National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026

Submission 142 To the Committee,

I am writing in opposition to changes to the NDIS that reduce participant choice, restrict access to support, or force people into narrower and more institutional forms of care.

I live with chronic health conditions and physical disability myself, although I am not currently on disability support payments or the NDIS. I am fortunate to have forms of support and stability many people do not have access to, but I know very clearly how quickly autonomy can disappear when disability intersects with financial insecurity, caregiving responsibilities, isolation, ordependence on unsafe relationships. Too often, discussions about disability support are reduced to budgets and administration, whilethe lived realities underneath are ignored. For many people, support is the difference betweenremaining connected to community or becoming isolated.It is the difference betweensafety andvulnerability.Between agency and dependence. It is also a violence issue.Disabled people are often made more vulnerable tococercive control,familyviolence,institutional violence,povety,and housinginsecuritywhen they cannot accessthe supportthey need.Without adequatedisabilitysupportpeople lose practical means touse where theylive who assist themwho enter their home whotouchestheir bodyandwhether theycan leaveunsafe situations.This has consequences far beyond any one individual.When peopledeniedagency,intergenerational patternsof violencendependanceare harder interrupt.Families communitiesaffected.Children affected.Our whole societyaffectedis disabledpeoplerepushed back into forced dependenced instead being supported live dignitychoice selfdetermination.Iknow woman in my widercommunity uses power wheelchair.She beeninstitutionalis before now deeply worried proposed restrictions aroundunregistered support workers.Shecaredly built team of people she trusts peopletreat her kindness dignify.That trust matters.Disabled must have right choose supports through intimate vulnerables parts daily life.Choice care essential.Trustcannot simply be replaced registration category.also want speak what happens when disabilitysupports reduced withdrawn.In 1990s spent time institutional disabilitycare witnessed moved transitional longterm care.The shock still feel body remember placesis the violence institutionsway can become dehumanised managed calculatednumbers rather recognised full human beings. When government shows it does not respect enough to support properly sets precedent others may treatthem.It tells broader whose livesconsider worth care,whose autonomy limited and suffering treatedacceptable. This is form slowviolence also acknowledge how difficult processes like this for disabledpeople participate enormous administrative physical emotional financial burdens survive dayto day.Repeated explain justify publicly disclose painful traumatic aspectsone’s lifeto heardcan itselfbecome exhausting harmful People shouldnot lay worstparts theirlives prove deserve care.These barriers shape who able participat consultationprocesses experiences remain unheard.A society without participation input differently abled bodies loses much.We lose knowledge culture creativity caring perspective ways living make communities more humane.Whendisabled excluded forced into dependence we

National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026

Submission 142

do not become more efficient as a society. We become less just, less intelligent, and more willing\nto tolerate harm.

When governments reduce disability support, the consequences do not disappear. The burden is simply shifted onto disabled people, exhausted families, underpaid carers, emergency systems,hospitals, homelessness services, and community goodwill.The result is often deterioration,neglect, preventable suffering,and profound social isolation.

Inadequate disability support is not an abstract policy issue.It affects whether people can eat,wash, leave the house,maintain relationships,participate incommunitylife ,and remain safe .Itaffectswhetherpeopleareallowed dignityandself-determination.

I am deeply concernedthat currentchanges risk moving Australia backwards towardmore restrictive andaless humane system s.Efficiencyanda fraud prevention are important,butheycannot come atthe cost of autonomy,trust,a nd basic qualityof life.

Disabled peopleserv desupportsystemsthat recognisetheir humanitycomplexityandreight todirect their own lives.I urgeth eCommitteeto reject changes that reducet heparticipant choice,d estabilise trustedsupportrelationships,o r make disabilit ysupp ort harderto accessandasustain.Sincerely, Name withheld