National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2298
Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2026 at 9:14 PM From: “Susanna Doyle” Susanna.Doyle@mail.com To: community.affirs.sen@aph.gov.au, policy@otaus.com.au, “Susanna” susanna.doyle@mail.com Subject: Submission: NDIS Future Generations Bill 2026
Submission: NDIS Future Generations Bill 2026.
Summary: I believe a society is judged by the way it treats those within it who are the least able to speak for themselves, who are most at risk. After reading the proposed NIDS Future Generations Bill 2026, I am ashamed of the Australian government for bringing a Bill such as this, forward for consideration, because I understand the very devastating impact it will have on so many of the people I care for every day. I am very concerned that releasing it at this time may hide the full impact of the planned changes from the Australian public, behind the very active responses to the recently released federal budget.
My understanding is that the Bill proposes significant changes to NDIS eligibility, funding levels, planning framework and governance structures. I wish to express my profound disappointment, fear and disgust at both the underlying assumptions as well as the proposed actions and powers presented in this Bill. For me, the proposed Bill, with the power it contains to facilitate the withdrawal of supports from everyday people in our society, forcing them to live a life of being isolated and forgotten, because they are not able to leave the home, is a shameful exhibition of just how at risk our humanity really is. This Bill I think, if it is enabled to be passed, will be an indictment on the Australian people, because it encourages the minimalizing of human beings to artificial constructs, such as an algorithm, to enable us to hide their suffering from general society.
I would like to list my specific concerns regarding the majority of the proposed changes, however I am limited by the very brief timeframe provided for comment. So I wish to make the following comments, which is all I could get done in the timeframe:
Funding cuts to participants’ budgets, from 1 October 2026, including: a 10 per cent reduction to capacity building daily activity supports – the capacity building area is one of the most important and builds on the participants daily skill areas, including things like being able to take care of themselves, dress and shower, eat and drink, walk around or mobilise, sleep, communicate and engage with others, brush their teeth, and keep their living space habitable. Reducing this core area has the potential to place the majority of my clients at greater risk of reduction in skills, illness, injury, withdrawal from engaging in daily life or with others. It places them at risk of becoming even more disabled and of their health deteriorating, which over the longer term, will most definitely place an even greater burden on the government. Funding cuts to include also a 50 per cent reduction to social, civic and community participation supports: These supports help people build basic
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2298
daily skills, maintain healthy daily and weekly routines, stay connected to the people they care about and their local community. So many of my clients have such difficulty being able to leave their home independently, and some have difficulty leaving their bedroom. I have watched a number of my clients emotionally and physically ‘shut down’ and be unable to speak, or interact, when they are placed in a situation they are asked to engage with others. I’ve watched a mother sobbing while sitting with her son because she did not know how to provide support to him, while he sat completely immobile beside her. If we withdraw the minimal support they currently have, reduce it even further, or cut them off (and there will be thousands who will be cut off) from the NDIS, I am very concerned that these people (and their families) will remain at home, unable to access necessary support, and will live untenable lives, forgotten in their homes. This Bill I think, if it is enabled to be passed, will be an indictment on the Australian poeple, because it encourages the minimalising of human beings to an algorithm, or a set of critera. These people are not numbers or characters within an automated system, but warm and creative living people, and are dearly loved by their families and those who care for them.
I cannot fathom how we can consider passing laws seeking to reduce racism, and antisemitism in Australia on one hand, and yet within a few months, this NDIS Bill which seeks to reduce the necessary supports that people with disabilities rely on every day; just to eat, move or live, is being put forward as a viable option for our society to consider, let alone, accept. But we haven’t really been given time to consider it have we? It is yet another bill being rushed through before anyone can really consider the true meaning and impact of what has been written and proposed. We as a nation are horrified by terrorism, and yet this is a proposal to withdraw support to people who are extremely vulnerable, force them to stay in their homes and away from where their needs are visible to society, and essentially, make their lives miserable, by withdrawing their capacity to engage in the basic activities those of us who do not have a disability enjoy every day. For me, the propsed Bill, with the power it contains to facilitate the withdrawal of supports from everyday people in our society. to live a life of being isolated and forgotten, because they are not able to leave thier home, is a shameful exhibitiion of just how at risk our humanity really is.
