National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2787
Dear Senate Committee,
I am an NDIS participant. I have multiple disabilities, chronic medical conditions and as a consequence complex needs. I do not have any informal support from family or friends. NDIS is my only support. I am a self managed participant.
I’m writing this submission to express my strong objection to the Bill being put forward. I won’t be able to cover everything because the timeframe for submissions is so short. There’s literally hundreds of pages of complex legal changes when you combine the Bill and Memorandums. People with disabilities need time to understand and there’s no easy to understand format either. This is the most significant change to the NDIS since its inception and the short time frame for submissions, the huge amount of associated and complex documents and the little time the Committee will have to scrutinise this large and complex Bill is disgusting. I request that at the very least this inquiry is significantly extended giving us adequate time to understand and respond. Then giving the Senate Committee adequate time to scrutinise the biggest reforms of the NDIS since its inception. Please note there is no co design either and has been dumped on us and being rushed through.
In my opinion and lived experience the Bill in whole should be thrown in the bin. Then through co design we tackle fraud and fraud only. No one likes fraud and I do not support fraud. People with disabilities lose the most to fraudsters, we want our funding to be used for our support needs not for greedy mostly registered providers making millions. Frankly, this Bill does nothing to actually address fraud. What the Bill does is cut critical funding to people with disabilities. It makes so-called “savings” by also booting hundreds and thousands of people off the scheme through being reassessed for eligibility. We don’t even know how that will exactly happen. It is not clearly defined in the Bill. Those that remain will have significant cuts to their support. The so-called savings are squarely on people with permanent, significant and lifelong disabilities losing access or having significantly reduced and inadequate access to the support they need. We are paying a very heavy price, not the fraudsters.
Let me be clear, this Bill is about cutting support to people with significant, lifelong and permanent disabilities. It’s totally unacceptable, nasty, discriminatory, dangerous and treats us as an economic and cultural and a social burden.. This Bill is a form of contemporary public policy eugenics and will at best significantly hurt us and at worst kill us. People will die as a direct result of this proposed Bill.
About Me
I am profoundly deaf, legally blind, have complex PTSD, major depressive disorder, anxiety, panic, sleep apnoea, restless leg syndrome, a complete lack of REM sleep, sleep paralysis and narcolepsy. I also have chronic medical conditions. My medical conditions include peripheral artery disease where I’ve needed major bypass surgery and a part foot amputation on my left foot after developing critical limb Ischemia. I have this chronic medical condition in both legs and there’s no cure. It significantly impacts my functional capacity. I also have thalassemia that requires blood transfusions. This too has no cure and impacts my functional capacity. The complex PTSD stems from child sex abuse by a teacher starting at age 7 and from growing up in
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2787
Foundational Supports
Foundational supports don’t even exist and States/Territory have already said they cannot fund on par to NDIS. We will be worse off. We will be worse off and we fought so hard for the NDIS to be established because we were being abused, violated and dying in the old system and had no chance of an ordinary life. Now this Bill will drag us backwards to the old system with a huge gap in what is actually available. Even if foundational supports are forced on us they should be co designed, adequately funded on par to NDIS and in place and available at the same time as any new Bill comes into law.
Minister Powers
The part of this Bill that gives the Minister “god” like “dictator” like powers must be fully revoked. Handing power over to the Minister like this is totally unacceptable in a democracy. The House of Representatives and Senate must be able to do their jobs not give such strong powers to one person.
The Bill talks about future rules, Ministerial discretion etc. none of which are currently even defined. The Minister can do whatever they want and based on this Bill none of it will be good for us at all. It is all really based around cost cutting to people with disabilities and even when the person needs the actual support the Minister can deny them the support including entire cohorts of people. It allows the Minister to make decisions based on cost alone and this is bad because people won’t get the actual support they need.
The Minister can cut up to 99% of funding from entire cohorts of people or individuals, boot people off and we don’t even have a right of appeal. Participants on low incomes will not be able to fill that gap. All this while the fraud by businesses will continue. I think the entire section giving the Minister extraordinary powers needs to be completely taken out. None of it is any good in any way shape or form. Any changes should be before Parliament and reviewed by the Senate.
