National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3401
To the Senate Community Affairs Committee
Please excuse the general nature of this letter. I only found out moments ago about this inquiry, the results of which will directly affect my quality of life. Communications from the parliament, the NDIA, and concerned government agencies are largely inaccessible to many disabled Australians, for wide ranging reasons. I am one of this Australians.
Rolling changes to the NDIS rules and service payments have had a direct impact on me. My sole income is from The Disability Support Pension. I have had a plan to create some independent income, but spikes were thrown in the road at several turns, and that plan remains theoretical. This means I am particularly vulnerable to changes in my plan.
I have been made aware that proposed legislation would give the NDIS minister wide reaching powers to cut plans by as much as fifty percent, and ability to arbitrarily remove participants from the scheme. This is profoundly concerning. There is toI have seen a plan that another participant had too much to understand about every individual case for one minister to be able to make sound and well informed decisions of this nature. This power must not be granted.
I am aware that sweeping changes to the way plans are written allow extraordinary mistakes and misleading statements to remain in any given participant’s plan. This happened to me three years ago, with ongoing financial implications for me from which I cannot recover. See: sole income from DSP. I have been informed about the recent new plan of a participant, which boldly lists general services as community supports. This includes the GP. Ask yourselves this question: Do I consider my own GP part of my inner circle of supports? Or is my GP a doctor? I know your answer. Your GP is doctor. Other health providers are mentioned as supports. This is not real. This is imagined. Just because a planner at the NDIA has been directed to write it does not make it so. It is darkly unethical. It is a lie. Other inaccuracies include her location, and lists me a a community support. I live across the ocean in another state. How can I be a community support????
I remind you that the NDIA makes a very clear distinction between medical and disability, and works very hard to bend any circumstance they can into a medical category so that they do not have to provide funding. I experience this all the time. Apparently my need for temporary supported accommodation because my physical disability means the addition of post surgical (due to my genetic condition causing disability) incapacity in my shoulder makes my usual home situation unsafe. IF I was normal, this would not be the case. I have little to no physical capacity to compensate for injury, and it is expected I need assistance at this time. The NDIA is adamant that I either leave my home and go to long term accommodation, or stay at home and have accidents. So I am merrily staying at home having accidents. Well done with your euphemisms. You win, NDIA. Almost nobody would leave their home to go into an old people’s home by choice. You wouldn’t, either.
I note that nobody wants to mention means testing. The result is that wealthier participants maintain access to services because they can afford to pay any gaps in fees. I have plenty of funding for physiotherapy, but I will. Not be able to use it. I need it. It prevents me from becoming more disabled. It saves the scheme money by keeping me moving. But The government set a rate that no physiotherapist charges. I cannot see a recent graduate. I am a very complex case, with every joint affected. Recent graduates cause me physical harm, every, time, without fail. Experienced physiotherapists cannot afford to charge the list rate. They run practices. The real fee for these services is double the NDIA scheduled fee. I cannot afford the gap. I was crying at an appointment today, explaining that I have no money left and I have to cease physiotherapy. I can’t choose to have half as many appointments. I can’t choose how to apply that funding. Congratulations on making the NDIA look generous
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3401
I have funding, but I will not be able to spend it because I can’t afford to. Money to help reach that goal of sustainability.
DO not give power to an individual. The NDIA is increasingly disastrous. Enormous amounts of money have been wasted paying staff to reduce costs. Administration requirements are insane. Thousands of dollars were spent denying me access to temporary supported accommodation -funding I used to have that was removed by stealth in the previous plan.
I am grateful for what the NDIS has given me. The path the government is taking towards cost cutting is at best ill informed. It is not value for money, it is not going to enable the disabled, and it is going to cost in legal challenges at every level. The idea of support is romantic. You cannot throw disabled people into a vacuum of imaginary care and support. This will backfire.
Get your ducks in a row. At the moment you don’t have any birds in a bush, let alone in the hand.
And extend the submission deadline. We didn’t know.