I am writing a submission with regards to the NDIS Futures Bill 2026, and want to raise some grave concerns I have about this.
My name is , and I am a participant of the NDIS.
I support Melissa McIntosh MP’s call for a senate enquire to this bill. At this point, I cannot support the Bill. The nature of the Bill is very vague, and does not seem to take into account the far-reaching economical and human effects these cuts will have across Australia and our society.
I want to know who will be funding the supports outside of NDIS? Will it comes from the states budgets? Charities have been depleted since COVID and because of COVID and cost of living issues, will they be able to contribute to help out?
Are they expecting that the police will have to attend more callouts? Do they have all the necessary training to be able to engage with someone who’s having an autistic episode? Can they differentiate the difference between autism and general hostility? Will the police get more funding to account for all this?
My plan was substantially slashed from the NDIA. I have BPD, ASD level 2 and my plan suggests that the police will be called out to help me. They said I do not need an OT or therapies and that I am not value for money. When I was well funded. We didn’t need police call outs because there were supports in place to help.
When my wife has called the police out, at times there isn’t an ambulance to assist with the callout. The police have not had extra training to be able to tackle those who need help effectively. Not to mention it takes the police away from doing their actual jobs out in the community and 2 officers have to respond to the call.
They screen my wife for Domestic Violence which isn’t the case here. Because it’s part of their job but they have no training in mental health and autism.
This change will affect burned out parents, with a wide spread worry of bringing in DCP to take children like the Grinch in the night. Is there a risk analysis that we can have access to? Families need to be kept together, not pulled apart. What is the government doing to make sure families are staying together? How is DCP managing taking on high needs children? When there has been so many issues with foster parents abusing the children? Children with school refusal, performance demand avoidance, and the homeschool children when it’s the ‘rule to send them to school’? This is going to set a lot of children up to be more reliant on the system that is failing them. This is going to be detrimental to their health, their families health because of the lack of funding, support and understanding.
Who is doing risk analysis around the rise of murder suicide rates from parents when it comes to no support or funding cuts? Who is looking into the suicide rates increasing when 50% of social and community access funding will be cut across the board?
Hospitals have disabled people in their beds, simply because there’s so that they have adequate supervision. Is there going to be more funding for beds? What about the ambulance ramping issues? What happens when doctors have to choose between disabled people being sent home with huge safety risks or not having beds for the heart attack victim?
Where are the risk analysis for this?
How are teachers being compensated to cope with children who have no supports or their supports cut? Are they having extra training provided? Does the government understand that poorly supported disabled children in the classroom means that they will struggle to engage in positive ways and disrupt all the children in the classroom? This will ultimately let down the next generation of children, our future leaders, medical professionals, tradies… Etc.
How does the government feel they can mitigate the almost $90 billion that will be lose to the economy when they cut $37 billion from NDIS? We are well aware now, that for every $1 spent within the NDIS $2.25 - $2.50 is returned to the economy, and this stays within the country. When we are at constant budget deficit, and a trillion dollars at that, how can the government justify $90 billion from the economy?
The commissioned NDIS Review 2023, suggest that the NDIS is costing so much because of the lack of community based services, and while the government vaguely refers to redirecting participants towards these systems, nothing exists!! You think because we are vulnerable, burned out, disabled that we were born yesterday?
The Review found that for every $1 billion of funding cut from the NDIS, modelling suggests a drop of around 10,200 jobs and a decline of $2.25 billion in economic activity. A 0.14 per cent reduction in GDP. NDIA is a big employment sector for Australians.
Further, Deloitte modelling found that closing the employment gap between disabled and people without a disability by just a third could produce cumulative $43 billion increase in GDP over a decade.
Why does the budget in the purposed Bill not focus more on the crime fraud? Again, we have vague references but no actual information on who is doing it and how it will be tackled. Further to this the budget and purposed Bill does not adequately focus on the cost of administrative error, long wait times and red tape, as well as some $3.3 million being allocated for AI programs that don’t even exist yet. How do we know there will not be a Bureau of Meteorology blow out and failure, or that the participants wont be punished again?
Monash Univerity also completed a study that showed NDIS reduces Medicare expenditure by $10.6 million of out of pocket costs, $16.3 million annually and saves almost $27 million per person a year in mental health needs for the community. It currently saves $1.92 billion annually in state health systems, because disabled people have supports waiting for them, so they can be discharged.
I do not support:
Self-management – unless registration can be streamlined and not a financial burden we will lose the good workers.
The Minister’s new power to cut funding without appeal (s 34A).
The new functional capacity test and the 2028 onwards reassessment of everyone.
The tougher unscheduled reassessment rules and the loss of review rights.
The new “all appropriate treatments” test for permanence for scheme eligibility.
Automated decisions and algorithms with no individual appeal.
I am an autistic dad, with an autistic wife and 2 autistic children. We are working for our children to have a great future, and that they will thrive moving forward and not drown in burnout. The proposed cuts is going to affect the head start that they get in this life, wellbeing and how they grow into functional adults. I want what’s best for them and this proposed Bill doesn’t fit it. Average families are struggling as it is even before this proposed Bill. Let alone making it worse.
I would appreciate that it is put on record that I do NOT support the NDIS Futures Bill
- I would appreciate that you voted NO to this Bill, and instead advocated for a senate enquiry, for transparent release of risk analysis on economy finances, wellbeing of carers and participants and how the community based supports will work and be funded. I want support from the government to work hard on amendments that better suit positive outcomes for both the disabled community and the wider Australian society.
When our taxes are paying for multi- billion dollar mining industry fuel handouts, and we have 18 mining companies in Australia alone. That’s roughly 54 billion dollars that could be used elsewhere. Why not do what the middle east do and the mining companies can pay for our health and universities?
They can contribute back to the community they supposedly support.