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Submission 3021 — Mr Travis Saunders — NDIS Future Generations Bill

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Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee:

National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the

NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026

Concerns for Autistic Participants with Complex High Support Needs

To: Committee Secretary

Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs

PO Box 6100

Parliament House

Canberra ACT 2600

Date: 31 May 2026

Joint Submission Authors: Patrick Saunders, Travis Saunders, Fiona Churchman

  • Patrick Saunders: NDIS Participant for 12 years; Level 3 Autism (Nonspeaking, Childhood Apraxia of Speech, Developmental Coordination Disorder, ADHD); Member of the SA

Disability Ministers Advisory Council; Walking SA Ambassador; Advocate for nonspeaking

Autistic people.

  • Travis Saunders: Parent of a NDIS Participant (Patrick Saunders) who requires very substantial support; Churchill Fellow in Autism (2023); former Member of the Australian Autism Research Council and Sole Trader working in disability.

  • Fiona Churchman: Parent of a NDIS Participant (Patrick Saunders) who requires very substantial support; Senior Project Manager, ABC International Development.

Introduction and Lived Experience

We submit this evidence regarding the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026. Our core concern is how the proposed legislative changes will disproportionately and negatively impact autistic NDIS participants with complex, high-level support needs, particularly those who are nonspeaking, minimally speaking and unreliable speakers.

Our son, Patrick Saunders, is a 16-year-old who has been an NDIS participant for 12 years. He has a diagnosis of Level 3 Autism (requiring very substantial support), is nonspeaking due to Childhood Apraxia of Speech, and struggles to move his body with intent impacted by his Developmental Coordination Disorder. Patrick has been presumed incompetent and intellectually disabled his whole life by a large cross section of society (including Education Departments, individual teachers and so called specialist NDIS registered autism services), however he is highly intelligent. For more than ten years our family has worked on supporting Patrick’s motor planning and regulation so he can now more reliably point to letters on a letterboard to spell out his thoughts, needs and wants. Patrick now

communicates via spelling on a letterboard, requiring very substantial 1:1 support from a Communication and Regulation Partner (CRP) for all aspects of daily life. He cannot get his needs and wants met without this support.

Patrick’s disability is characterised by extremely complex care needs that necessitate continuous, high-intensity support across all hours of the day and night including;

  • Communication, all daily living needs, safety & self-harm prevention, night-time care (sleep support), access to the community, emotional regulation, social relationships, participation in the community, and functional social communication skills, and eating and sensory support in all environments.

Patrick’s experience demonstrates that 24/7 support to access communication is life-enabling. As Patrick spelled:

“They (CRP) are the most important person in my life. They help me regulate, motor plan and teach me. They presume competence and talk to me like a human and not a baby. With their support my life and happiness has changed.”

While we support the Bill’s goal of securing the NDIS for future generations, including fighting fraud, slowing cost increases, and delivering quality services, this must not be achieved by cutting essential, life-enabling supports for those with the greatest needs.

Specific Concerns Regarding the Bill’s Amendments

  1. Standardised, Evidence-Based Assessments and Functional Capacity The Bill’s introduction of a formal definition of “functional capacity” and the intent to use standardised assessment tools pose a critical risk to complex participants.

Risk of Inaccurate Assessment: For nonspeaking Autistic individuals with complex motor differences like Apraxia and Developmental Coordination Disorder, any assessment focusing on independent motor output will inherently fail to capture their true cognitive capacity. Patrick’s functional capacity is conditional on the presence of his CRP. Any standardised tool that fails to recognise and fund this essential, continuous 1:1 communication access as the basis of his functional independence will lead to an inaccurate assessment and an unjust reduction in funding. Patrick’s struggle is captured in his own words:

“Life was incredibly challenging and sad before I could communicate using a letterboard and pointing with purpose to spell my thoughts. I remember thinking I was never going to be able to communicate and wanting to end my life. I couldn’t communicate anything I wanted or needed from basic requests right through to being in extreme pain. I was emotional all the time, constantly screaming and self-harming. My life had no meaning, and I was depressed and suicidal. Are you able to imagine for a minute what your life would look like if you couldn’t communicate at all and people

made every decision for you, and most were wrong? I am so happy my parents found a way to support my Apraxic body.

My life now has meaning and purpose and I am so much happier.”

Patrick’s Achievements: With consistent, long-term, specialised support, Patrick has become a Member of the SA Disability Ministers Advisory Council, an Ambassador for Walking SA, and a volunteer at the Department of Environment and Water. He has successfully hiked the 65 km Overland Track in Tasmania over six nights and been invited to address the largest conference of autistic spellers in Washington DC. His advocacy work—which includes an address to the South Australian Parliament that received over three million views—ensures the needs of nonspeakers are considered in creating policies and legislation.

Without consistent, long-term, specialised support all of this would cease, which would be detrimental to Patrick and the representation of nonspeakers in critical debates and discussions about this group in society (including how the NDIS operates).

Recommendation: New assessments of “functional capacity” must be designed in consultation with nonspeaking autistic people (not just their parents). These assessments must validate supported communication (e.g., spelling/typing with a CRP) as an essential, functional support, ensuring that complex motor impairments do not result in the misjudgement of cognitive competence or a reduction in essential support funding.