Eligibility and Access to NDIS
The changes to eligibility and being on the NDIS in this proposed Bill are inhumane and completely lack any understanding of disability and the disabling society we live in. They are not even properly defined. The changes are significant and do not in any way resemble what the NDIS was created for in the first place. If this Bill passes the NDIS will no longer exist and will do so in name only.
People with permanent, lifelong and significant disabilities will end up being excluded under these new eligibility requirements. They already are now, but if this Bill goes through it will significantly reduce any chance for people with significant, lifelong and permanent disabilities needing the NDIS to access. People who genuinely should be given access won’t.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2787
In the meantime current participants who have already established they have permanent, lifelong and significant disabilities will be reassessed and the Government plans booting off at least around 240,000 participants.
Having only 1 disability allowed to be considered at a time and no thought to environmental and individual factors is ridiculous and dangerous. This is not going to go well and people will die or suffer. A whole individual approach is critical. For example, do I choose my blindness, my profound hearing loss, my mental illness, my amputation or sleep disorders? Which environment exactly will they even be considered in? They all come together and cause significant impact as a whole, cause different functional capacity depending on the environment I’m in at the time. I and others need support that takes all this into account as a whole. None of this operates separately, but rather, all combine together causing complex needs and requiring individualised support funding for me to live just an ordinary life. How will someone like me even find the money to get the evidence the NDIS will want to include all my disabilities? I won’t be able to and will be left out of the scheme. Nothing out of NDIS exists for my complex needs.
The Bill removes the context we live our lives in. Our homes and public spaces are disabling environments. Australian public spaces are able bodied spaces. Without all my disabilities, assistive devices, public and private spaces and my individual life circumstances being considered as a whole I will be pretty much housebound, hospitalised, unable to look after myself and may as well just be dead. I would seriously consider voluntary assisted dying. I don’t have anyone to step in other than NDIS.
In contrast, the current way of the NDIS has meant I’m able to leave my home with my seeing guide dog funded by NDIS. For example, before I only had access to blind cane and a blind cane couldn’t tell me if a car was coming, a scooter was in the pedestrian pathway, someone with a pram was approaching and being deaf and blind means I can’t hear or see the cars coming or other unsafe obstacles in my way. I have been hit by cars prior to NDIS but never since being on NDIS. NDIS don’t even recognise deaf/blind as a single disability.
Prior to NDIS I couldn’t even cross a road if there were no proper pedestrian lights to cross and frankly wouldn’t be able to see the lights. My seeing guide dog finds the lights and takes me directly to where the button is to press. Then I keep my hand on the button until I can feel the clicking which tells me the lights are green for pedestrians. My seeing guide dog and I work together to safely cross.
NDIS has significantly changed my life for the better. I’m able to go food shopping where my seeing guide dog and I can walk safely in public spaces and my support worker can support me to find the food I need and translate for me when I interact with people. The support worker operates the shopping trolley and can use their car to get my shopping home as I cannot carry the shopping needing my hands to work with my guide dog. I’m a coeliac so my support worker takes me to multiple food shops which are hard to get to by public transport so I can get the food I need so I don’t get sick. I’ve been able to get to all my medical appointments, have my support worker translate and have avoided a lot of prolonged hospitalisation because of NDIS support. I’ve been able to have help with cooking nutritious meals safely with the help of my support worker. I’ve been able to participate in the community and have done things like sing
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2787
with a regular women’s choir, attend mainstream art sessions, go to art exhibitions and even go to events like the theatre. I’ve made friends and can meet with them and communicate with them with help from my support workers and technology provided through my consumables budget. I have been provided with a desk top magnifier that allows me to read anything I want including medical documents, letters, books and magazines. I’ve had help with occupational therapists and my support coordinator to build my capacity in my home to do more things and to find the right consumables to operate things like a microwave, oven, make myself a coffee and be able to dress myself. I’ve had training to work with my seeing guide dog, training to use a blind cane safely and properly. I now can live in a clean flat and have clean clothes and my cupboard contents easy to find because support workers under daily living help with that by arranging them with textiles. I can shower safely and can choose who showers and touches my body. This is very important for a child sex abuse survivor. I even have been able to get a job. A real job that relates to my University qualifications. I can leave my house when I want with my seeing guide dog, I don’t have to stay home just because I don’t have a support worker at that time. My guide dog and I do lots of things together like going on long walks at the nearby wetland and swimming at the beach. We go to the hair dresser and chemist together. We go to coffee shops or go have lunch somewhere nearby as a treat. We get on public transport and explore new places, meet friends and I can get to work. My seeing guide dog cannot do everything I need hence support workers are still very important too. None of this would have been possible without the NDIS. I can purchase consumables like deaf/blind video recorder, various magnifiers for different purposes, cooking consumables for blind/severe low vision people, textiles and software for blind/severe low vision. Being on a low income I would never be able to afford any of this. The NDIS has allowed me to have an ordinary life, to be more independent, to not be constantly in hospital and needing to be house bound. Now this Bill will take all of this away.
