National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 241
Second Echo Ensemble 228 Liverpool Street nipaluna/Hobart lutruwita/ Tasmania 7000
Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submitted by: Second Echo Ensemble (SEE) Lutruwita/Tasmania
Contact: Kelly Drummond Cawthon Creative Director
Second Echo Ensemble 228 Liverpool Street, Nipaluna/ Hobart Lutruwita/ Tasmania 7000
Phone: 03 6108 1384 Email: Website: www.secondechoensemble.org
Date: May 2026
hello@secondechoensemble.org https://www.facebook.com/secondechoensemble @secondechoensemble 1
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 241
Second Echo Ensemble SUMMARY
Second Echo Ensemble (SEE) is a Lutruwita/Tasmania based artist-led multi-arts organisation shaped through disability practice, lived experience and long-term community connection.
For over two decades, SEE has developed access-led creative methodologies supporting artists with disability to participate in professional artistic development, community life, leadership and public cultural contribution.
Please find attached SEE’s submission regarding the potential impacts of the proposed NDIS reforms on regional participation, communication-rich support environments, long-term community inclusion and disability-led participation within public and cultural life.
We are particularly concerned by proposed reforms that increase discretionary powers around reassessment, funding categories and support definitions without providing equivalent certainty or safeguards for participants.
Our submission highlights a number of areas we believe require careful consideration by the Committee:
• Social, civic and community participation supports must not be treated as recreation or optional extras.
• Support reductions must not be applied as blunt measures without consideration of participant goals, functional need, geography, support ratios and long-term participation pathways.
• Regional communities such as Tasmania often do not have alternative foundational supports capable of replacing individualised NDIS supports.
• Any shift toward community-based alternatives must include strong quality standards, safeguards, accountability, workforce capability and genuine co-design with people with disability.
• Disability-led arts and cultural participation should be recognised as legitimate community participation, capacity building, workforce development, leadership development and pathways toward social and economic participation.
• Reforms must protect choice, control, self-determination and meaningful participation, and avoid recreating conditions that increase isolation, family burden or segregation.
We welcome reform that strengthens safeguarding, quality and long-term sustainability within the NDIS. However, we urge the Committee to consider the broader relational, social and community impacts these reforms may have on participants, particularly people with intellectual disability, autism, Down syndrome and those living in regional communities.
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National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 241
Second Echo Ensemble
WHO WE ARE
Second Echo Ensemble (SEE) is a Lutruwita/Tasmania-based artist-led multi-arts organisation that has spent over two decades developing access-led methodologies supporting people with disability not only to attend, but to lead, direct, perform, mentor, tour, collaborate nationally and internationally, and contribute to Australia’s cultural ecology and public life.
Our work sits at the intersection of arts practice, community participation, communication, social connection, workforce development, leadership and long-term capacity building.
At SEE, NDIS support is interwoven with how people access our work, not as an “add on”, but as part of the infrastructure that makes participation, communication, authorship and contribution possible.
Lived experience should not be treated as secondary to policy expertise. The people living inside these systems every day often understand their strengths, gaps and unintended consequences most clearly.
WHO WE WORK WITH
SEE currently supports a mixed artistic ecology of 32 core artists and arts workers, including 13 people who rely on NDIS funding to access the disability-related supports that enable participation in creative practice, mentorship, community participation and professional development opportunities aligned with individual NDIS goals around independence, communication, social participation and employment pathways.
Many additional people involved in SEE identify as neurodivergent or living with disability but are not NDIS supported.
Across the past year, SEE’s programs, performances, workshops and public outcomes have engaged thousands of audience members and participants locally, nationally and internationally, demonstrating the broader cultural and community impact of disability-led artistic practice.
Many people within SEE are living with lifelong disability, including Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities, and require varying levels of support to participate in complex creative and social environments.
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National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 241
Second Echo Ensemble WHAT LONG-TERM PARTICIPATION MAKES POSSIBLE
The outcomes of long-term access-led participation are not theoretical. They are visible in the lives, leadership and public contribution of people who have spent years building confidence, communication, relationships and independence through sustained participation.
David is a founding member of Second Echo Ensemble, an artist with Down syndrome, and has participated in the organisation’s artistic and community life for more than two decades. Through NDIS-funded disability supports, David is able to participate in SEE’s studio and artistic programs across four days each week. These supports assist him to navigate communication, decision-making, travel, social participation and the demands of professional creative practice.
