National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3367
My neighbour and my mum are NDIS participants. I support them both at significant detriment to my own studies, career goals, relationships and mental health. NDIS support is vital for providing basic quality of life to people living with disability and to their loved ones who otherwise have to sacrifice their own quality of life poorly bridging the gap left by a lack of support.
My mum has schizoaffective bipolar as well as severe depression, anxiety and trauma. Her NDIS supports are necessary to allow her to do the most basic things. She often struggles to speak due to anxiety and trauma and consequently gets too scared do things like her basic grocery shopping, going out to eat, going for walks in communal recreational spaces, etc. If she does not have these supports she is too afraid to go out causing isolation, reduced access to adequate nutrition and hygiene products, decreased physical activity, etc. This isolation and subsequent decline in material and emotional care invariably triggers her to relapse into psychosis and ends in extended in-patient psychiatric care, the cost of which is much greater than funding these preventative supports.
My neighbour is on NDIS for psych-social disability but also has significant permanent physical disability. His disabilities impact his basic strength and mobility so he has very limited capacity to do things like vacuum, lift pots and pans, stand for long periods to cook or wash dishes, hang out laundry. His stamina is also incredibly low. He struggles to walk more than a couple of hundred meters and when it is unavoidable renders him incredibly weak and exhausted for the next couple of days preventing him from going anywhere or doing anything. He experiences constant roaming pain as well as autoimmune issues that are potentially life threatening when exacerbated and are triggered primarily by stress. On top of these physical barriers he has complex trauma, anxiety and depression that prevent him from feeling safe to engage in social situations which has left him very isolated.
When I met him a few years ago he could barely handle his days to day. In addition to his disabilities he had just experienced long periods of unstable/temporary living situations. A charity assisted him in securing an apartment next door to me and he was able to get consistent support workers that he was able to slowly build trust with. In that time he went from experiencing frequent suicidal ideation, barely being able to feed himself, clean his home, not feeling safe to meet people/form social connections, not having stamina to go out more for more than 20 minutes once every few days and not being able to engage in hobbies/activities for personal fulfillment.
Since establishing stable accommodation next door he has had support workers 6 days a week, regular physiotherapy, regular hydrotherapy, regular psych support, social connection through a regular disability board/video gaming group and nutritionally balanced meal deliveries to cover his lunches and dinners all funded by NDIS. His support workers assisted him with dish washing, laundry, bathroom cleaning, grocery shopping, transport to and from specialist and GP appointments, breakfast/snack meal prep, transport/emotional support to safely engage in his board games group.
Over time these supports helped him immensely. He got to the point after a couple of years where he was able to build up his strength and stamina as well as manage his pain and keep it at a bearable level due to his physio and hydro supports. Because of this he was able to eventually make a small amount of his own meals, do a lot of his own vacuuming, dishes, bathroom cleaning and general cleaning. He was able to go out for up to a couple of hours at a time and so was not forced to cut errands short and go without things he needed due to exhaustion and unbearable pains. He was even able to work up to doing short rides to do local grocery shopping by himself with the assistance of and E-bike and gain some autonomy to go places locally without having to wait for a scheduled support worker. Games group and psychological support were instrumental in improving his quality of life, assisting him in forming relationships and feeling safe in social settings. For a long time my Dad and I were the only people in his life apart from his funded support workers but he was eventually gained confidence to engage with other participants at his games group and even establish contact and start to rebuild his relationships with family who live interstate from whom he’d been previously estranged. All of these supports
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3367
reduced stress which in turn assisted in managing his chronic pain, mental health and autoimmune condition.
His funding was cut late last year and in the absence of those supports he has regressed significantly. His physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, pysch support, meal deliveries and most of his support worker hours have been cut. He now struggles to buy/prepare food and often goes without eating. He cannot manage cleaning his home and has had a significant decline in hygiene. He has constant panic attacks and is back up to his highest dose of anxiety medication which he had previously been able to reduce and had been hoping to reduce even further. His chronic pain is flaring constantly as are the warning signs associated with complications from his auto immune condition. He is back to poor energy levels, strength and mobility. He has greatly reduced capacity to ride his bike and doesn’t feel safe doing so due to his mental health. He is once again suicidal and cannot engage in social relationships and environments so he has not been able to go to games group despite it being one of the few things that is still funded.
I am unpaid and yet the burden falls on me to buy and make his food, clean his house, help him get to appointments, run errands for him and be a social support. This has forced me to withdraw from and re attempt units of my tafe course, pay for life essentials he needs when I am already financially strained, give up almost all of my free time and energy to care for him which has almost entirely prevented me from having my own social life and has heavily impacted my ability to keep up with my own household needs.
People with disability deserve to have the same opportunities as everyone else. That means basic access to food, housing, healthcare, transport, clean home environments, community services, recreation, access to nature, entertainment, social activities, etc. Yes technically my neighbour is alive right now but he is unable to live his life in any meaningful way without these supports and lives in great physical and emotional distress and pain. We are fighting to get his supports back as are so many in similar situations and the government wants to make more cuts. Cuts to the NDIS will kill people plain and simple. Stop subsidizing fossil fuel companies, stop buying nuclear subs, stop giving tax breaks to the 1% and fund the basic quality of life of your constituents.
Do not cut funding to the NDIS. Do not make it easier to kick people off the scheme. Do not make it harder for people to access the scheme in the first place. Do not give the minister authority to determine a participants eligibility, functional capacity or needs. These changes are will kill people.