I believe we as a society are responsible for caring for those around us who may not have the same abilities or who may need more support to do a basic task, like taking a shower or using a toilet. If we are not able to care for those in our society who need this support, then are we not potentially moving toward the dangerous ideology that reduces people to the elements they exhibit that may be useful to society. We are at risk of perceiving those who are ‘non-disabled’, who don’t need support, who are able to complete daily tasks independently and don’t need assistive technology or help from others, as being the only people that deserve to access meaningful lives. Once we begin that that pathway, where will it end? Which group in our community will be targeted next? The life of ordinary Australians matter. They have value.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2298
I understand there is a need for a budget, but the budget appears to have now presented and underpinned this paramount ideology, where an algorithm or set of criteria determines those who are able to live freely and meaningfully, and those that do not. This type of ideology is barren and creates an even more barren future where additional lives can be further impacted, while the group of people who are no longer considered suitable for assistance to stay alive, continues to increase and expand. So the potential for an ever-increasing element of people in our society, who do not have the support they need and can no longer seek that support, continues to expand, leading to a greater number of very the poor and very disadvantaged residing in the same place and time. But somehow we are to believe that this will improve our society?
- On the issue of Functional capacity and assessment design: The Bill paves the way for permitting decisions about the supports a person receives or is entitled to, to be shaped by rules, artificial constructs and frameworks, being put to use by untrained people, rather than high‑quality assessments conducted by appropriately qualified professionals.
The other idea proposed in this Bill, is that one person, a Minister, totally detached from the industry and from the lives of people with disabilities, he/she is responsible for, who is advised by people who have no lived experience of disability, and in total isolation from the full impacts of decisions being made, can make such important and far-reaching decisions, is frightening and abhorrent. I am very concerned about the current perception that decision makers and government leaders are constructing, and potentially building into a licence to take actions against the most vulnerable people in our society. I perceive in this writing (the Bill), there is a proposed idea that people with disabilities, who are not able to do the same things as other members of society, are little more than a burden on the budget, the Australian government, and on society in general. The majority of the decisions I have seen coming from the NDIA decision makers in relation to the plans of many of the people I support, have demonstrated a misconception about the importance of being able to eat or sleep, of being able to live a life that is meaningful and offers a degree of hope. These decisions have been experienced by participant’s as depersonalised, misinformed, and there has been limited basic humanity and compassion communicated to that participant. I am very concerned about this Bill providing even more justification for this type of destructive impact on the lives of any member of our society. The proposals in this Bill has the potential to make the NDIA machinery even less transparent, less accountable, and less compassionate, while simultaneously increasing the risk of over-burdening the service providers, the majority of whom are not committing fraud (and I constantly feel I need to say this), to continue to support our most vulnerable members of society in the best way they can.
The use of automated, AI-based dehumanised and inaccurate systems to undertake any role in the system that provides for the basic necessities of our extremely vulnerable, appears to be so far removed from the type of compassionate human approach as to make the NDIS a travesty of what it was originally intended to be. These approaches remove the necessary humanity and compassion of fellow human beings from a system that is supposed to be aimed at caring for those who are relying
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2298
on us for their very survival. Instead of taking advantage of the existing professional accountability mechanisms and systems, and building transparency into the way the NDIA itself operates, parts of this Bill contains proposals that continues to permit untrained and inexperienced people to impact on the everyday realities of people they have no ability to understand. This Bill proposes to potentially remove the substantial clinical skills and knowledge, built from years of training and experience in the field, from the system and process of supporting our most vulnerable, altogether. I am concerned that we may be at risk of simply legitimising a different type of social fraud.
I believe a society is judged by the way it treats those within it who are the least able to speak for themselves, who are most at risk. I am ashamed of the Australian Government for bringing a Bill such as this, forward for consideration by anyone, let alone attempting to push it through alongside the signficant tax changes curently also being discussed across Australia following the release of the federal budget. I am ashamed to be an Australian after reading the proposed Bill, because I understand the very devastaing impact it will have on so many that I care for, every day.