National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2928
I am a participant of NDIS since 2025. However, I am still not able to get appropriate support through my funding because my plan was built without reflecting my actual difficulties and support needs, despite evidence from medical professionals.
Although I was informed that I could request a plan review with further evidence, the reality was different. I was repeatedly ignored and discouraged by the local area coordinator. My need for support was belittled, and every single piece of evidence that I provided was invalidated, even though it was the very evidence that I was asked for. It continued for months until my conditions deteriorated severely to a point where I attempted to take my own life. The whole process was not just humiliating and miserable, but torturous.
It is difficult to describe how my feelings were when I learned that it was not only my case but a shared experience of many participants. When I realised that the inhumane treatment I experienced was purposely done as one of the ‘tactics’ that NDIA uses to prevent participants from accessing appropriate funding. When there are so many participants fighting for years just to get their ‘reasonable and necessary’ supports. When it was how the system treats disabled people.
The absolute despair is that things will only get worse. As the budget is slashed and requirements tightened, there will be more unexplained cuts to the funding, more ignorance of medical evidence, and it will be much harder for the participants to fight against a decision that is made. Even before this bill, participants are already squeezed to a breaking point under NDIA’s negligence. People who have no more mental capability left to fight eventually end up taking a hospital bed, or end their lives. This bill will make that happen on a larger scale.
The report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in 2020 shows that deaths by suicide among people who used disability services are three times higher than the general population. But there is no study on how many of us disabled people were forced to choose that way. How many of us were neglected by the system. How many of the suicides were preventable.
How many of us disabled people should die until the negligent system is properly fixed?
Please consider the consequences and the responsibility.
Please stop this bill.