Submission 1753
To Whom It May Concern
I am writing a submission with regards to the NDIS Futures Bill 2026, and want to raise some grave concerns I have about this. My name is_, and I am both a participant and a full time carer to three others who access the NDIS.
I support a call for a senate enquiry to this bill. At this point, I cannot support it. The nature of the Bill is very vague, and does not seem to take into account the far-reaching economical and human effects these cuts will have across Australia and our society.
I would appreciate questions around who is funding the supports outside of the NDIS? Have states agreed to find money in their tight budgets to implement wide spread community based care? Charities have been complaining that they are stretched since COVID and with the cost of living crisis affecting all Aussies; can they contribute?
Amongst all this, will the police force have additional training for mental health episodes? Will they be taught to differentiate an Autistic Meltdown? Will there be more funding to allow police to be the standing point for these situations?
My husbands plan was cut, he has both BPD and ASD2, his current NOIA Plan suggests that the police can deal with his Autistic Meltdown, that they do not need to fund an OT or other therapies - that this is not value for money. When I have had to call the police (which I did not have to do when he was well funded and thus well supported), they did not have any additional training to manage him. There often is NOT an ambulance available to assist them. TWO police have to attend, taking them away from the community. And amongst all this, they screen me for domestic violence. And I understand that they have to, but this is because they don’t have the training for the disability factors.
I have seen advocacy groups suggest that burned out parents will now become a high risk for DCP becoming involved and taking children. Where is the risk analyse for this and can it be released to the public? What is the government doing to mitigate this, and put in safe guards so families can stay together? I’m pretty sure all states are facing their own DCP issues, but here in South Australia there has been scandal after scandal; foster fathers impregnating teenage foster daughters (wide spread) being the latest. How can DCP take on high needs children when things like this are also being managed? How will they manage school refusal and the high volume of home schooled ASD kids when it’s a blanket rule to send them
Submission 1753
to school? It is beyond scary to think of the detrimental damage that will happen to these poor children and families because of lack of funding, support and importantly understanding.
Who is doing risk factor analysis around the rise of murder suicides from mothers to their disabled children because of funding and support cuts? Who is looking into risk factors for suicide, mental health and wellbeing decoration when 50% of social and community access funding will be cut across the board?
I know first hand that hospitals have disabled people in their beds, simply there so that they have adequate supervision. Is there going to be more funding for beds? What about the ambulance ramping issues? What happens when doctors have to choose between disabled people being sent home with huge safety risks or not having beds for the heart attack victim? Where are the risk analysis for this?
How are teachers being compensated for having to manage the gaps for the children that no longer have their supports in place? Are they having extra training as well? Does the government understand that poorly supported disabled children in the classroom means that they will struggle to engage in positive ways and thus disrupt all the children in the classroom? Does the government understand that disabled or not, they are creating an educational environment that is going to let down our next generation of children? Our next tax payers, our next doctors, our next leaders in the community …
How does the government feel they can mitigate the almost $90 billion that will be lose to the economy when they cut $37 billion from NDIS? We are well aware now, that for every $1 spent within the NDIS $2.25 - $2.50 is returned to the economy, and this stays within the country. When we are at constant budget deficit, and a trillion dollars at that, how can the government justify $90 billion from the economy?
With this, does the government understand that they will likely be paying out in other ways? For crisis management for families? That they will lose tax paying mums out of the workforce? That many disabled people are able to work because of background support, that will not be able to obtain this without the social and community funding? That there will be more pressure on welfare? The government collected $50 billion from inflation on HELP detbs in 2024, does the government understand that they are risking our young people choosing not to go to uni, and thus missing out on a huge income revenue? This also means what high income earners, and high tax payers may not exist. Defunding, and cuts of this huge capacity has the potential to affect so much.
The commissioned NDIS Review 2023, suggests that the NDIS is costing so much because of the lack of community based services, and while the government vaguely refers to redirecting participants towards these systems, nothing exists!!
Submission 1753
You think because we are vulnerable, burned out, disabled that we are stupid! The Review found that for every $1 billion of funding cut from the NDIS, modelling suggests a drop of around 10,200 jobs and a decline of $2.25 billion in economic activity. A 0.14 per cent reduction in GDP. NDIA is a big employment sector for Australians. Further, Deloitte modelling found that closing the employment gap between disabled and people without a disability by just a third could produce a cumulative $43 billion increase in GDP over a decade. The Review also said the spending would stabilise around 2032-2033, especially if their recommendations were followed to fix the outlined issues Why does the budget in the purposed Bill not focus more on the crime fraud? Again, we have vague references but no actual information on who is doing it and how it will be tackled. Further to this the budget and proposed Bill does not adequately focus on the cost of administrative error, long wait times and red tape, as well as some $3.3 million being allocated for AI programs that don’t even exist yet. How do we know there will not be a BOM blow out? And the participants wont be punished again? The Review suggested building supports in the community before removing participants or cutting plan funding, however this is already happening!!!I We know that the costs of this will be moving to different services, services that already struggling under financial pressure and demand load. Services that have high staff turn over due to burn out, where we are having to attract migrants to fill roles. Monash Univerity also completed a study that showed NDIS reduces Medicare expenditure by $10.6 million of out of pocket costs, $16.3 million annually and saves almost $27 million per person a year in mental health needs for the community. It currently saves $1.92 billion annually in state health systems, because disabled people have supports waiting for them, so they can be discharged.
I do not support Self-management – unless registration can be streamlined and not a financial burden we will lose the good workers. The Minister’s new power to cut funding without appeal (s 34A). The new functional capacity test and the 2028 onwards reassessment of everyone. The tougher unscheduled reassessment rules and the loss of review rights. The new “all appropriate treatments” test for permanence for scheme eligibility. Automated decisions and algorithms with no individual appeal.
Finally, I am an autistic woman. I have lived my life where something was wrong, I could see beyond the glass wall. But I could never see what was in my way, what was wrong. I could never move past it and engage in the world in a more mainstream way, i was always off centre.
I am in autistic burnout. I am highly educated, and could be a wonderful resource in my field because it is my special interest, but I am unable to connect the steps. to sustain the social contracts. The environment that does not suit me. to move past my childhood, that was ever so traumatic due to undiagnosed and
Submission 1753
unsupported Autism.
I am a mother raising two autistic boys. I am homeschooling them. I am working so very hard to make sure they get to live a life where the system feels good, that they get past the glass wall. That the social contracts don’t exhaust them. That the environments they live in help them thrive not cause burn out.
These cuts are going to adversely affect the head start they get to life. Their wellbeing and how they grow into functional adults. I want the very best for my children, and part of that means support in accessing specialised professionals who can build their skills and capacity. There is no way average families can afford these needs, not for one child yearly let alone multiple people.
If our taxes can pay fuel excise for mining companies, than surely they have a responsibility to help the vulnerable people in our community too; especially when not supporting them has adverse outcomes for all Australians.
I would appreciate that it is put on record that I do NOT support the NDIS Futures Biil 2026. I would appreciate that you voted –NO to this bill, and instead advocated for a senate enquiry, for transparent release of risk analysis on economy finances, wellbeing of carers and participants and how the community based supports will work and be funded. I want support from the government to work hard on amendments that better suit positive outcomes for both the disabled community and the wider Australian society.
Regards