Supports for disabled artists contribute to social and economic life (DRO advocacy)

Submission 292

Being. Belonging. Becoming

+61 8 8463 1689 hello@artsdisabilitynetwork.com.au https://artsdisabilitynetwork.com.au

26 May, 2026.

RE: Feedback on the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill 2026.

Dear Hon Mark Butler, Senator McAllister, Minister Bourke and Special Envoy to the Arts Susan

Templeman.

Arts and Disability Network Australia (ADNA) writes to express our deep concern regarding the recent changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), including reductions to social and community participation supports.

WHO WE ARE

Funded by Creative Australia, ADNA is one of the leading initiatives to improve access and inclusion across creative industries and workplaces. We are a disability-led charitable organisation that advocates for, champions and amplifies the work of d/Deaf and disabled artists, artsworkers and screen practitioners across Australia. A consortium of 7 state and territory arts and disability peak bodies with decades of collective experience, ADNA works with arts and disability communities across the nation. Building on the achievements of Equity, the Arts and Disability Associated Plan, we facilitate new conversations with government and the arts and disability sector to create a more equitable and inclusive future for disabled Australians.

OUR WORK WITH GOVERNMENT

ADNA is the only organisational member of Office for the Arts and Technology’s Equity Advisory Group. We also consult with national, state and territory governments on initiatives to improve access to the arts and cultural industries. This includes providing industry advice on the development of OFTA’s Screen and Employment Pathways program and the National Code of Practice for the Arts, Screen and Games Sector. ADNA also works closely with state and territory governments to ensure all parts of the country’s arts and disability sector are represented nationally.

In line with the concerns and recommendations outlined below, ADNA welcomes the opportunity to meet with the government to support the co-design of future participation models and transition safeguards for disabled Australians affected by these reforms. Through our national membership, community networks and ongoing sector dialogue, ADNA is uniquely positioned to help government identify emerging risks and understand the diverse ways cultural organisations currently support disabled participants. ADNA are well positioned to advise the NDIS on how to safely ensure continuity of services for disabled participants whose involvement in community arts is central to their wellbeing and independence. We are

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also well placed to assist the government in developing strategies that ensure the Inclusive Communities Fund is accessible, effective and responsive to the lived realities of disabled Australians.

ADNA’s CONCERNS WITH THE PROPOSED REFORMS

ADNA’s central concern with the proposed reforms is the increasingly narrow interpretation of what constitutes a “reasonable and necessary” support under the NDIS. As the leading national organisation representing the arts and disability community, we argue that supported studios, mentorships, internship programs and disability-led companies and/or arts/ performance environments are structured, relational and community-based support systems that enable disabled participants to build sustainable pathways into social, cultural and economic life. These activities clearly meet the principles of reasonable and necessary support because they directly contribute to:

• social and community participation;
• increased independence and agency;
• capacity building;
• skill development;
• vocational readiness;
• economic participation;
• employment pathways; and
• improved mental health and wellbeing. Evidence from organisations across the sector demonstrates the extent to which NDIS funding already functions as a critical pathway into professional arts participation and employment outcomes. In 2026, 93% of participants in Bus Stop Film’s Accessible Filmmaking Program accessed the program through NDIS funding, with participants claiming supports primarily through Social and Community Participation, Core Supports and “Finding and Keeping a Job” line items. Since launching Bus Stop Employment in 2022, the organisation has supported more than 120 people with disability into screen industry employment, facilitated more than 420 full days and 265 half days of paid work, and generated more than $200,000 in wages paid directly to people with disability working in film and media. The work of Bus Stop Films is clear evidence that NDIS funding not only supports disabled participants into sustainable career pathways, it contributes to economic infrastructure that supports a more accessible film industry with ongoing employment opportunities.

Other arts and disability organisations including Second Echo Ensemble, Back to Back

Theatre, No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability, Rebus Theatre, Studio ARTES, Hands On

Studio, Restless Dance Theatre, Tutti Arts and Studio A demonstrate how small-scale arts and disability organisations provide essential community infrastructure across Australia. These organisations support participants to:

• develop and improve professional creative skills;
• build social and peer networks;
• engage in mentorship and training and career progression;
• participate in exhibitions and performances;
• transition toward open employment pathways;
• contribute to Australia’s creative industries; and
• build long-term independence and confidence. Back to Back Theatre partnered with Vital Arts, RMIT and Clock Your Skills (UK) to map and show that learning at all levels takes place outside formal education, at work with colleagues, in play

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with social groups, or as part of hobbies with buddies. Supported studios, in particular those with a youth creative practice, require participants to have personal and collective agency and learn how to be responsible and accountable to others, cooperating rather than competing and to be able to operate effectively within a collaborative project group that aims to accomplish purposeful goals in one or more practitioner settings. This has provided a direct shift from social ‘supports’ to a stronger focus on employment ‘pathways’, when participants are supported to build skills, increase independence, and have the option to transition into open employment. As this is a key reform for the NDIS, cutting off the pathway to this social, commercial and organisational transformation undermines the long-term vision of the scheme.

