National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3392
I am writing to submit my concerns regarding the proposed amendments to the NDIS and to flag my opposition to the changes. I request my surname and contact details be omitted from being published, to protect the privacy of family members who I addressing.
I have numerous family members with varying levels of autism, and I have seen the struggles that older family members have experienced through their lives with an unsupported struggle, in contrast to the vast developental improvements the youngest members of my family have been able to achieve, through a structure, funded support system.
I am concerned regarding the plans to reassess people with autism. My 6 year old nephew has moderate autism and would be one of the targets of this bill to have. his supports stripped away. He has been through multiple assessments already in his young life to determine the supports he needs, and each time means long waiting lists, gaps in care, and ongoing stress for the family. The assessments he has already received have determined the care that he requires, and from witnessing his development, it is clear the positive effects his NDIS supports have had on him. It is particularly concerning that there are plans to take assessments away from trained, qualified professionals- as those people who have assessed the child are far and away the best placed to determine what that child/person needs.
Further, the misuse of words categorising the permanence of issues is against all medical determinations regarding autism. There is no way in which autism is not permanent. You can support people to develop skills, but that support will need to continue to support different life stages, there is no way in which autism can be “cured” and thus, the misleading wording that some autism is not permanent is inaccurate.
He has progressed from a non-verbal boy who struggled with emotional regulation, to developing skills to demonstrate wonderful emotional intelligence, and receiving support that has allowed him to participate more in school, with less time being spent outside of the classroom due to disregulation. I am very scared that without the periodic in classroom supports that he currently receives, he will spend more time excluded from his classroom due to his disregulation, which will have long lasting detrimental impacts on his willingness to attend school, to learn, and to continue developing social skills with his peers. Both the academic and social aspects of school are vital to him being set up for success as a member of society. Early exclusion will have far reaching negative consequences which will cost society more than just supporting him from the start will have.
While there are plans to suppoprt these children under Thriving Kids, that program is very clearly not set up to support the children currently being supported by the NDIS. Changes must not be made to the current system until the gap has been closed, otherwise it is vulnerable young children and their families who will fall through that gap. I also note that it is incredibly rare for a government program to run multiple programs cheaper than a single program, due to the non-front line administrative costs. As such, it is highly unlikely that, should Thriving Kids be effective, that it will be cheaper than the current
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3392
system. It is particularly unlikely that the current shortage of autism specialists supporting children will be able to support more children, rather than less, if they are dealing with multiple government bureacracies, with multiple programs in place.
Aside from my personal experiences regarding the benefits of the NDIS helping family members, I am an experienced APS regulator in my own career, and I am concerned regarding the comments linking fraudulent providers to the need for the NDIS to be overhauled. In every industry which I have regulated, fraud and bad faith actors are a concerning part of the work and need for regulation. However, it is bad faith to paint parents seeking support for their children with special needs with the same brush. Parents of these children work tirelessly to support their children, and to help them find their place in the world. It is true that there are bad providers who are ripping off the country. However, speaking as a regulator, the amendments being proposed will not resolve this. They are going after the low hanging fruit instead of the big problem. By not tackling the problem of fraudulent providers, the NDIS will continue to burdened by the same issues, and the current changes will only serve to disenfranchise families struggling with special needs children, it will not fix the NDIS.
I support a sustainable NDIS, however, the unanticipated high levels of autism in the community is not a reason to stop supporting those people. It is a reason to effectively regulate the bad faith providers who are abusing both the taxpayer and the people needing support. Our society MUST support its vulnerable members to participate and succeed. We cannot tell them they are too expensive or difficult to support.