Over that time, David has grown from a young participant into a nationally touring performer, lead artist, mentor, visual artist and collaborative leader. His pathway has included interstate touring, long-term creative development, mentoring younger artists, public performance outcomes and participation in nationally significant cultural contexts, including performances at the Sydney Opera House.
In 2025, David served as Lead Artist on The Adventures of Peacock, Chicken and the Pony They Rode Upon, one of SEE’s largest national collaborations to date. The role required not only artistic skill, but the ability to navigate rehearsal processes, interstate travel, ensemble leadership, communication across large creative teams, changing environments and the pressures of professional touring.
These capacities did not emerge through short-term intervention or isolated activities. They were built gradually over years through trusted relationships, communication support, supported decision-making, continuity of participation and long-term access to collaborative professional environments.
The impact of this participation extends well beyond performance itself. It has strengthened David’s confidence, independence, public presence, relationships, communication and ability to contribute meaningfully within community and cultural life.
Similarly, Elise ’s pathway demonstrates how long-term participation can support people with intellectual disability not only to access community life, but to shape it.
Elise Romaszko is a long-standing member of Second Echo Ensemble. Over many years, she has developed as a performer, mentor, emerging director, board member and disability advocate. NDIS-funded supports enable Elise’s ongoing participation in artistic practice, mentoring, leadership development, travel, advocacy and community life. These supports have helped create pathways not only into creative participation, but into governance, public contribution and disability leadership.
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National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 241
Second Echo Ensemble In 2024–2025, Elise stepped into formal leadership within SEE through participation on the organisation’s Board of Governance, contributing to organisational decision-making not only as an artist, but as a peer representative and lived experience leader.
Alongside her artistic practice, Elise has participated in state and national advocacy conversations connected to disability arts, inclusion and cultural policy. This has included travel to Canberra to contribute to discussions connected to the national Implementation Advisory Group for Equity and broader conversations around the future of disability arts and cultural participation in Australia.
Elise also mentors younger participants within SEE’s Pathways to Work program, co-facilitates workshops and contributes to conversations around inclusive employment and disability leadership across the sector.
These opportunities rely not only on artistic development, but on the support structures necessary for communication, travel, confidence, relationship-building and participation within complex professional, civic and political environments.
Neither David nor Elise’s pathways can be understood as isolated “activities”. They reflect what becomes possible when people with disability are supported over time to participate fully in cultural, civic and community life. These pathways emerge over decades of consistent participation, support, confidence-building and opportunity. They cannot be replicated through short-term or purely transactional models of support.
HOW NDIS SUPPORTS PARTICIPATION
For people engaging with SEE through NDIS-supported participation, this can include support related to:
• supported studio participation • creative development and mentorship • social and community participation • communication and decision-making support • pathways toward employment and professional artistic practice • regional access and transport support • capacity building through long-term collaborative arts practice
SEE is not a disability service provider operating a day program model. We are an artist-led multi-arts organisation. NDIS funding enables people with disability to access the support structures that allow them to pursue personal goals connected to participation, communication, independence, leadership, employment pathways and community cultural life.
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National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 241
Second Echo Ensemble For many people, this includes essential 1:1 or 1:2 support arrangements that facilitate:
• communication • supported decision-making • navigation of group dynamics • regulation and confidence within social environments • creative risk taking and authorship • continuity of participation over long-term projects
Without these supports, participation can reduce significantly. People may step back from communication, become increasingly dependent on others to interpret or advocate for them, or lose confidence in navigating collaborative environments independently.
WHY THESE REFORMS MATTER AND WHAT IS AT RISK
We are particularly concerned about proposed reforms to social, civic and community participation funding, reduced flexibility, and increased pressure toward lower-cost group models.
There is a risk that disability-led arts practice is misunderstood as “recreation” or generic community access, rather than being recognised as:
• communication-rich practice • supported cultural participation • professional artistic development • real-world social navigation • workforce and leadership development • pathways toward employment, civic participation and public contribution
For many people involved in SEE, creative participation is not separate or distinct from wellbeing, identity, agency or citizenship. It is one of the primary ways people build relationships, exercise their voice, contribute publicly, and develop long-term personal, social and professional capacity.
For many people, especially those with intellectual disability, autism and Down syndrome, the greatest risk within these reforms is instability. Long-term supports, trusted relationships and pathways for participation become harder to sustain when funding categories narrow, reassessment uncertainty increases, and support structures become more transactional.
