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

Submission 1530

Senate Community Affairs Committee Submission

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

Prepared by:

Location: , Victoria Status: Opposed to new NDIS Bill

My name is , I am a 40 year old mother of two children, both who are supported by the current NDIS. My daughter, who is 8 years old, has been supported from the age of 2 and just this year moved from Early Intervention to Permanent Disability on the NDIS. My son, who is 3 years old, is currently on the Early Intervention. Both children struggle with autism, ADHD and significant daily impacts from other co-occurring conditions.

I am unable to work due to also being the children’s full-time carer. The NDIS fills in some gaps of financial support that my family needs in order to access therapies, that help my children communicate, participate and otherwise thrive in environments and situations that they cannot without the support.

But my children do not receive the full support required (such as specific supports required for bowel issues and items covered that are needed to help my daughter with her chronic pain) and as is the case for many families such as ours, the children go without until we can find the money from my husband doing overtime, while already working a 40hour week to keep us afloat.

I am healthcare educated and have many years of experience in caring for others, so from being a mother to a carer has been a natural shift, but the toll it has taken on myself, my children and my marriage is anything but natural.

The impacts of full-time caring belong to all day and all night, not just what is seen on my children’s reports by practitioners and then the NDIS assessors. The intense pressure is mental, physical and most of all, financial. I already have had to put off crucial surgeries and professional care for my own health conditions due to lack of support and care for my children as well as the financial costs required.

Therefore, you could imagine my fears and growing sense of insecurity when reading the scheduled changes to the Bill. In particular with my family, the changes to assessment criteria regarding children with invisible, fluctuating, or psychosocial disabilities, including autistic children like mine, with complex behavioural and sensory support needs that do not fit neatly into simplistic functional assessments. It could mean my children are left without the required supports or worst still, removed from the scheme altogether. I do not believe this is in the best interest of my children’s well-being.

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

Submission 1530

This is also the concern when considering the Bill will grant unprecedented discretionary powers to the Minister through legislative rules rather than primary legislation. What this means is we may lose some or all of our support without there being anything to takes its place. There is currently zero community welfare or support options for my children or myself. All have either exceeded their funding by April, have very long waitlists or cannot offer support in our region, meaning we have no-one to go to for supports if the NDIS assessors or the minister decides my children’s supports are no longer “sustainable” to the scheme’s future.

How will I then secure a thriving future for my children and myself?

The discussions that the Bill will also move to shift more responsibilities back to families and carers, mean that my unpaid labour will only increase and the pressures on our family will impact us more negatively.

I am already so exhausted that I do not have the energy to go into every point case that will affect us, these are just the main points I would like to make right now. I believe if more time was given for a response to the inquiry and even actual discussion taken with disability sections and families about the Bill, that my response would be much longer and more concise.

In summary, I cannot support this Bill, it should not be passed through Parliament, and I believe it will cause harm to participants and their families.

Sincerely,