I work as an independent support worker for participants on the NDIS. I also have friends who rely on NDIS funding for their support, as well as those who struggle with disability but are not on the NDIS, and would be impacted by the proposed changes that would make it even harder to get access to NDIS. I have seen first hand the difference having appropriate supports and the choice to direct them makes, as well as how much a person’s health and life can deteriorate without access to this. I am deeply concerned about the proposed cuts and strongly oppose this bill. We all should be alarmed about what is being proposed. This bill would also affect everyone in the community whether they are on the NDIS or not, whether they are currently disabled or not. Disability is a part of human reality and anyone can be impacted by it at any stage in life.
Here are some of the proposed changes that concern me the most:
Broad open-ended Ministerial powers to cut whole categories of supports across the board This is incredibly alarming and dangerous. This would give the Minister, as well as those of future and potentially more inhumane governments, the ability to cut funding to a whole category of support, affecting everyone on it with no consideration of their individual circumstances. It could also allow the Minister to make discriminatory decisions against cohorts of people on the NDIS based on their disability. It allows the Minister to cut supports that have already been determined to be needed by a person. This treats people with disabilities as dollar figures on a spreadsheet rather than real humans whose lives and safety depend on this support. I cannot understate how devastating and catastrophic these actions would be to many people’s lives. This kind of power, which lacks appropriate constraints and safeguards, cannot be allowed to pass into law. This is especially urgent because of the following point, where in the proposed new laws there is no right to appeal when a decision has been made incorrectly. To rush this legislation through as the government is trying to do now is reckless and outrageous.
Removal of appeal rights The removal of appeal rights is a major human rights violation and would trap people in dire situations if they are given a plan which does not properly meet their needs, or if a mistake has been made and they have not been assessed correctly. The potential of people’s plans being written up or changed using automated decision making, as well the the proposed ability of the Minister of the day to make sweeping cuts to entire categories of support, make it even more urgently important that the right to appeal cannot be removed. To do so would be to willingly endanger and silence people, and this looks to be the intention in the drafting of this bill.
Computer-generated NDIS plans & automated decision making The push to replace planners with programs to computer-generate NDIS plans, and introduce automated decision making, is terrifying and dystopian. There is so much potential for decisions to be made wrongly against people and devastate their lives with no avenue to overturn the error or hold anyone accountable. People’s disabilities, needs and circumstances are also just too complex to be assessed by an algorithm. I believe this move must be firmly rejected and safeguards put in place to prevent this from ever happening.
Proposed cuts to Social & Community Participation funding As an example of cuts to a whole category of support, the government is proposing a 50% cut on social and community participation funding. Social and community access is not a luxury, it is very fundamental to a person’s well-being. It also includes support for tasks such as attending appointments, grocery shopping, going to work or school. It is needed to build and maintain connections with friends and family. It is also needed for people with disabilities who may be parents, where aspects of raising their children
also involves being supported to be in the community. Some people with disabilities also have responsibilities towards other members of their family, and need to be supported to do so. These are all very normal and important things for everyone, that people would generally consider to be essential activities. Being connected to others and having community, being known, is a vital part of creating safety for people. Without it, too many people die preventable deaths in the shadows, or suffer abuse and exploitation. The deep isolation and segregation that people with disabilities have been subjected to, and far too many people still experience, should be something that we continue work to change, not return more people to. What if home is not a safe place, and a person could never leave, or experience anything outside of an abusive environment? Also, beyond things like going to the doctor or going to work, people should be allowed to just do enjoyable things, experience life and be included in society, and have the support to do so. The benefits to a person’s well-being and ability to be within a community and build social connections can reduce their need for more services and supports elsewhere. People might even be able to thrive, for example to pursue education, creative practice, Paralympic sport, activism, community work and care. All of these things, which for many people would require support workers to do, contribute to the community - though of course people with disabilities would still have inherent worth if they didn’t do those things. Also, anything that reduces barriers for more people to participate in the community, increases diversity, and encourages us to understand more about each other, improves our society. Everybody benefits from people having the supports they need. This proposal is dehumanising and cruel, and encourages mean-spirited perceptions of people with disabilities as frivolously wasting resources at the expense of the taxpayer.
Worker ratios and housing I am also concerned that people could have their worker ratios cut (rather than having one-to-one support), forcing them into situations where they must share support. This could mean people being forced into group homes, or not being able to go out. It would reduce a lot of choice in people’s lives. It would also result in a much lower quality of support at best. One of the recommendations coming out of the Disability Royal Commission was to phase out group homes, as they are more often than not sites where abuse, neglect and segregation occur. Every person with disabilities needs individualised support, and adequate support, which is not possible when there is only one support worker for multiple people all with different needs, some which might be conflicting. Many people have spoken of being deeply traumatised by their experience in group homes. This is well documented by now. There is no excuse to make a decision like this and then be shocked by the consequences. Environments like that are even more disabling for people and result in worse outcomes for health and life. We must phase them out and we must not force people back into these situations.
Mandatory registration potentially taking away choice and control over supports One of the biggest anxieties that I hear about from the people I support is around mandatory registration of support workers that work directly for the client. Many people (who have the capacity to manage their own support workers and choose to) have found that this is the only way they have been able to choose who supports them and how their supports are delivered. Support work involves the most vulnerable of activities, such as personal care, as well as (often) navigating a lot of trauma and difficult situations. It involves building safety and understanding between the support worker and the person being supported, which takes time and commitment. It is not easy to invite a support worker into those parts of your life. Often with large support providers, there is a high turnover of staff, and people will often be sent a support worker who they don’t know at the last minute, who is unfamiliar with their needs and who they are as a person. This is not good for clients or workers, and creates constant stress and frustration, especially if a person requires communication support. If a person receiving support is spending the whole time training
and correcting the support worker on what to do for them, or acting out in frustration, or perhaps being anxious of a person they feel unsafe with, there is no space for them to just live their lives, make the best use of their support hours, or feel settled at home or anywhere else. This also contributes to high staff turnover and burnout, which can create environments for abuse and neglect. People with disabilities must be able to keep choice and control over who supports them.
Making disabled people pay for systemic problems Finally, the decision to recoup so much money by cutting support funding for people with disabilities and shrinking the NDIS, is cruel, ableist and unnecessary. It should be non-negotiable that if you are born with disability or acquire disability later in life that you receive the support you need to live your life, and not be institutionalised. People with disabilities did not choose how much their supports cost, nor are they responsible for why the cost of living is so high or why public services are inadequate, yet they are the ones being punished. There are ways to address inefficiency and tackle fraud within the NDIS, without taking away critical supports. There are other policy decisions that could be made to generate more money for the government, such as taxing fossil fuel industries fairly. However, the government has decided that people with disabilities are a much easier target and scapegoat than standing up to the fossil fuel lobby or billionaires. This is weak and unjust. Disability will not go away. It is a reality of human life. It is absurd to think that you can just plan to reduce the number of people who need NDIS support. I agree that disability supports and services outside of the NDIS must be improved and expanded so there is not such a big inequity between those who can get onto NDIS and those who can’t. But there needs to be a clear plan for this before making major changes to NDIS that affects people’s supports. By cutting funding for disability supports, costs will just be pushed elsewhere - onto families, onto a stretched hospital and health system. It will also remove employment for a lot of people - people with disabilities who lose their ability to work by having their supports cut, support workers and other providers, family members who might have to give up their job to take care of someone who’s lost their funding and housing. Forcing people to go without necessary support creates more preventable health conditions/deterioration and mental health crises. More people with disabilities will end up in prisons or hospitals because they have nowhere else to go.
This bill must be repealed.