National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission to the SenateSubmission 1774 Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
I am writing to express my concerns regarding the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, particularly its potential impact on people with lifelong disabilities such as autism, and on children and families who rely on stable and appropriate supports to participate safely in their communities.
The NDIS exists because disability support is essential infrastructure for disabled people to live safely, participate in society, and maintain dignity and wellbeing. Any reforms to the Scheme must protect those principles.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1774
My first concern is that people with lifelong disabilities, including autistic people with ongoing support needs, may lose access to supports under increasingly restrictive interpretations of eligibility and “reasonable and necessary” supports. Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disability. Support needs may fluctuate, but they do not disappear. There is a serious risk that reforms focused primarily on cost reduction will result in people being denied supports that are essential to their safety, communication, regulation, education, and participation in daily life.
My second concern relates to assumptions within policy discussions that children can access community or school-based programs as alternatives to funded disability supports. Programs such
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1774 as “Thriving Kids” or other community initiatives are not accessible to all disabled children. Some children cannot safely leave their homes due to severe disability, behavioural distress, sensory overload, elopement risk, medical vulnerability, or the absence of adequate support staffing. Families should not be penalised because mainstream or community programs are inaccessible in practice. A child who cannot safely attend a program still has support needs, and those needs must continue to be funded appropriately through the NDIS.
I am also deeply concerned about how support needs are evaluated and demonstrated. Many participants appear “stable” precisely because they are receiving effective supports. If therapies, support workers, assistive technology, or
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1774 home supports are working well, this should be viewed as evidence that the supports are necessary and effective - not evidence that the person no longer requires assistance. Removing supports because a participant is coping well while supported risks causing avoidable deterioration, distress, family breakdown, crisis presentations, educational disengagement, and more expensive interventions later. The Scheme should recognise that successful support often prevents visible crisis.
In addition, I am concerned about reports of plans being reviewed unexpectedly, without adequate notice, transparency, or procedural fairness. Participants and families require certainty and trust in the Scheme. Sudden or opaque reassessments can create extreme stress
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1774 and instability, particularly for autistic people and others who rely heavily on routine and predictability. Participants should always be informed clearly about why a review is occurring, what evidence is being considered, and how decisions are being made. There must also be meaningful opportunities to respond before supports are reduced or removed.
The proposed changes to the NDIS risk shifting essential disability supports away from funded professional services and onto unpaid family labour, which disproportionately falls on women. Where formal supports are reduced, delayed, or deemed outside the scope of the Scheme, families are often left with no realistic alternative but to absorb the care burden themselves.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1774 This transfer of responsibility has significant social and economic consequences. Many parents, partners, and carers - most commonly mothers - are forced to reduce paid work hours, decline career progression, or leave the workforce entirely in order to provide complex daily support. These impacts compound existing gender inequities in income, superannuation, financial security, and long-term wellbeing.
The assumption that families can indefinitely provide high levels of unpaid care ignores the realities of carer burnout, financial strain, and the sustainability of informal support networks. It also undermines the core intent of the NDIS: enabling disabled people to participate fully in community life with appropriate, individualised supports.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1774
Any reforms to the NDIS must include rigorous gender and workforce impact assessment, and must not rely on invisible unpaid labour to fill gaps created by reduced formal supports. A sustainable disability support system requires adequate funded supports, not the silent redistribution of care responsibilities onto families already under pressure.
Finally, I am concerned about the use of artificial intelligence or automated systems in determining participant needs, budgets, or eligibility. Disability support decisions are complex and highly individual. They cannot be fairly reduced to algorithms, standardised assumptions, or data modelling. Al systems risk overlooking nuance, masking bias behind “objective” processes, and making harmful
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1774 decisions without accountability. Any use of Al in the NDIS must be transparent, strictly limited, independently audited, and never replace genuine human assessment by qualified professionals who understand disability and the participant’s individual circumstances. Lack of transparency and clear rules is especially difficult for the families of autistic children. Many autistic children have undiagnosed autistic parents for whom executive functioning is a real and lifelong struggle. Making the path to support for their children more opaque and less fair risks cutting off many neurodivergent families completely.
The long-term sustainability of the NDIS should not come at the expense of disabled people’s safety, dignity, or ability to participate in society. Reforms must strengthen trust in the Scheme rather than
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1774 undermine it. I urge the Senate to ensure that any amendments protect participants with lifelong disabilities, preserve effective supports, recognise barriers to community participation, guarantee procedural fairness in reviews, and prohibit harmful overreliance on automated decision- making systems.
The NDIS has so many success stories, especially those of thriving adults who could not access mainstream community supports as children. The proposed changes put future success stories at risk.
Thank you for considering this submission.