National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 239
From: Sent: Thursday, 21 May 2026 9:37 AM To: Community Affairs, Committee (SEN) Subject: Re: Regional WA Concerns Regarding the NDIS Amendment Bill 2026
Dear Community Affairs,
My name is . I am a regional Western Australian living in the Wheatbelt, a mother of three children including a child with autism, and a person living with an acquired brain injury (ABI) and an inoperable brain tumour myself.
I am writing to express my serious concerns regarding the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, the proposed introduction of “Foundational Supports,” and the significant ripple effects these reforms will have on regional families like my own.
Historically, my NDIS plan has been appropriately funded due to the substantial and lifelong functional impacts of my disability.
The purpose of the NDIS is to provide people living with significant disability the reasonable and necessary supports required to maintain functioning, independence, participation, and equity within the community. With these supports in place, I am able to maintain functioning, access essential healthcare, parent my children, maintain employment, contribute to my community, and help keep our farming family functioning.
Without these supports, however, I face significant risks of functional decline, hospitalisation, loss of independence, and complete collapse in capacity.
I live with an inoperable brain tumour and ongoing functional impacts associated with my acquired brain injury. My condition requires regular specialist care through Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, involving a five-hour round trip from my home for appointments and treatment.
Living regionally already presents enormous barriers. In my town of Dowerin, we have no hospital, only volunteer ambulance drivers, and accessing therapy or specialist services commonly requires a minimum two-hour drive each way. It has taken a significant portion of three years of an NDIS plan simply to establish and secure reliable supports.
I am deeply concerned that the introduction of “Foundational Supports,” particularly around social and community participation supports, will create a devastating gap for regional participants. In reality, state-funded and community services often do not
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National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 239
exist beyond larger regional centres such as Northam. Towns like Dowerin are at real risk of being left with no meaningful supports at all.
With the introduction of this Bill and the associated reforms, there is genuine fear across the disability community that regional participants will lose critical supports without realistic alternatives being available. For many people in rural communities, these supports are not optional — they are the supports that prevent deterioration, isolation, crisis, hospitalisation, and complete functional collapse.
During a recent review of my own NDIS plan, I was informed by an NDIA planner that aspects of my funding were considered “lifestyle choices” and that my plan was viewed as “overfunded.” This was deeply distressing given the significant documented impacts of my disability and the reality that regional participants already face substantially increased risks due to isolation, lack of services, limited healthcare access, and workforce shortages.
These supports are not lifestyle choices. They are disability-related supports directly linked to maintaining safety, emotional regulation, community participation, healthcare access, functioning, and independence.
To keep our farm and regional family afloat, it is fundamental that I do not reach total collapse in functioning. The impacts of these reforms will not just affect individuals living with disability — they will ripple through entire regional families, farming communities, and future generations of children growing up in rural Australia where support is already limited.
For many regional families, support is already a distant dream. With the proposed reforms and increasing restrictions being introduced through Parliament and NDIS policy changes, there is genuine fear that what little support currently exists will continue to disappear.
I ask that you advocate strongly for regional Australians living with disability and ensure future reforms genuinely consider the realities of rural and remote living.
Thank you for taking the time to read my concerns.
Kind regards,
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