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

Submission 2323

31/05/2026

To Whom It May Concern,

When I got NDIS it meant I could get independent living skills so I could become more independent from my parents so that I wouldn’t be as exposed to domestic violence. Supports from the NDIS have enabled me to access psychological therapy which has helped me to understand that I was experiencing domestic violence in the first place.

It could take me years to learn how to operate a new system. Every time the NDIS changes or updates the system, I have to use my support funding because it takes me a long time to understand and learn the opportunities and constraints of each new system.

Since I was 7 years old I grew up in disability specific medical services, therapies and settings. It was really dehumanizing. “Support” was used as a form of torture and punishment for being myself. That coupled with being the main target in domestic violence, meaning my abusers can also use those same opportunities to further abuse me. And punch home the idea that if you are disabled you get punished, if you are not disabled you get freedom.

I am really sensitive to that type of support. If I can’t hire my own chosen support workers, terapists and services, and am forced to have support workers and therapists from disability specific services only, I just won’t use the services because trauma from my mind and body won’t allow me to. I will shut down and this will be very unsafe.

When I first got NDIS, I couldn’t actually use the funding because I had never had the opportunity to get support workers before. I was fighting really hard to be in mainstream adult communities but had no choice about my supports. My complex trauma I have experienced from a combination of domestic violence and disability specific services and therapies meant that was a big invisible barrier for me.

The way the NDIS is structured meant I could hire another disabled person who has experience like mine, who understands the lived experience of trying to navigate mainstream systems as a disabled person so that I could make better use of my funding. This helped me to upskill what it feels like to have a safe support worker and the role of safe support. From there I was able to hire appropriate support workers who were more based in my community to help with everyday independent living skills and administration.

It has also meant I have been able to hire community members as support workers who haven’t necessarily come from that medical disability setting and education which means I can train them to support my own individual needs in a disability culturally safe way.

My supports are highly individualised and relational. There is absolutely no way that I am going to step into a disability specific therapy or service without community support. I would have meltdowns, I would be constantly triggered and my brain will shut down.

I need my autonomy.

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

Submission 2323

My parents have used the NDIS systems to further abuse and manipulate me. This is why it’s so important I can choose my own supports from within the safety of my community.

I can’t access living independently from my parents without being able to hire my chosen support workers. I also won’t be able to access domestic violence services without my own, chosen NDIS funded support workers.