Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee
Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the
NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submitted by:
Legal Guardian and NDIS Plan Nominee —
Date: 27 June 2026
About me and my brother
My name is . I am the VCAT-appointed Legal Guardian and NDIS Plan
Nominee for my brother , who is 61 years old. is non-verbal, wheelchair-dependent, and has an acquired brain injury, active epilepsy with a documented history of Status Epilepticus, schizophrenia, and dysphagia requiring texture-modified food. He cannot speak. He cannot advocate for himself. He depends entirely on the people paid to care for him.
’s NDIS plan is approximately $180,000 per year, reflecting the profound complexity of his needs. I make this submission as his guardian, and as someone who has spent the past five weeks documenting serious and ongoing failures in the disability support system that I believe this Committee needs to understand.
I support the objective of a sustainable, accountable NDIS. I am not making this submission to argue every provision of the Bill. I am making it because, while the Bill strengthens fraud and compliance powers, it does not address the specific and fundamental gap that allowed to be repeatedly placed in danger: the absence of any national minimum competency standard for disability support workers.
Until May 2026, I assumed my brother’s carers were appropriately qualified to support him.
I assumed the system required it. I assumed the law protected him. I was wrong on all three counts. There is no national law requiring a disability support worker to hold any qualification beyond a current first aid certificate — regardless of how complex or vulnerable the person in their care. I discovered this the day after I lodged a formal complaint about my brother’s care. I was in disbelief.
What happened to
Four times a week, was taken out into the community by support workers. Four times a week, his life was in their hands. The only qualification those workers were required to hold was a current first aid certificate.
has active epilepsy and a documented history of Status Epilepticus — a recognised medical emergency that can cause permanent brain damage or death without immediate intervention. In September 2024, a worker witnessed a confirmed seizure and wheeled home instead of calling an ambulance. During the same period, workers were recorded in their own shift notes purchasing and providing McDonald’s fries to — a man with severe dysphagia, for whom inappropriate food textures carry a serious risk of aspiration and potentially fatal aspiration pneumonia. Two simultaneous failures, documented in the provider’s own records.
I raised both failures formally in writing. I sent a written instruction to the provider in June 2025 explicitly stating that presents with Status Epilepticus and that an ambulance must be called immediately. ’s Epilepsy Action Plan was updated to state CALL AMBULANCE IMMEDIATELY for provider staff. The provider’s own Supports Manager confirmed in writing that all staff had read and signed that plan.
In May 2026, a second worker witnessed what appeared to be a seizure. He wheeled home.
In June 2026, choked on food during a community outing. I received a phone call. No written incident report has ever been provided to me as his Legal Guardian.
The provider’s own handbook confirms the gap
I obtained the provider’s publicly accessible staff handbook — version 10, dated 30 March 2026. The only mandatory pre-commencement training requirement listed is a current first aid certificate. On duty of care, the handbook states:
“Workers have a duty of care at all times to the people they are supporting. This means ensuring their safety and health to the best of the worker’s ability.”
To the best of the worker’s ability is not a standard. It is a ceiling set at whatever an individual worker happens to know on the day they walk in. For a person with active epilepsy and dysphagia, that is not good enough.
When I asked for written evidence of worker qualifications, I was told formal qualifications are not mandatory. When I raised seizure training specifically, I was told in writing that no such training had been provided.
A person working in childcare must hold a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care to care for children. A person working as a disability support worker for someone with active epilepsy, dysphagia, and an acquired brain injury needs only a first aid certificate. There is no national law that requires anything more.
The Bill does not close this gap
I understand the Bill strengthens fraud, compliance and regulatory arrangements, including civil penalties and expanded information-gathering powers for the NDIA and the Commission. I support stronger accountability. But penalties applied after harm has occurred do not protect a non-verbal man during the fourteen minutes a worker spends deciding whether to call an ambulance. Compliance powers do not teach a worker how to recognise a seizure or manage dysphagia.
The NDIS High Intensity Support Skills Descriptors, published by the Commission itself
in September 2024, are explicit that participants like require workers with specific, demonstrated competencies in their conditions. These are published standards. They are not legislated requirements. A provider can ignore them entirely and remain lawfully registered, as ’s provider did.
My recommendation: a national worker competency standard — ’s
Law
I am calling on the Committee to recommend that the Bill, or accompanying legislation, establish a mandatory national competency standard for disability support workers — what I call ’s Law, formally proposed as the Disability Support Worker Competency Act. I have written separately to Minister Jenny McAllister, Shadow Minister for the NDIS Melissa McIntosh, and Senator Pauline Hanson proposing this legislation.
The proposal contains four concrete elements:
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A six-domain Participant Medical Complexity Matrix — every NDIS participant assessed across domains including epilepsy, dysphagia, acquired brain injury, and communication. scores 18 out of 18 — the highest possible level of complexity.
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A three-tier Mandatory Worker Competency Standard matched to that matrix — a worker supporting a Tier 3 participant like must hold verified, documented competency in each of that participant’s conditions. Not a sign-off against a care plan. Verified competency.
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Mandatory independent support coordination for participants above a defined complexity threshold — with a registered coordinator who has no financial connection to the support provider.
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Enforceable regional provision obligations — so that complex participants in regional areas are not left without qualified provider options simply because of where they live.
The Aged Care Act 2024 established mandatory minimum training requirements for aged care workers following the Royal Commission. Disability support workers caring for people with active epilepsy, dysphagia, acquired brain injury, and schizophrenia deserve the same legislative protection. This is not a guideline. It is a law — one that cannot be watered down in the next policy cycle.
Why this matters beyond
More than 270,000 Australians currently live with epilepsy — and 1 in 25 will be diagnosed at some point in their lives. People living with epilepsy have a mortality rate two to three times higher than the general population; epilepsy causes approximately 300 deaths in Australia every year. More than one million Australians live with dysphagia. Choking is the second biggest cause of preventable death in aged care
settings. (Sources: Epilepsy Foundation Australia; Speech Pathology Australia,
Swallowing Awareness Day 2026.)
is not an outlier. He is a data point in a very large population with no legislative protection.
My brother nearly died once. Four times a week, there was a real chance of it happening again. And the law not only permitted it — it saw nothing wrong.
Current status of my complaints
I have lodged formal complaints with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (Reference , escalated to the specialist complex complaints team) and the NDIS Fraud Taskforce (Reference ). The Commission investigation is active. The Fraud Taskforce confirmed on 29 June 2026 that the matter is under investigation. The formal complaint documents 13 numbered incidents. The concurrent Fraud Taskforce report raises 20 specific concerns. The provider has been terminated and is now supported by a new provider.
Recommendation
I respectfully ask the Committee to recommend that the Government commit to developing a mandatory national worker competency standard for disability support workers, tiered to participant complexity and modelled on the framework outlined above, as a matter of priority alongside the fraud and compliance measures in this Bill.
Life has dealt a difficult hand. The best I can do is keep him safe and make his life the best it can be. The law should help me do that. Right now, it doesn’t.
I am happy to provide further documentation or give evidence to the Committee if that would assist.