Data provided by Second Echo Ensemble (Nipaluna/ Hobart) further demonstrates the long term social, cultural and economic value of supported creative participation. The organisation currently supports 32 core artists and arts workers, including 13 people who rely directly on NDIS funding to access the disability-related supports that enable participation in creative practice, mentorship, community participation and professional development opportunities. These outcomes are all aligned with individual NDIS goals around independence, communication, social participation and employment pathways. Over the past year alone, SEE’s performances, workshops and public programs engaged thousands of audience members locally, nationally and internationally, demonstrating the broader cultural impact of disability-led artistic practice.

Importantly, Second Echo Ensemble’s submission highlights that these supports are not “add ons” to arts participation, but part of the infrastructure that makes communication, authorship, decision-making, leadership and contribution possible for people with intellectual disability and Down syndrome. The organisation warns that reductions to flexible participation funding risks destabilising the trusted relationships, communication supports and long-term collaborative environments that have allowed disabled artists to sustain participation in community and professional life over many years. Back to Back recently accepted the retirement of its longest-serving Ensemble member, after 34 years as an internationally acclaimed performing artist. Their career started and finished with their involvement in the company’s social and community participation program, as it formed the very solid basis of their employment and engagement with the wider community as their extended family.

This infrastructure is particularly significant in regional and remote Australia, where arts organisations provide some of the only culturally safe and professionally facilitated creative participation opportunities available. Free Space Studio in Larrakia country/ Darwin has raised significant concern that if social and community inclusion activities are excluded from the NDIS, artists — particularly those from First Nations backgrounds, may no longer be able to access programs that have supported their artistic and professional development over the

past decade. In Ngunnawal & Ngambri country/ Australian Capital Territory, Rebus Theatre

reports that 100% of participants in its iDrama program currently rely on Social and Community Participation funding to access structured creative environments focused on self expression, collaboration and professional performing arts skills. Participants in all of these programs rely on Social and Community Participation budget lines to sustain their attendance. Any proposed tightening, restrictions, or narrowing of definitions around what this funding covers will directly impact their ability to access the program. This is particularly dangerous for participants from low social economic backgrounds, who cannot afford to enter into user-pay

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models for creative and community arts programs, even with these organisations offering heavily subsidised rates.

Back to Back Theatre returned to its roots in Geelong’s northern suburbs, recognised as some of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas in Victoria, to present a unique version of Shakespeare’s timeless story of Henry V to create an immersive screen project. Casting the Ensemble in lead roles, with past and present members of its social and community participation program, the project employed 140 cast and crew, including engaging with a local ADE. Since its premiere at ACMI, the project has been seen by an estimated 68,000 audience members, and has now transferred to Geelong Arts Centre to engage with thousands more.

Likewise, for more than 30 years, Restless Dance Theatre has been a national leader in disability-led contemporary dance practice, creating meaningful artistic, educational and employment pathways for artists with disability. Through training, mentorship, creative development and performance opportunities, their programs support participants to build independence, communication skills, confidence, leadership capacity and workforce readiness within an inclusive and highly collaborative environment.

Restless supports approximately 80 enrolled participants across metropolitan and regional South Australia, with 68 participants accessing programs through NDIS funding arrangements, including both self-managed and plan-managed participants.

Restless Dance Company’s programs include:

• supported weekly studio participation

• youth development programs

• emerging artist pathways

• company training and mentorships

• creative capacity building

• regional participation programs

• professional rehearsal and performance opportunities

• leadership and teaching development pathways Attendance data from 2025 and early 2026 demonstrates the scale and consistency of engagement across our programs:

• 2,144 public program attendances recorded in 2025

• 316 company and emerging artist attendances in 2025

• 668 participation attendances recorded by March 2026

• 112 company and emerging artist attendances recorded by March 2026 Restless Dance Theatre also creates genuine paid employment pathways for artists with disability through professional company contracts, creative development opportunities, touring, teaching and mentorship pathways. Company artists can engage in paid professional practice for up to 32 weeks annually.

Approximately 90% of Restless’ professional company artists have progressed through the organisation’s public programs, demonstrating the direct relationship between sustained arts participation and long-term professional development opportunities.

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Restless programs also support important educational outcomes for participants by strengthening communication, collaboration, confidence, self-advocacy and independent learning skills. For many young participants, engagement with Restless improves school participation, social confidence and long-term aspirations for employment, further training and community leadership.

These examples provide evidence of a much larger issue underpinning this review that is neither being acknowledged by the government or reported to the public: what is the long-term economic cost to taxpayers if disabled Australians no longer have access to the support systems and community infrastructures that these arts and disability organisations currently provide? If the economic value of social and community participation funded by the NDIS is undermined, the burden does not disappear. It simply shifts elsewhere — onto already overstretched health, mental health, disability, aged care and social support systems.

