any number of reasons, my son would be left with no supports to fill in the proposed funding gaps. As he is dependent on supports for all daily activities, he would die. Life is never as we planned. We need unscheduled reviews and we need them to be accessible and fast Our support coordinators must absolutely be allowed to help us. Stopping our ability to be supported when life throws curve balls is either unimaginative, or barbaric.
I do not feel I have covered all my concerns here. There has been limited time to respond. This feels additionally cruel when directed at some of the most vulnerable people in the community. This should prompt more time, not less.
I urge the committee to stop this Bill in it’s current form and ensure true engagement and co-design is fully utilised before it is revisited.