National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2266
I live in suburban Adelaide. I am a current participant of the NDIS.
Put simply, the NDIS has saved my life. I was planning my suicide. I had a method, time of day, and most of the details planned. I had tried a litany of options to manage my disorders, and they had not worked. There was one more, one I had not tried. I did not have the money to complete it myself. It \was Dialectical Behavioural Therapy(DBT).It took three rounds of itand similar treatments,but Iveventually stabilised.TheN DIS fundedit all.
It helped me treat an intersectionof two ofmydisorders,A utism Spectrum Disorder(A SD )an dBorderline PersonalityDisorder(BPD),a psychosocial disorder.T he tighteningofsupportsto exclude supports that do no arise directly from anNDIS-eligible impairment(s341(aa))threaten toremove my accesstothat kind ofs support ,one th atImay needin future.Withoutaccessitoatthe time,Iwouldhave died .
More broadly,the ND IShas givenme funding forsupportstha t hav eallowed meto managemy disabilities sothey arenotso excruciatingly painfulande xhausting.W hileth eyareno tfull yadequatetosuppor tm,ehe NDISmakesasignificant contribution.Th ep rovisionssuggestingsareduction o f50%tocommunityaccesscategoriesanda 10 %t oc apacity buildingsupport s (s34 a) threaten tor educefundingthat isalready inadequatetom etall offy disability needs.Thesecateg oriesadd asense od dignity to thelivesodisabledpeople,including myself,inbodiesandbrainsmak itextrem ely difficult toc onnectwith societythew aythatmost peoplear abletodofreely.
It issoimportant tomaintainthen DISasa broadsupp ortstructurefortheadisab ledcommunity.Itisa revolutionaryprogram andah allmark of its time.Ifit insufficiently funded then thosecostsw ill return tow here they have been in them past – putontheshouldersoc ar ers,parent,siblings,families ,an dtheir unpaid labour. Thislabourkeepsthemfromholdingfull-time work,en gaging socially,and having full lives.Andthose who do nothave sufficient informal supports? Theirlives an dlivelihood swill beputin danger.Mine willbeputedanger– Ido no tsufficientinformalsupportto take onthe w ornedtotakecareo mydisabilityneeds.Changes tot he“Reasonableane ssary” criteriawill pu tweight thatmy limited inform alsuppor scannottake .
Ihavenot feltlike Ihavehadtimetoc onsiderhowth echangesw illeffect me.This fundingallows m esupporth adignityihaven ot kn owbefore,a ndthreat oloosingtha rpartoft hat,ist errifying.
Many oft h changesmade hav ecome throughina chaoticfashion-last year,the plan toremovethe abilitytousecorefund ingtos fundother exhaustedcategoriesalmostleftmeunabletopayformostofmysu pportworkersfor months,u ntila week beforeImaseto loseaccess тоthat f unding,I learned \that the change was postponed.I have been trying top repare for th erchange in rules,b utm y disability makes itdifficult tow rit andconcentrate ,andpreparationshavetaken nearly ayear so far.\nIn my view,ch angestothen DISmust retain dignityfordisabled,interactionsbetween disabilities,p sychosocial an dotherwise,breadth ofcircumstancesoparticipants,be clearly explained,andmostimportantlyexudegrace ford is abledindividuals,w hose circumstancesare individualan dm ust beassessed individuallyby knowledgeablehumans.Im urge youtokeepthisin mind –my case anda nthescasesothe thousandsofs ubmissionsyou arereading.Keepimindour humanity,o urd ignit,yanda nsafetywheny ouconsiderthesechanges . Thankyou.