I provide functional capacity assessments at every reassessment. They take a whole person approach and are based on my life and unique circumstances. The reports are prepared by medical and allied health University qualified professionals who have expertise on each of my disabilities and know me as a patient. This is exactly as it should be. This Bill will mean some unqualified assessor and AI computer system will decide on one disability with no context and this will cause physical and psychological harm to me and other people with disabilities in similar circumstances. It is a one size fits all approach too and people with the same disabilities do have different needs. A computer deciding will fail, cost lives and be an absolute waste of money. Look at the chaos it’s causing in aged care right now.
We also will have no appeal rights like we do now. Instead, we can appeal for the unqualified assessor and AI software to re-do our assessment. This is not what appeal rights look like and we are only going to get the same result. This computer system is not fit for purpose, is still being developed and hasn’t worked in other Countries like the UK. Frankly, I’d rather be dead.
The requirement to exhaust all treatment options will deny people with genuine permanent and significant disabilities access to the NDIS. People on low incomes or in regional areas will not be able to access all available medical treatment because it might be too far away or cost too much. Many treatments are not covered by Medicare and if they are there’s huge gap fees. Evidence based science can be conflicting. Some treatments might actually be detrimental if you have complex needs and/or medical conditions, the treatment might have a high risk of death or further disability or have conflicting evidence in scientific literature.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2787
The Bill takes all the focus off providing people with disabilities a rights based, whole individual approach with choice and control so we can live an ordinary life and replaces it with no rights, no individual focus, no real choice and control and disregards the impact of multiple disabilities, environmental impact and chronic medical conditions. This Bill is just about cost cutting and gutting the NDIS for participants. It changes the entire intention of the NDIS. It does it without even consulting us before the Bill was put forward.Genuine co-design is critical. I am completely against this Bill because it will take us back to the bad old days of institutional abuse, no real choice or control, significantly reduced access to what we need as individuals. Our lives matter and we are not an economic burden. The Government has other choices like taxing our gas properly, taxing the wealthiest 1% of our population adequately, taxing large corporations adequately and stop giving subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. The NDIS is not a cost blow out. The Government just doesn’t want to choose to tax the wealthiest, they don’t want to tax gas taken by foreign multinationals appropriately and want to hand out welfare to the billionaires who hold a stake in things like fossil fuels.
I’m at risk of being booted off the NDIS under the proposed Bill. Without the NDIS I’ll be isolated, unable to look after myself like a shower, clean and cook, be unsafe in public and at home in my rental, have no prospect of employment and be in hospital a lot. It will cost a lot more to the tax payer and will shorten my life. I am completely against that. I’m against people being denied access at the cost of our lives.
Professional Qualified Assessments
My GP, medical specialists and occupational therapists have treated me for a long time. They are medical or allied health professionals who don’t lie and are in the best position to let NDIS know what my disabilities are and my functional capacity. The changes in the Bill that remove all these experienced professionals and replace them with a computer program and a person assessing me who has literally no proper qualifications (Eg all my medical team have to have University qualifications) will mean that the computer system won’t capture my functional capacity and the person assessing will have no idea due to lack of education, expertise and experience. It’s also a block funding model that worked very badly in the past pre NDIS.
