NDIA Accountability Project

Impact of NDIS funding cuts on organ donation coordination

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

Submission 162

SUBMISSION TO THE SENATE COMMUNITY AFFAIRS LEGISLATION COMMITTEE

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

Submitted by: DonateLife Victoria Date: 27 May 2026

About DonateLife Victoria and This Submission DonateLife Victoria coordinates organ and tissue donation for transplantation across Victoria. Our Donation Specialist Nursing Coordinators are the clinical core of that work in roles requiring years of highly specialised training that cannot be filled by generalists and for which the national workforce pipeline is narrow. We submit this statement because the proposed 50% reduction in Social, Civic and Community Participation support budgets would directly force one of our most experienced coordinators out of the workforce, and because the full cost of that outcome is not reflected in the Bill’s fiscal analysis.

  • Nearly Twenty Years of Irreplaceable Expertise has been employed at DonateLife Victoria for nearly twenty years as a Donation Specialist Nursing Coordinator. She has developed exceptional clinical expertise, contributed to state and national programs to improve organ donation rates and transplant outcomes, led quality improvement programs, and played a significant role in training junior staff. She is one of our most experienced coordinators.

currently works in a home-based, overnight configuration, the only arrangement under which she can remain employed as a sole parent of two children with significant disabilities. This arrangement is entirely dependent on NDIS-funded support workers being in place to support her children and maintain safety in the home. Without that support, she cannot work. This is not a preference. It is a structural dependency.

The Direct Impact of the Proposed Cut children receive far lower than the clinical recommendation for support worker assistance. A 50% reduction in community participation funding would result in her having no choice but to leave the workforce. We submit this not as a prediction but as a certainty, based on our direct knowledge of her situation. Prior to receiving NDIS support worker funding, the family was experiencing family violence as a direct consequence of being without adequate support for their disabilities. To improve safety in the home, took approximately five months of unplanned leave from work. We witnessed an extremely capable mother and professional reduced to physical, emotional, and financial collapse in circumstances that were entirely the result of inadequate support. When NDIS support worker funding was implemented, the change was material and immediate: safety in the home improved, capacity to function recovered, and she was able to return to the workforce. That recovery is now at risk. The loss of a coordinator with nearly twenty years of experience is not a vacancy to be filled. It is an irreplaceable loss of institutional knowledge, clinical expertise, and hospital relationships built over two decades. Training a new coordinator to an equivalent level takes many years, during which our capacity

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

Submission 162

to respond to donation opportunities across Victoria would be materially reduced. That reduction would ultimately be measured in transplants that do not occur.

NDIS Support as Workforce Infrastructure situation reflects a dynamic not adequately recognised in the proposed Bill: NDIS community participation supports function as workforce infrastructure for employers in critical sectors. The fiscal modelling for this Bill does not account for the cost of losing the skilled workers whose employment depends on those supports. The cost of departure from our organisation — in clinical capacity, in years of training investment, in service to patients is not captured in any NDIS budget calculation. is not the only worker in this position. Across Australia, skilled professionals in critical roles depend on NDIS support being available for family members in their care. When that support is cut, the costs are distributed across the health system, the welfare system, and the broader economy. The Bill’s financial sustainability framing does not count those costs.

Recommendations DonateLife Victoria respectfully urges the Committee to:

  • Reject the proposed 50% cut to Social, Civic and Community Participation supports, or defer implementation pending a review that accounts for workforce participation impacts on critical healthcare sectors.
  • Commission independent modelling of the full fiscal impact of proposed changes, including the cost to employers and critical services of losing workers whose employment depends on NDIS support.
  • Recognise that NDIS community participation supports our workforce infrastructure, and ensure any changes to them are assessed against their full cost — not only their saving to the NDIS.

DonateLife Victoria depends on expert, experienced nursing coordinators. The proposed Bill, as drafted, would cost us one of the best. We urge the Committee to recommend significant amendments before it proceeds further.

27 May 2026