Submission in Opposition to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the
NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
I write as a parent of a 15-year-old autistic daughter with significant functional impairments across multiple areas of daily life.
My daughter has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Generalised Anxiety Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder. She also experiences impairments in executive functioning, High levels of sensitivity to sound and touch, chronic fatigue and a recently diagnosed POTS-like syndrome. She has a history of self-harm and ongoing mental health vulnerability.
The complex needs of children like her, require a range of support that reflects those complexities and is not always available in standard households. I am deeply concerned about effect of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 and the potential impact these changes may have on autistic young people.
Defining Functional Capacity
More standardised or objective assessment of functional capacity may fail to adequately capture the daily reality of autistic young people, particularly highly intelligent autistic girls who often mask their difficulties.
On paper, my daughter has tested as “twice exceptional” by psychologists, appearing to be extremely capable. However, her actual day-to-day functioning is significantly impaired.
Mainstream schooling proved to be very difficult and now undertakes distance education. Even after reducing her subject load, she continues to struggle to meet educational demands, experiencing substantial difficulty with planning, organisation, task initiation, cognitive flexibility, and emotional regulation – these all have significant impacts on her wellbeing.
Tested in the 98th percentile for Mathematics, she struggles to complete assigned homework tasks and makes slow progress on assessment tasks. She has a genuine interest in Mathematics and has demonstrated learning well above her year level but has difficulty in maintaining satisfactory progress. This highlights that her difficulties are not caused by lack of intelligence, motivation or effort but by impairments that substantially affect her ability to translate ability into performance.
I am concerned that standardised assessments may over-estimate the functioning of young people like my daughter by focusing on what they are theoretically capable of doing rather than what they can consistently sustain in daily life.
Limiting Unscheduled Plan Reassessments
The proposal to tighten criteria for unscheduled plan reassessments is particularly concerning.
Nearly 3 years after my daughter’s autism diagnosis in 2023, her functioning has changed significantly. At that time, she was attempting mainstream schooling. Since then, increasing educational demands, escalating anxiety, chronic fatigue, sensory difficulties and emerging health issues have substantially affected her functioning.
Restricting opportunities to seek reassessment may delay access to supports during periods of deterioration and place young people at greater risk of crisis.
Strengthening the Link Between Impairment and Support Needs
Restricting support eligibility and eligible impairments may disadvantage participants with complex, overlapping conditions.
My daughter’s conditions are overlapping and complex – her autism cannot be separated neatly from her anxiety disorders, sensory processing difficulties, executive functioning impairments and physical health challenges.
For example, her executive functioning difficulties contribute directly to educational disengagement, while anxiety and fatigue further impair her ability to participate in learning. A narrow interpretation of causation risks overlooking the cumulative functional impact of multiple interacting disabilities.
Support Determinations and Reduction of Funding for Groups of Supports
Provisions enabling reductions in funding for categories such as social, civic and community participation and capacity-building supports are also concerning.
For autistic adolescents, these supports are not optional extras – they are critical. The ability to make and maintain friendships and comprehend the intricacies of them during adolescence and the teenage years is difficult.
My daughter has only two friends and has limited communication with one of them. She experiences significant social anxiety, sensory restrictions and difficulty participating in community activities that many teenagers take for granted.
Supports that assist her to develop executive functioning, emotional regulation, self-management and independence skills are vitally important to her. These supports are vital rather than discretionary investments in her future functioning and independence.
Reducing these supports will likely increase long-term dependence rather than reduce it, especially as she transitions to adulthood.
Plan Renewal and Removal of Carry-Over Funding
The proposal for end dates to plans without the capacity to roll over funds does not suit the rollercoaster that can be experienced in Autism.
Anxiety levels, fatigue, health issues and educational demands cause massive fluctuations in my daughter’s life. There are periods where support utilisation may be lower, followed by periods of substantially increased need.
An approach that neglects the nature of this in a teenage autistic person can potentially penalise the progress of children such as my daughter.
Changes to the Definition of Permanence
The concept of permanence and the consideration of “all appropriate treatment” are disturbing.
Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disability. While therapies and supports may improve functioning, they do not remove the disability.
There is a risk that participants may be expected to pursue increasing amounts of treatment before support needs are recognised, despite ongoing significant functional impairments.
Consideration of Other Service Systems and Informal Supports
I am particularly concerned about provisions requiring consideration of other service systems and informal supports.
The role of family and other informal supports should be to complement professional supports, not to replace them.
Families provide invaluable care and advocacy, but parents and carers are generally not professionally trained like occupational therapists, psychologists, speech pathologists, educators or other allied health professionals. Informal supports should complement rather than replace the expertise and training provided by qualified practitioners.
The complex and varied needs of young autistic people requires individualised advice and interventions that are tailored to their specific circumstances, strengths and challenges - access to appropriately qualified therapists ensures that participants receive this.
My daughter relies heavily on professional supports that assist with executive functioning, emotional regulation, sensory processing, community participation whilst managing anxiety, and the development of independence skills. Without access to appropriately qualified professionals, families will be left to navigate complex disability-related challenges without the knowledge, training or resources required to identify and implement the most effective plans.
The assumption that informal supports can substitute for professional expertise risks creating poorer outcomes for participants and greater stress for families.
Single parents, parents managing their own physical disabilities and mental health challenges or parents who need to work full time would be further disadvantaged. Increased reliance on informal supports may place unrealistic expectations on carers while making decisions to promote successful outcomes for their child.
A parent willing to provide support should not be interpreted as evidence that support needs are already being met.
Support needs of autistic children do not disappear. Without access to professional support, those needs are transferred to families, many of whom are already operating at capacity.
Impact on Mental Health and Suicide Risk
In a world that is selling supporting Mental Health as highly valuable, reduced supports will have a large impact on the mental health outcomes of vulnerable young people.
Significant levels of anxiety, increasing emotional dysregulation and escalating meltdowns, have caused my daughter to self-harm.
The supports she receives are not simply about improving convenience or lifestyle. They act as protective factors that help maintain her safety, educational engagement, emotional stability, social participation and hope for the future.
Under current policies for worksites that mostly employ less vulnerable people than those diagnosed with autism, mental health is an incredibly important legal responsibility – why should it be less for those more vulnerable.
I fear that policy decisions designed to reduce expenditure within the NDIS may ultimately shift costs to mental health services, emergency departments, hospitals, education systems and families, while causing significant harm to vulnerable young people.
Conclusion
While I believe that reviews and reform is necessary, I urge decision-makers to ensure that reforms do not unintentionally disadvantage autistic young people whose disabilities may be less visible, highly variable or masked by intelligence.
For families like mine, NDIS supports do not replace parental care. They make that care sustainable.