National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2586
Hi. I am an NDIS recipient. Being on the NDIS has been life changing and enhancing for me. It has allowed me to pursue passions and enjoyable past times and when my parents were alive, it gave me much more time and capacity to help them when they needed it the most and spend precious time with them. It meant that I could play more with my great nieces and great nephew. It improved my health. The reason that it allowed me to do all of these things is that it provided me with much more support in “Daily Living” than I could previously access and gave me far greater access to “Capacity Building” support, in the form of hands on body work, whereas previous to the NDIS I had to pay for the latter myself and could only afford a fraction of what I needed. These supports reduced my pain and fatigue, and the hands on body work greatly alleviates my pain, most the time, allowing me to go in for the next round of doing what I can and want to do, within limits, knowing that if I get very sore from living life, which happens very frequently, it won’t be too long before I can get help with that increased pain – that it won’t put me out of action for weeks, months or years at a time which was the case previous to being on the NDIS.
I am very concerned about the proposed budget cuts and changes to the NDIS for myself and for other people with disabilities.
Already I have experienced a significant diminishment of the NDIS for what it provides for me and its positive impact, since there was a change to what kind of physical therapies I could claim for. Physical therapies that were extremely beneficial to me, Bowen Therapy, Feldenkrais and remedial massage, and that I used in conjunction with occupational therapy and physiotherapy, were no longer able to be claimed for. This has resulted in additional areas of chronic pain and far slower rehabilitation of injuries that I am very prone to due to my condition.
My life would be drastically poorer without all of the supports that I currently receive for both Daily Living (food preparation and cleaning) and Capacity Building (physical therapy) and the consumable items I get and claim for at the level I currently receive. It is very scary and depressing to contemplate and I don’t know how I would survive. I would experience far greater pain that would only increase as I would be forced to do essential things to live on top of pain that would make it worse and worse. My health would decline in many ways as I would not be able to maintain the diet I am on that helps immeasurably with my chronic health issues, and than in turn would impact very negatively on my disabilities. My social and community life, which is already quite limited due to my disabilities, would be drastically curtailed. I would not be able to pursue my passions and interests in life.
I am very concerned about the proposed changes to the definition of permanence re disability, that people would have to prove they have tried all available treatments. This is cruel, authoritarian and oppressive. I am 60 years old, I tried hundreds of different treatments to try to recover from my condition and/or ameliorate it before arriving at the things that helped the most and that I am currently use (minus the Bowen and Feldenkrais because they aren’t funded any more). I wouldn’t be able to prove that I have tried those hundreds of things –
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2586
and what I could prove would take an inordinate amount of time and I have precious little time available on a daily basis to do the things I need to and want to do and trying to avoid severe pain. It would cause me a lot of pain. Typing this letter is very difficult and making me very sore, but I feel it is very important.
I suspect in my case if this definition of permanence were implemented I would be forced to try things I had already tried previously – I would not be believed – which is patronizing, insulting and injurious. I suspect that I would be forced to try medications that I do not want to be on. I know, from long experience, that the holistic approach I take to my condition is the best approach with the best results. That is diet, specific exercises, body treatments, peer based counselling and being able to lead a meaningful and connected life. I know people who have been on the medications that are recommended for my condition – they have horrible side effects and they don’t work. I have been an similar medications to those that are recommended for people with my condition in earlier and desparate times of my disability and they only made everything worse. People should get to choose whether they use drugs that impact on their precious brains. Even anti-inflammatories make me very groggy – I don’t want to go through life being groggy. I want and need the sharpest brain I can have. My condition is best managed through exercise, the evidence says, and a holistic approach which is what I do, diligently and with great discipline and results. Yet drug companies push their drugs for various conditions and I am anxious that some bureaucrat with no or very limited knowledge of my condition, would dictate to me that I must try a drug to prove my conditions permanence. And/or make me try things I have already done previously (I’ve had this condition for nearly 40 years) because I can’t prove I’ve already done it.
I’m also concerned about people only being able to get the services of registered providers as I use some very good people who are not registered providers and wouldn’t want to go through the hassle of becoming one. I’ve completely run out of steam to elaborate properly how disastrous this would be for me, how the private people I have are far better than going through the agency I used before. I’m in pain.
Please listen to people with disabilities.