Community participation, creative development and capacity building are not peripheral extras. They are often the structures through which people build communication,
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National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 241
Second Echo Ensemble independence, confidence, wellbeing, employment pathways and social connection over years of practice and trust.
We are concerned about the erosion of the relational and communication structures that allow people with intellectual disability to participate meaningfully and sustainably in community and cultural life.
The risk within reforms of this scale is that support becomes understood only as isolated transactions rather than interconnected ecosystems of relationships, care, routine, trust and community participation.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The NDIS was created because previous systems failed people with disability and their families. Before the NDIS, support was often fragmented, uncertain and dependent on where a person lived, what their family could carry, or what services happened to exist nearby.
In Tasmania, this history is not abstract. New Norfolk’s Royal Derwent Hospital and Willow Court remain part of our state’s living memory. For generations, people with disability, people with mental illness, children and others were institutionalised in systems that often removed choice, family life, community connection and personal agency.
The lesson of that history is not only that institutions were harmful. It is that people are harmed when systems treat disability as a problem to be managed, rather than recognising people as citizens with relationships, ideas, ambitions, work to do and lives to shape.
The NDIS represented a shift away from institutional and charity-based models toward choice, control, self-determination and participation.
Any reform must protect that shift. Reducing flexible participation supports without real, accessible and accountable alternatives risks pushing people back toward isolation, family strain and segregated forms of care.
REGIONAL IMPACT
The proposed reforms raise significant concerns for regional organisations and communities.
In Tasmania, there are very few alternative “foundational supports” or community structures capable of holding the complexity of long-term, access-led participation if NDIS supports reduce or become harder to access.
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National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 241
Second Echo Ensemble This extends beyond arts participation alone. Many existing community offerings are not designed to support the communication, relationship-based and decision-making needs that enable people with intellectual disability to participate meaningfully and consistently within community, cultural and professional life.
For regional participants, the loss of flexible support funding does not simply reduce participation options. In many cases, it removes them entirely.
QUALITY, TRUST AND SAFETY
SEE supports stronger safeguards, integrity measures and action against exploitation within the NDIS.
However, replacing individualised participation supports with lower-cost group or community-based alternatives must not happen without clear quality standards, human rights safeguards, workforce capability, transparent outcomes and accountability.
Australia has seen in other sectors that poorly designed market reforms can produce low-quality provision, weak accountability and exploitation of vulnerable people. Community participation must not become a low-cost market substitute that looks efficient on paper while reducing agency, quality and safety in practice.
If government investment is made into broader community or foundational supports, those supports must be co-designed with people with disability, properly resourced, locally available, culturally safe, accessible, and accountable for real participation outcomes.
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National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 241
Second Echo Ensemble RECOMMENDATIONS
Second Echo Ensemble recommends that the Committee:
1. Protect social, civic and community participation supports for people with intellectual disability, autism, Down syndrome and other lifelong disabilities, particularly where those supports enable communication, decision-making, independence, relationships, community access and public contribution. 2. Ensure any changes to social, civic and community participation or capacity building budgets are not applied as blunt reductions without individual consideration of participant goals, functional need, support ratios, geography and existing long-term participation pathways. 3. Recognise disability-led arts and cultural participation as legitimate community participation, capacity building, workforce and leadership development, and pathways toward social and economic participation, not as recreation or optional activity. 4. Ensure any shift toward foundational supports or community-based alternatives is fully co-designed with people with disability and disability-led organisations before individualised supports are reduced. 5. Require strong quality standards, safeguarding, workforce capability and accountability for any community organisations funded to deliver participation alternatives. 6. Protect participant choice and control, including the right to access small, specialist, disability-led and artist-led organisations where these organisations provide meaningful participation outcomes. 7. Consider the specific impact of reform on regional communities, where alternative supports may not exist and where reductions to flexible funding can remove participation pathways entirely.
FINAL COMMENTS
SEE strongly supports reform that improves safeguarding, integrity and quality within the NDIS. However, sustainability cannot come at the cost of agency, authorship, cultural participation, or the right of people with disability to contribute meaningfully to public and cultural life. The NDIS is not simply a funding mechanism. For many people and communities, it is part of the social infrastructure that makes participation, visibility, contribution and belonging possible.
When participation disappears, people do not simply lose activities. They can lose confidence, relationships, routine, independence and connection to public life.
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