National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3124 07 4035 6771
Admin@lifestyleconnections.com.au
www.lifestyleconnections.com.au Unit 1/292 Severin St, Parramatta Park, QLD, 4870
10 July 2026
Senate Inquiry, NDIS Amendment Bill 2026
(Please note that this submission was sent as a letter to the following in May, but we believe the issues are outstanding and should be considered by the Inquiry
Hon Mark Butler MP
Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme
And cc’d to Senator the Hon Nita Green, Senator for Queensland, and to Mr Matt Smith, Member for
Leichhardt)
Dear Committee Members
National Disability Insurance Scheme - Community Participation
We are writing to you to express our concern about the potential impact of some of the proposed changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), in particular to Community Participation.
“We” are the Committee and Executive Officer of Lifestyle Connections Association Incorporated (LCAI) in Cairns.
LCAI was founded as Leisure Connections in 1993 in Cairns by parents of people with a disability. It’s key philosophy was (and still is) to provide opportunities for people with a disability to participate in the community and to live an ordinary life (it was a deliberate attempt to move away from activities specifically designed for people with a disability) by providing one-to-one support.
While we do provide assistance with daily living (personal care), and assistance to attend medical appointments and shopping, we continue to provide support for other activities: we currently have Service Users supported to attend pottery class, choir, trivia night, muay thai & judo, church, gaming group, and fishing, among other things.
Our Community Participation Service Users are matched with their Support Worker (they have the choice and can change at any time without question) and our Support Workers do not wear a uniform - a deliberate decision on our part.
We bought premises in 2025 after operating out of rental properties for over 30 years. We have also just purchased a 2-wheel chair van as we have identified a need among our Service Users for transport especially as Cairns Taxis have recently withdrawn from providing NDIS-funded wheelchair transport.
We are a registered NDIS Provider. At our last full audit by NDIA we were ranked in the 700’s of the 1,000 best-performing providers (they ranked the top 1,000 of approximately 65,000 registered, audited providers in Australia).
It is our firm belief, backed by over 30 years of experience, that access to the community to participate in the all activities of an ordinary life are essential to any person’s health and well-being and urge you to consider carefully any changes to the NDIS that might limit a person’s legitimate access to those activities.
Yours faithfully
Megan Lilly President Susanne Dale Executive OfficerOn behalf of the LCAI Management Committee
Lifestyle Connections Association Inc. ABN: 79 357 197 501