Without access to supported creative participation, many disabled artists will require:

• increased mental health intervention;
• greater reliance on acute health systems;
• increased social care and crisis response;
• higher levels of long-term support dependency;
• reduced employment participation;
• increased disengagement and isolation; and
• reduced community connection and wellbeing. At the same time, the evidence demonstrates that arts participation already produces measurable social and economic outcomes. Organisations across the sector are supporting disabled Australians not only to participate in community life, but to develop vocational skills, access paid employment, build professional networks and contribute to Australia’s cultural economy. Without access to these community-based ecosystems, many disabled Australians risk being pushed away from professional and cultural participation and back toward isolation, crisis-based support systems and segregated employment pathways.

In this context, supported studios, mentorships, internships and creative participation programs should not be understood as optional cultural activities, but as preventative social infrastructure that strengthens long-term participant outcomes while reducing pressure on health, disability, aged care and social support systems. Since the establishment of the NDIS, disability arts organisations have been operating within a system that was not originally designed to support creative practice, resulting in organisations continually retrofitting their work into social and community participation categories. Despite these structural limitations, the NDIS has become one of the primary mechanisms through which disabled Australians are able to participate in creative, cultural and community life. ADNA therefore urges the NDIS to ensure reforms both protect continuity of participation within these existing community arts and professional practice ecosystems and ensure future funding models strengthen — rather than replace — the community networks, creative pathways and support structures that disabled artists currently rely upon.

These ecosystems play a critical role in upholding the commitments outlined within Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031, particularly in relation to inclusive communities, employment and financial security, personal and community support, health and wellbeing, and community participation.

Submission 292

They are also essential to ensuring Australia continues to meet its international human rights obligations under Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, which collectively recognise the right of all people to participate fully in cultural life and the arts.

RECOMMENDATIONS: ADNA recommends the development of a protected “Creative Participation and Pathways” framework within the NDIS.

1. Ensure that reforms do not disproportionately reduce access to social and community participation funding for disabled Australians participating in arts, culture and community based creative practice. This can be done by establishing a “Creative Participation and Pathways” Framework that recognises arts participation as preventative social infrastructure contributing to long-term participant wellbeing, independence, workforce participation and community inclusion.

2. Safeguard Participants During Transition Implement clear transition safeguards for participants likely to lose access to the NDIS or experience substantial reductions in funding, particularly neurodivergent participants and those with psychosocial disability.

3. Protect Continuity of Community Infrastructure Recognise supported studios, disability arts organisations, disability mentorship and internship programs as essential community infrastructure that reduces isolation, supports social cohesion, increases functional capacity and prevents greater pressure on health, mental health, aged care and social care systems.

4. Include Arts and Disability Organisations in Co-Design Processes Ensure disability-led arts organisations, supported studios and disabled artists are directly involved in the co-design of future participation frameworks, including the Inclusive Communities Fund. ADNA welcomes the opportunity to consult with the government on the development of this fund to ensure that it is relevant, accessible and responsive to the lived realities of disabled Australians, while strengthening the existing community, cultural and vocational infrastructures already supporting participation across the country.

5. Dedicated Funding for Arts and Cultural Participation Ensure a dedicated portion of the Inclusive Communities Fund is allocated to arts, culture and creative participation initiatives supporting disabled Australians.

6. Ensure that Access to the Inclusive Communities Fund is equitable and geographically distributed. Design funding models that do not disadvantage smaller, regional, remote and grassroots organisations that may have limited administrative and grant-writing capacity.

7. Recognise Employment and Economic Outcomes Acknowledge the role disability arts organisations play in:

• employment readiness;
• creative industry participation;
• leadership development;
• skills development; and
• long-term economic participation for disabled Australians.

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8. Align Reforms with Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031 Ensure proposed reforms uphold the commitments outlined within Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031, particularly in relation to:

• inclusive communities;
• employment and financial security;
• personal and community support;
• health and wellbeing; and
• community participation.

9. Uphold Australia’s International Human Rights Obligations Ensure reforms remain consistent with:

• Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
• Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and
• UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, which collectively recognise the right of all people to participate fully in cultural life and the arts.

10. Engage in Ongoing Sector Consultation Establish ongoing consultation mechanisms with the arts and disability sector to ensure future reforms reflect lived experience, fluctuating support needs and the realities of community participation across Australia.

ADNA is well positioned to be an active and connecting force in this ongoing sector consultation. We welcome a meeting at your earliest convenience to discuss next steps.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah-Mace Dennis

National Director, Arts and Disability Network Australia (ADNA) on behalf of:

Access2Arts, DADAA, Accessible Arts, Arts Access Victoria, Arts Access Queensland, Darwin

Community Arts, Incite Arts, Second Echo Ensemble, Bus Stop Films, Reebus Theatre, Free

Space Studios, Back to Back Theatre.