National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3301
31/05/2026
To: Committee Secretary, Community Affairs Legislation Committee,
community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au
Re: Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing
the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Dear Committee Secretary,
My name is Marielle Turner, and I am an Occupational Therapist (OT) working regionally from Albury (Bungambrawatha, Wiradjuri Country) and Wodonga for the last 6 years. Over this time, I have travelled to Deniliquin (Yorta Yorta Country) regularly and have continued to support many of my clients as they move around regionally. Prior to becoming an OT, I worked as an allied health assistant (AHA) and in administration for a local speech pathology and OT practice. I have seen first-hand the substantial barriers the disabled communities regionally have experienced prior to the introduction to NDIS in accessing appropriate disability services. I have also seen the unique barriers remote, rural and regional disabled communities continue to face despite the introduction of the NDIS. Most concerning is the lack of embedding culturally responsive systems, structures and workforces within the NDIS for these disabled communities. The Disability Royal Commission 2023 described experiencing both racism and ableism as ‘double disadvantage’. The term intersectional discrimination describes the unique experience of multiple forms of discrimination at once, which is what many of the people I support as their OT experience daily.
The proposed National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 is inhumane at its core and does not represent or ensure financial sustainability as it has been advertised to address. My position is that the Securing the NDIS Bill should be opposed.
The Bill proposes substantial restructuring of the NDIS, to the extent that it may as well be renamed as it is so far from the origins and intentions of the NDIS. The proposed changes will indefinitely impact the most marginalised people within the disabled communities in Australia, to the point of directly limiting and isolating these people from supports they need to get up in the morning. The proposed changes will substantially increase the role of unpaid support persons (disproportionality First Nation women) and therefore decrease the participation within Australian society and economy providing services they otherwise would have. The proposed changes in the Bill will see a massive reduction in disabled people being active members of society, not because these people don’t want to attend their workplaces, volunteering commitments or local facilities, but because the Bill will directly limit their ability to do so. Having fewer disabled people within the workforces and society not only is a direct violation of disabled people’s
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3301
human rights, but it will negatively impact productivity, overall wellbeing and diversity of ideas, outputs and achievements.
Please see the following submissions and position statements that I align with, and strongly urge the Committee Secretary to consider and review as soon as possible:
- Occupational Therapy Society (OTSi) Submission
- First Peoples Disability Network (FPDN) Advocacy:
o FPDN Position Statement – First Nations Disability Forum
o FPDN Position Statement – Justice
o FPDN Position Statement – Human Rights Act
o FPDN Position Statement – Housing & Homelessness
o FPDN Position Statement – Family and Domestic Violence
o FPDN Fact Sheet Australia’s Disability Strategy
o FPDN Fact Sheet – First Nations Disability
o FPDN Submission: Supplementary Submission: National DisabilityInsurance Scheme Amendment Bill 2024
o FPDN Submission: National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment Bill
2024
- Ms Cat Walker Submission
- Justice and Equity Centre Submission
- Australian Multicultural Women’s Alliance Submission As an OT it is becoming increasingly evident that the people we support are not provided the funding as recommended, despite OT and other allied health delivering supports that reduce long term costs through our capacity building approach. When disabled people are consistently underfunded, disabled people are left in the middle of a viscous cycle where their basic needs are not being met, let alone their ability to engage in capacity building supports. If co-design was truly embedded into the proposed Bill, this would address the advertised concerns the government has regarding the cost of the NDIS. However, if we truly looked at the benefits the NDIS enables, we would also acknowledge the vast economic and productivity growth that disabled people bring to our society.
The economic and livelihood costs that are at risk if the Bill goes ahead far outweigh any supposed concerns that resulted in these proposals. Disabled people have human rights that we must uphold, please consider the privilege you have when you sit and read these submissions and make decisions that can quite literally reduce a person’s rights.
Yours sincerely,