  1. Strengthening Guidance on “Reasonable and Necessary” Supports and Ministerial Powers The Bill gives the Minister power to cut funding to entire categories across the Scheme, without consideration of individual circumstances. This poses a direct threat to capacity-building supports crucial for complex participants, particularly given the confirmed cut of 50% to social, civic, and community participation budgets and 10% to capacity-building budgets from 1 October 2026.
  • Capacity Building for Complex Goals: For Patrick, social and civic participation funding is not discretionary. It enables him to hold leadership roles (e.g., SA Disability Ministers Advisory Council) and pursue aspirational goals, which builds his literacy, interpersonal, and motor planning skills. Patrick’s motivation for this work highlights the life-enabling nature of these supports:

“I love to advocate for others because I don’t want nonspeakers to experience the world in a negative way. People who are nonspeaking are under-represented and need someone to support their human rights.”

  • Protecting Specialist Support: A blanket cut to this budget category will directly dismantle the support structure for Patrick’s advocacy and community leadership, contradicting the NDIS objective of social and economic participation.

Recommendation: The revised criteria for “reasonable and necessary” must maintain flexibility to fund innovative, high-intensity, and bespoke supports—such as continuous 1:1 communication access, specialised coaching, and project-based advocacy work—that are directly related to achieving significant life goals and maximising genuine social inclusion for participants with complex, high support needs. As Patrick spelled:

“Accessing the community has given me a sense of purpose and direction and empowerment providing me with hope, connection and less isolation. Take this away or reduce these supports and my life becomes very small, isolated and meaningless. Autistic nonspeakers already suffer anxiety and depression.

Take away support and I’m at high risk of institutionalisation and suicide. You can’t do this to a vulnerable group of Australians.”

  1. Redefining Supports for Children and Parental Responsibility The Bill aims to stop NDIS support for a child if it is seen to reduce parental care time below “what is reasonably expected of a parent” or improve “household efficiency”. The required level of care and extreme physical, emotional and psychological demands this places on primary carers is already not adequately reflected in plans, and any reduction of support could have significant impacts.

Continuous High-Level Care: Patrick requires continuous, substantial 1:1 support for all ADLs, constant safety supervision (due to risks like self-harm and swallowing indigestible items), and 24/7 care due to being awake on a constant basis throughout the night. This level of specialised, 24/7 care for a complex disability is far beyond the “reasonable expectation” of a parent and is necessary for Patrick’s human rights and safety. This change could deny essential supports, even when a parent is unable to provide the disability-related support their child needs. Patrick spelled:

“My mum and dad work harder as parents compared to neurotypical parents. What 16-year-old do you know that needs their bum wiped, dressed and fed? I require everything in my life to be coached and supported. All reasonable and necessary.”

Economic Impact: If this specialised support were classified as a parental responsibility, it would force parents like ourselves to reduce or give up paid work. It has been impossible for the past 16 years for both of us to work full time.

Recommendation: Essential, continuous disability-related supports for complex needs must be explicitly exempted from being redefined as “reasonable parental responsibility,” ensuring that parents are not penalised for having children with high support needs. This includes children as teenagers and when they become adults. The care responsibilities do not change

  1. Changes to Provider Regulation and Mandatory Registration The Bill flags expanded mandatory registration for higher-risk supports, including personal care and daily living supports, and the creation of a new provider enrolment system rolling out through to

  2. Furthermore, the government intends to consult on differentiated pricing for some unregistered providers delivering supports such as social, civic, and community participation.

  • Impact on Specialist Support Access: Participants with complex needs, particularly nonspeaking autistic individuals, often rely on highly specialised, unregistered sole traders or small provider models whose expertise is rare and often tailored to the participant’s unique needs.

  • Training and Retention: Patrick’s disability is so complex that we, as his parents, must personally train support workers and actively look after them to keep them in our son’s life for a long time. No agency can train support workers to look after our son like us. The complexity of Patrick’s needs exemplifies why small business and specialist sole-trader models are the lifeblood of complex support needs in the NDIS.

  • Limitation of Choice and Control: Mandatory registration requirements may create administrative and cost barriers for these specialist providers, forcing them out of the Scheme or limiting their ability to deliver services. This would severely restrict the participant’s “choice and control” to select the most competent person for their complex needs, leaving them reliant on larger, registered providers who may lack the necessary specific training to support communication, regulation and motor differences. Patrick spelled:

“If my life required a large agency I currently wouldn’t be communicating. Sole traders invest in me and build a relationship with me. Large agencies ask people to work with you and often these individuals have a good heart but are not as invested in you because it’s not their business and they make substantially less than a sole trader. I need long term relationships and experience shows this occurs when I employ sole traders. I wouldn’t feel safe with a large organisation.”

Recommendation: Any expanded mandatory registration requirements must include exemptions or a simplified registration pathway for sole traders who provide highly specialised, low-volume, high intensity support that is demonstrably critical for a participant’s complex needs, thereby preserving choice and control.

  1. Plan Management
  • Flexibility and Reassessments: Limiting when a participant can request an unscheduled plan reassessment will harm participants like Patrick who are undergoing major life stage transitions, such as moving from high school into employment pathways. The NDIS must maintain flexibility for dynamic situations, especially for individuals whose potential is unlocked by emerging technologies and supports.

Conclusion

We urge the Committee to consider the critical importance of ensuring that the NDIS Amendment Bill 2026 and its subsequent Rules safeguard the necessary high-level, bespoke funding for nonspeaking autistic individuals with complex needs. The transformative impact of Patrick’s current support is clear through his words:

“The NDIS has changed my life. While l do not receive a large budget, I have still been able to have some wins in life. A recent functional capacity assessment written by an OT stated that I require 24/7 support showing the NDIS has a long way to go to get it right.

They currently fall short by more than 100 hours a week in my plan.

Imagine my life if they get it right. Australia’s first Autistic nonspeaking Prime Minister.”

The Bill must secure the NDIS by focusing on efficiency and integrity without sacrificing the critical, life-enabling supports that allow participants with the highest needs to lead autonomous and engaged lives.