National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 236
Hello Senate, I’m writing to you as an NDIS participant with a rare degenerative physical disability about my concerns with the new NDIS bill. There’s several concerns I have with this bill that have the ability to put my life in jeopardy and thus my kids access to a parent and not foster care.
Concerns about reductions to social and community participation - Part 4 - Support determinations Flat rate cuts to plans with no review, the first planned one is for “social and community participation”, but did you know that “core” funding is flexible and most people don’t have enough hours to cover their personal care? “Social and community” is heavily under utilized as it is because many many people are using these funds to pay for basic survival. Have a look at the percentage of plans that are using core primarily for daily living activities. You think you’re cutting “coffee and cake” but you’re not, you’re cutting showers. You’re cutting meals. You’re cutting assistance with transfers. And those who are using their social and community to go out, you’re cutting their ability to get to the doctor, to therapy, to visit their friends and family members, to buy new clothes, and to do the hobbies they love. Imagine you needed help to go sit in the park and watch your kids play, now someone who is never going to talk to you, doesn’t even know your name tells you that you can’t do this anymore. You can’t leave the house like you use to, and you need to ration those hours for emergencies, for appointments, for essentials. Is that the life we want for disabled people?
Capping certain supports, this goes directly against the goals of the NDIA and is going to cause significant regressions and deterioration with people. Currently therapy hours are determined by using a person centered “reasonable and necessary” and Value for Money legal framework. They are not given “willy nilly” or because someone wants them. If a person needs twice weekly physio or EP to maintain their ability to independently transfer, thats what they get. Under the new proposal the minister can change this for everyone at the drop of a hat with no renewal. So what does this mean for me? I might lose my ability to independently transfer, if I lose that I go from 6 hours a day support to 24 hours a day support because I can no longer get myself to the toilet. This change is dangerous and is going to cost a LOT of money in the future. Concerns about reassessments and eligibility changes - Part 8 - Tightening meaning of permanence to reduce access where an impairment can be treated and Part 1 - Defining functional capacity There’s more I could go on about but I have to say my biggest worry is re-assessments and where will those 300,000 people go? I understand some will be children onto thriving kids, but you wouldn’t be changing eligibility and doing mass re-assessments if they weren’t planning on exiting a sizable number of participants.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 236
The NDIS has grown to this size because it’s a lifeboat in the ocean, because it’s the only option between drowning and thriving. To throw disabled people overboard with nothing to catch them is a serious risk of deterioration, institutionalisation, preventable medical complications, and loss of independence for many disabled Australians. I beg of you, suspend this bill, co-design it, build and test the foundation supports/tier 2 supports before you start throwing people overboard. Don’t rush this process, it’s not a gas tax, it’s peoples lives, hundreds of thousands of Australian citizens, their families, their friends, their communities. I understand the NDIS needs reform, but slow it down, block this bill, go back to the drawing board and co-design the scheme, build the foundation supports, see how the new ICAN planning framework turns out, then decide what can be done that is humane and reasonable. Disabled people are people, please don’t leave us to die and our families to mourn us.
Thank you for your time.