We need human beings with relevant qualifications for assessment and to be able to provide our own evidence and functional capacity reports from those who treat us. The computer system cannot capture what humans can capture for people like me with complex needs. It won’t even allow it. The assessor will have no clue and things will be standardised. People with the same disabilities have different needs and support requirements. It is not a case of one size fits all.
I’m also against current participants being reassessed as we’ve already shown we have permanent, lifelong and significant disabilities.
Social and Community Participation
There will be cuts of at least 50% to our social and community participation for all current participants. Cuts like this only shift costs, for example, I’ll end up in long stays in our public hospitals and crisis public support services like ambulances will increase significantly.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2787
The Bill allows larger cuts at the Minister’s discretion too upto 99% based on so called budget considerations. This will have a huge impact on me. I’m already funded much less than my medical and allied health reports request. I have multiple disabilities and medical conditions. I have a lot of medical appointments all over metropolitan Melbourne every week. My support worker takes me and also translates. With a cut of 50% I’ll not be able to attend all my medical appointments resulting in getting unwell and needing to be in hospital. I won’t be able to access groceries at various shops, my ability to access gluten free food would be almost diminished and I’m a coeliac. I won’t be able to go and see family or friends as they live further away from me. I won’t be able to participate in community events. My ability to live an ordinary life will be significantly impacted. My mental health will deteriorate and it could cost me my life. My current funding at least allows me to go to all my medical appointments, access therapies I require and get the food I need. It gives me a little bit of social time too.
Daily Living
The cut in daily living will mean I’ll have not enough hours for meal preparation, having workers wash, fold and use textiles to put my clothes away so I can find what I need. My flat will be a mess because I’ll not have enough for cleaners and I will risk falls which can result in internal bleeding which is a critical condition for peripheral artery disease. I’ll be using ambulance services a lot more and being treated in emergency and hospital from cuts and falls. I could get stuck in hospital as it would be unsafe to be sent home. I could lose my rental if it’s a mess and dirty when the 6 monthly inspection comes along. Being blind I’ll have limited help chopping and preparing food with knives. I need support to cook nutritious meals, keep a tidy and safe home, shower and have my clothes cleaned, folded and put away with textiles in an organised system so I can get dressed.
Independent Appeal Rights
At the moment we can appeal NDIS decisions to independent bodies and the Court. The proposed Bill will not allow us full appeal rights which infringes on our right to natural justice and human rights. Full appeal rights must be maintained. We are not second class citizens and in a real democracy we have proper rights to appeal decisions made by Government or those running insurance schemes like the NDIS on behalf of Government.
Registration
The worst experiences I’ve had have been from registered providers. They’ve put me in harms way by not paying attention to my needs, staff constantly leave and are replaced with poorly experienced staff and staff regularly cancel which meant I missed critical medical appointments that I still had to pay for or couldn’t get the food I needed and help with cooking. The staff were there as a short term job and one had inappropriately touched me. They also charge the most. Being a registered provider doesn’t result in quality, safe, reliable care and it certainly costs more.
I now have a whole team of quality, safe and reliable unregistered workers. I am given excellent support and I don’t get ripped off. I also pay less than the NDIS price guide yet I get better quality services than the registered providers I use. My workers have been with me for a long time.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2787
- time, are reliable, focus on me while with me and are like family in their care. Forcing us to only use registered providers is not going to solve any problems but rather give millions in profits to large providers who are the ones committing fraud and charging the highest rate possible.
- Independent workers will be forced out. Unemployment will rise as reported in the media multiple times since this Bill was introduced.
As I said earlier I cannot address everything I’d like due to the limited time frame of providing a submission. I implore the Committee to take our submissions seriously. To at the very least make extensive amendments and I would prefer for the Senate to reject this Bill. What needs to happen is for a whole new co-designed Bill to be put together that addresses fraud.