Submission 2013
NDIS Future Generations Bill Submission 28/05/2026
My name is . I am an autistic mother to three autistic kids. We are all diagnosed with support needs level 2. I have never done a submission before, and I am worried that I won’t be using the correct terminology. Please accept my submission even if I don’t do it all correctly because I am doing it to the best of my ability.
I am against the proposed changes to the NDIS in their current form. Frankly I am scared what they will mean for our family.
Before access to the NDIS, I woke up every day and the very first thought that came into my mind (and all throughout the day) was ‘I can’t do this’. My mental health was trashed, my husband, who was my carer, experienced such severe burnout that he was unable to continue working. He was so unwell that he couldn’t even apply for help from Centrelink. For most of a year we had no income at all. I was trying everything I could to keep our family from falling apart but we were unravelling. The process of getting on to the NDIS was horrible. I applied for both of my girls at the same time but only heard back about one of them. When I enquired months later, there was no record of my other daughter’s NDIS application, even though I had an email confirming that it had been received! Eventually the 4 of us were able to access supports. Slowly but surely our family’s live are being turned around. I no longer wake up thinking ‘I can’t do this’, and while it’s still tough, I have developed enough capacity to be able to work 5 hrs a week, I haven’t been able to work since I had children. Since NDIS supports my son has been able to develop his strengths, my daughter’s mental health has gotten better, and better and my youngest daughter’s independence has slowly but surely grown. I believe that it is my family’s disabilities that the proposed changes consider to be ‘mild or moderate disability’ and that it will be my family that will be kicked off the NDIS. I am so scared that this will mean our family will go backwards again. I value so much being able to choose supports that are appropriate and beneficial to our family. If we are taken off the NDIS and put onto state run community supports we will no longer have the choice and control that our family needs and is one of the very tenants of the NDIS.
I agree that the NDIS needs to be made sustainable and I agree that all the reports that people need to provide to apply for access to the NDIS and all the reports that the NDIS fund to maintain access are a waste of money, especially when the planners themselves admit that they don’t read the reports most of the time anyway. However, I am against the proposed change that will use the ICAN tool to decide access. We have seen with the Robodebt scandal how terrible things can be if a computer can decide people’s fate. I have no doubt that technology can be used to smooth processes, but we need real people, with real compassion, that are more worried about disabled people and their family’s wellbeing, than about KPIs and NDIS spending reduction.
Submission 2013
I am against the proposed change that will mean the Minister will have the power to cut funding without appeal (s 34A). The old saying rings true ‘absolute power, corrupts absolutely’. While this is clearly not absolute power, it is definitely more power than any one person should ever have without there being any ability to appeal the decision. Maybe the current Minster would use this power with the best of intentions, maybe even the one after that. But we can’t know that future Minsters would use this power with good intention. The whole point of democracy is the acknowledgment that too much power is one person’s hands is dangerous. Please amend this bill so that there is a fair and just appeals process.
I am against the proposed change that says that any unused funds in a plan will be automatically cut in the next plan. Finding appropriate supports is a difficult thing to do. Many times, suitable providers are at capacity and not accepting new clients. My girls had a wonderful OT who was absolutely perfect for our family and our girls made great progress. That OT shut down her business because she could see that the NDIS was going to make it too hard for her to run her small business. It wouldn’t be appropriate for our family for just any OT to work with us, we are currently on the wait list for a suitable OT, and I am trying to find more. It would be devastating if the funds in their current plans out aside for OT were to be cut, simply because there was appropriate OT available. It would be even harder for those living regionally and remotely.
I am against the proposed change that would mean unscheduled reassessments could be made with no appeals process. We have seen that the majority of cases being brought to ART have won their case, despite the government spending massive amounts of money of barristers and lawyers. This is because very often the rights of people with disability have been overlooked and planners haven’t been following the NDIS’s own laws, rules and processes and they have been giving out incorrect information. People with disability are important, they matter and they are vulnerable. Systems set up for us need to be set up in a way that can have our voices heard, and have incorrect decisions overturned. Please amend this bill to include a fair and just appeals process.
Submission 2013