National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3262
To the Australian Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee
Dear Senators,
I am writing to express my deep concern about the level of the cuts to the NDIS in this year’s budget. It has been an anxious time since the budget was brought down for me and other people with disabilities.
It is hard to fathom what this level of cuts to the scheme will mean for our ability to live in adequate life, with stable accommodation and enough support to remain healthy and connected to our family and community. It is a particularly hard to understand how such a wholesale slashing, with little consultation or planning for the consequences, both intended and unintended could result in successfully establishing an efficient NDIS which meets its purpose.
I am also very concerned about the loss of basic rights for NDIS participants in the proposed changes. For example, the restriction on appeal rights to the Administrative review tribunal and the loss of review provisions within the Act. These rights are much needed protections for anyone within an essential program such as the NDIS. Surely change could achieved without reducing the rights of participants to this extent.
The NDIS is a transformative social reform.Before the NDIS life could be almost impossible for a person with a significant disability. Personally, I have been through being unable to return home from hospital because of a lack of supports, living for eight years in a nursing home where the average age of residents was 30 years older than me, then at last (with the support of the NDIS) moving into my own apartment with the support I needed to live a happy and dignified life connected to my family and community.
Of course I understand that the scheme needed to be reformed to so as to rein in expenditure. But what has been announced is not reform. It is rather a cost cutting exercise, seemingly done without awareness of the impacts on people in the scheme and their families. This is not acceptable when there are so many people reliant on the scheme.
I hope the Parliament listens to the people affected by these changes so the implications of the cuts are understood before the legislation is considered by parliament.