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

Submission 1840

Dear members of the Senate Enquiry, Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed ‘Future Generations’ NDIS legislation currently before Parliament. I am the mother and Nominee of two participants and also work in the disability sector. I believe wholeheartedly that the NDIS needs urgent improvement to guarantee it is sustainable for future users. I also recognise the need for enhanced regulation and oversight within the Scheme. I do not believe that this is best achieved by cutting supports to participants. Cutting funding from individual plans simply shifts the costs into other systems. The NDIS should be made sustainable by addressing waste, fraud, poor planning decisions and administrative inefficiency. The very tight timelines of this process are inadequate for the significance of the impacts. I think the Bill needs to be suspended until such time that thorough consultation is conducted with the disability community. We stand ready to help the government find safe and effective measures to reduce expenditure. This is in keeping with your own principles: (8) People with disability have the same right as other members of Australian society to be able to determine their own best interests, including the right to exercise choice and control, and to engage as equal partners in decisions that will affect their lives.(9A) People with disability are central to the National Disability Insurance Scheme and should be included in a co-design capacity.Government budgets are designed round priorities. Keeping vulnerable people safe should be your priority. The planned changes do not keep people safe. Please slow this process down and take due care –thisisliterallyimpactinglivesandlivelihoods.IssuesofConcernBlunt forcechangesunsafe.Anestimated240 000peoplewillberemovedfromtheSchemewithinthecomingsyears.MrButlerhasadvisedthatCommunityParticipationfundingwilbecutby50%andalterapyb10%.TheMinisterwilleabletomakedecisionswithoutthemgoingthroughtheparliament.Noneoftwastakentotheaduanspeopletheat2025Federalelection.Thereisonommandate.Infact,theLabourgovernmentpromisedtosavetheNDISandhavebrokenthatpromise.Thisiscostshifting,nottcostcutting.ReducingsupportfundindoesnotsavethesFederabudgetmoney.Itshiftsthecostsinohospitals,eergencydepartment’s,housingcrisisservicesandanentalhealthsystemsItshiftsthelburdonontothepaidlabouroffamilies,usuallywomen.Formyfamily,thismeanIwillneedquitjobtocareformydaughtersThisBillignoresindependent advice.The independent review in produced a road map of recommendationsandspecificactionswithoneexplicitinstruction:implement them as awhole.Foundational supports were prescribed as anon-negotiable precondition before any changes to participant eligibility or plan funding. That roadmap has been abandoned without explanation This Bill will eject people from the Scheme with nowhere else to go for support. ThENDISdelivers$ 2 . $25tototheAustralianeconomyforeverydollarspent.Manypeoplewithdisabilitiesworkinthedisabilitysector,socuts tonDISwilreduceboththeirsupports and their opportunitiesfowork.AutisticpeopleaccountforkhalfofallNDSparticipants.MrButler saysthey don’t belong on The productivity Commission who designed identified autistic peop

National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment Bill

Submission: Submission_2026_840

The scheme designed for exactly those population groups meant they were never intended. Autistic individuals possess potential learning abilities but face significantly higher rates than others, such as suicide at eight times greater risk or unemployment also at an increased rate due to societal challenges; thus even small funding can prevent welfare dependency from life-long reliance.

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

Submission 1840

(a) in conjunction with other laws, give effect to Australia’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities done at New York on 13 December 2006 ([[2008] ATS] [12*]);

General principles guiding actions under this Act

• People with disability have the same right as other members of Australian society to realise their potential for physical*, social*, emotional and intellectual development.

People with disability should be supported to participate in and contribute to social and economic life.*

People with disability and their families and carers should have certainty that people with disability will receive the care and support they need over their lifetime*

What does this mean for my family?

Under the proposed changes my daughters may lose access to the Scheme entirely*. After a lifetime of being too disabled for childcare;too disabled for mainstream kindergarten;toe disabledfor our local primary schooltotydisabledforyour secondaryschoolandtodeadisabled foyourlocal employmentat Maccas or Coles like othekidstheir agesuddenlythey are not disabled enough fo rthe NDIS. Without thiersupportsI am likely teneed to leave the workforce toe becomea full timecarer.My daugherstarelikelytoloseprogress they havemade towards independenceover 7 yearsofbeing Scheme participants.We arereallybecome reliant on welfare systems forthelost of ourelives Their Plans are both small but impactful.They receivesome capacity building therapies, anbothhavepotentialtodosomertiary studyaneventually findemployment.But we aren’t there yet.Investmentin them while they aryoungwillliterallymeanthedifferencebetweenthembe ingwelfare dependentforthelifethavinganeducationavocation,andtocontribute teconomy.

Questions for the Committee I wouldlike understand why in March 2026 thee government voted down asenate Inquiry into NDIS fraud.If fraud is such at terrible problem foreheNDIS and isteing used ast he justification fort these upcoming cutswhywould you vote against aInquiry tofind out what i actually happening? Canthesenate committee request egovernmentto table complete evidentiary basisfor the July 2024fraud claimsand reconcilethestatement that billions were beingrorted withthec confirmed fraud figure off345 million The foundational supportsthatthe disability review prescribedas nonnegotiable preconditions do notyet exist.Will then Senate query onebasis thegovernmentis proceedingwith eligibility changeswhentherecurrently nowhere elsefore peopletogoiftheyarenot eligible fo rthen DIS?

What doesTreasury project thathospitals mental health services housing anda family systems will spend absorbingwhat tneNDS drops Has that modelling been done, anf if so whyn has it noreleased Howist possible thatat sametimethat NDSP plans wll be slashed particularly forc hildrentha gvernment also announcing reduction ofdisability fundingtoschools?

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

Submission 1840

What gender impact assessment has been conducted on the workforce participation, superannuation, and lifetime economic impacts on women who are carers who will absorb the work these cuts displace? Why do we not have a Human Rights framework in Australia yet? When will the government introduce a Disability Rights Act that makes the rights of people with disability legally enforceable regardless of which minister holds power? Why should NDIS participants be at the mercy of a minister with new powers to make decisions without taking them via the parliament?

Request to the Senate Committee These are the biggest cuts to a social system in any single budget in Australia’s history.

Pleas slow down and give it due diligence Lives depend on you.I'masking theSenate committetorejectthisBilluntilfoundationalsupportsarefullyin placeandaccessibletoeveryonewhoisnoteligibleforthenNDIS

• I’m asking the Senate committee to require the government to table downstream cost modelling,andanticipatedimpactsfowomenwhofillthegaps
• I’m asking the Senate committee torequirean independent humanrightsassessmentbefore thisBilppassesandrecommendaDisabilityRightsActasan precondition forany further changes. -I’ma skingthesenatecommitteetextendprocessintroducingthis Billtallowforthoroughconsultationwiththedisabledcommunity whowillbedirectly impactedbychangesinthebill.