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

Submission 1562

28 May 2026

To: Committee Secretary, Community Affairs Legislation Committee Re: Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026

deeply concerned about this legislation.

Dear Committee Secretary,

I write in response to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment Bill.

I am a disabled woman and psychiatric survivor. I still have nightmares that I call the ‘Big Building’ dreams. They are the haunting of time I spent inside rooms I could not leave without permission, each room encased in another, and surrounded by labyrinthine hallways.

The Bill reads like a Big Building dream. Institutionalisation is something this community knows when we see it, because it is in our history, it is in our memories, it is in our frightened dreams and our hands quake with the weight of it. We lay awake at night because of it.

I urge the Government to withdraw this Bill.

I wish to evoke the words of the former Minister for the NDIS, Mr Bill Shorten. Speaking to the Sydney Institute in 2009, Mr Shorten said:

“Let me begin by asking you a question: What is a person worth? What is your value? What is mine? Are we all of equal value? Or are some of us less equal than others? Am I less equal if I cannot live where I want? Or go where I want? Am I less equal if I am segregated? Am I less equal if I can’t get a job interview? Am I less equal if I can’t complete my education? Am I less equal if I can’t enter a building or get on a plane or train? What if I can’t even cast a private ballot in a State or Federal election? If you are one of the One-and-a-half million Australians with a disability – or the 600,000 friends and family members who are their unpaid carers – you know the answer all too well. The answer is: Yes, I am less equal Yes, I am not valued according to my potential, but according to my limitations. Yes, my voice is not heard sufficiently in political discourse Yes, I am a second-class citizen. Yes, I am less equal.”

The Minister who spoke these words is the very same who first introduced these dangerous reforms to Parliament.

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

Submission 1562

I put to the Government that the inequality embedded in this legislation is both within their awareness and against their own party values. I put to the Government that this Bill represents, therefore, a conscious decision to force disabled people into subordination through discriminatory legislation.

I put to the Government that this is a crucial moment in Australian social and health policy. There is a decision to be made and it will define a generation.

That is, whether to revise these reforms so that all can be free and equal, or to push on and abandon any veneer of equality.

The voices of disabled people, particularly those who access and seek to access the NDIS, must be included in political discourse.

The submissions from the disabled community and DPROs will provide expert guidance on tangible restructure. My intent in writing is simply to remind the Government that the inequality of this legislation is not lost on the disabled community. The Minister for the NDIS told us that conditions such as those contained in this legislation would make us “second-class citizens”.

The health of a policy can be measured in the joy that it allows.

I urge the Government to withdraw the Bill as it is too great a risk for too many people. Beyond matters of risk, it allows far too little joy - if any at all.

This is a dark time in human history. I put to the Government that there is no need to make it any darker; no brightness that ought to be dimmed.

Let me finish by echoing Minister Shorten:

What is a person worth? What is your value? What is mine? Are we all of equal value? Or are some of us less equal than others?

The Bill, in its current form, makes one thing very clear: disabled people will be less equal than others.

In its current form, the Bill is a threat to the autonomy, dignity and rights of disabled people. It must be withdrawn and any future amendment must be genuinely led by, and accountable to, diverse disabled voices.

Sincere regards,

Grace White Disability Rights Activist & Psychiatric Survivor