National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1375
I have been an NDIS participant for the last 7 years. I have Autism and complex chronic illness and I rely on the NDIS to have a good life. I am also the sibling of someone on the NDIS and I have close family and friends who rely on it. Our support needs range from moderate to very significant. We all have additional significant/complex chronic illnesses that compound the effects of our disabilities, and which are not currently considered in our plans or funding.
I oppose this bill, I think it is going to harm the most vulnerable people in our society and prevent us from being allowed to live happy, healthy and fulfilled lives. People with disabilities in Australia have been and will continue to be seriously impacted by the passing of this bill and the changes that have been made to the NDIS recently.
I oppose and have significant concerns with the following: Allowing the Minister to have expanded powers to cut funding, especially the threat of reducing social and community participation funding. I am particularly opposed and offended by this change. The NDIS categorises things like going shopping, seeing a doctor or getting outside of the house as ‘social and community participation’. In what world are these things a negotiable or reducible part of our lives? What are we supposed to do if we don’t have the funding required to get food, healthcare or basic social interaction? I do not trust or agree with allowing any politician or policymaker with no experience of our daily lives, and who has never met us, to make decisions about our funding that we cannot appeal. Introducing NDIS-controlled functional capacity assessments and reassessments of all participants. I am very worried these assessments will be done by people who do not know us or our disabilities and that they will not capture the nuances of our disabilities. Suspending plans when the NDIS have been unable to get in contact or we have been unable to provide information to the NDIS. This places undue and significant stress on us and our informal supports, and it doesn’t take into account the significant barriers a disabled person might have in communication or administration. There must be flexibility and an accessible, nuanced approach to this. Introducing the need for all treatments to be exhausted. I don’t know what treatments the NDIS would suggest to treat Autism, Down Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy, for example, and I am concerned with where people are supposed to get the funding for those treatments, just to get onto the NDIS, if they must exhaust them prior to gaining access to the scheme. Requiring provider registration, I think some changes to registration may be beneficial but not allowing people to hire or use the services of unregistered providers will limit us and it will reduce the safety of the system for many. Putting decisions that impact our daily lives into the hands of automated, non-human systems. I do not want these changes to allow a machine to make life changing decisions about me, that I cannot appeal easily due to the very nature of my disability. Removing our right to review and appeal decisions made about us and our lives, when these decisions could seriously injure us, cause significant distress or put undue pressure on us and our informal supports.
I am also in opposition to the many changes to the NDIS recently, including taking children with ‘mild’ autism or developmental delay off the system. There is nothing ‘mild’ about the daily impacts of having autism, intellectual or developmental disabilities significant enough to have gained access to the early intervention scheme under past eligibility. Removing them will just
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1375
create more cost in the education, health and justice system down the line and significantly impact the ability of parent carers to work and pay taxes.
I do not know and have not met someone recently who hasn’t had funding cut, sometimes by more than half. I know kids who might never graduate from school and could end up in the prison or mental health system because of reduced funding, I know people who are house bound due to reduced funding, I know people who require 3:1 care who only have enough funding for 1:1 and I know people who require round the clock care to breathe who have lost funding for overnight care.
If I had fully funded and comprehensive support, I would be able to move out of home, gain independence, volunteer, study or work in a place that supports me and allows me to pursue my passions and I would be able to build up my skills and supports for when my parents cannot help me anymore. I am very worried about how I will survive if someone at the NDIS decides without my input that I don’t deserve funding.
People who rely on the NDIS were already exhausted and tired of navigating this system before these changes. The weight on so-called ‘informal supports’ is heavy and it is women who bear the brunt of it.
I want the politicians, policy makers, lawyers and committees who are deciding the paths of our lives, who have had the great luck of being born without a disability and have not acquired one, who are making these decisions for us without our consent, to think about what it would be like if you required the time and energy of another person well into your adulthood to go to a doctors appointment, clean your room, make a phone call or have relationships with others. And I want you to then imagine the weight of knowing that someone you’ve never met, who has never lived your life, can make a single decision that you cannot fight that decides the quality and quantity of your life.
I want Australia to be a place where disabled people are allowed to live happy and dignified lives, and I want to be able to go to the shops, learn about things I enjoy and see the people I care about.
It’s a disgrace watching this system fall apart without a care for the real people it will impact for the rest of our lives.
Please care about our lives, please listen to our voices.
Thank you for considering my submission.