Submission 1538

Submission – National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for future generations) Bill 2026

I work as an Occupational Therapist in the Baw Baw and Latrobe Valley areas.

I work with children and their families as well as the natural environments that they work and play in.

I am deeply concerned about the NDIS Bill 2026 (Securing the NDIS for future Generations).

My concerns are outlined as follows –

1 – tightening eligibility criteria and redefining permanence and functional capacity

I am concerned that removing disabled people from the NDIS without any supports outside of the NDIS will cause harm to the people and their carers.

Without the supports that these people have in place, they will lose function, lose access to their community and risk not being able to complete daily tasks that others take for granted.

Without the supports, there will be more reliance on family, and this may mean lost income for family members, which typically falls on women.

The discussion around exhausting all interventions before being eligible for NDIS does not take into account people’s individual circumstances. This is particularly pertinent to those who can’t afford expensive treatments or don’t have the capacity to sustain treatment programs. This amendment will significantly affect people with low income and a psychosocial disability.

2 – expanding Ministerial powers with limited oversight –

I am concerned that this change will lead to people having cuts to funding, without any opportunity for consultation with the people with the skills and knowledge needed.

I am also concerned for the workforce that provides care to disabled people, that maximum charges/fees will be set at an unreasonable rate, which will make it unsustainable for the many organisations and businesses that provide the necessary care and supports to the disabled community.

3 – needs assessments

I am concerned that people will not get a thorough and true assessment that reflects their real needs. The bill plans to use a standardised assessment and will be implemented by staff that are not allied health trained. I complete functional capacity assessments within my work, and this task takes expertise as well as time. I have used my existing skills as an Occupational Therapist, and have also sought further

Submission 1538

professional development to grow these skills to be able to provide the FCAs that NDIS now require.

Having functional assessments completed by non-health professionals is disrespectful to Occupational Therapists who have trained for 4 years at university, plus had years of experience. I feel like it is similar to me being given 6 weeks training and then told to rewire a house. I certainly wouldn’t feel skilled enough to do this, and feel that people being trained to do these assessments won’t be skilled enough either. This process puts people’s lives at risk, and may lead to people not getting adequate support to enable them to live an ordinary life.

4 - cuts to funding (social, civic and community participation supports and capacity building).

Both these supports are essential for daily living and living an ordinary life. These cuts reduce people’s ability to access their community, engage with friends and family and complete everyday tasks like going to the doctor, going to the shops or community places like their local library. This undermines the rights-based, person-centred foundations of the NDIS.

Within my work as an OT with young children, I support children to be able to participate in their natural environments like school, kinder, childcare and other sporting or group activities. I work with their parents to be able to understand their children and why they behave in certain ways. And once there is understanding, we can then work together to establish strategies to support the child to build skills or to change their environment so they can be supported or allowed to engage in the best way that they can. This work is valuable and leads to lifelong change. It can mean being able to access the education system and participate, which leads to more opportunities when they grow into adults. It can mean they can access their local social networks and make friends. It can mean they can participate in meaningful activities for them and support their quality of life. It can mean families are equipped to advocate for their child and what they need throughout their childhood.

These cuts to capacity building will reduce people’s ability to make gains, and lead to them being more reliant on supports in the future. This appears to be a short-sighted way to cut costs, as the costs will be more when children become adults, as they will be more reliant on social and welfare supports.

Cuts to funding also mean that carers, which are usually women, will have less opportunities to work as they need to care for their disabled family member. This can affect the financial situation of a family significantly and the mental health of all the members of the family.

Submission 1538

A society is judged by how we care and provide for our vulnerable people. Disabled people’s lives should be valued and we, as a society should provide and support people to be engaged as they would like, to live an ordinary life, which was the premise of NDIS when it first began.

Catherine Durant