National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3697
UNOFFICIAL
My name is Graham Matthews. I live with my partner and school-age son in the township of Yass, NSW. I have been an NDIS participant for around 9 years, since suffering multiple amputations as result of surviving septic shock.
I stridently disagree with the purpose of the Bill in its attempt to practically destroy NDIS. I completely reject any notion that this is an attempt to safeguard the NDIS for future generations as cynically claimed by the federal government. Rather, this is a blatant attempt to cut government costs by destroying the social program that has helped hundreds of thousands of the most disadvantaged in Australian society.
The only cohort that benefits from this Bill are the fossil fuel barons and the most wealthy in the society, who will not be forced to pay their share.
While many aspects of this Bill are deeply egregious, I will confine this submission to the arbitrary cuts proposed to the social and community participation and capacity building budgets of all participants.
Social and community participation funding
Social and community participation funding is frequently misunderstood as being a government subsidy to allow persons living with disability (PWD) to go to the movies or to meet up with friends. it is beholden on the committee to correct the record, to reassure the public that NDIS participants pay their own way when it comes to social activities. What the social and community participation funding does is to fund support workers to facilitate NDIS participants’ access.
And not just the social activities. Social and community participation funding also funds support workers to assist PWD to visit doctors, go to work, do the shopping or take the kid(s) to extracurricular activities.
In my own case, as a multiple amputee with no fingers, support workers are critical to support me in regular visits to the prosthetist, both to fix issues with current prosthetics and plan for replacements. Additionally, support workers assist me in the gym in being able to exercise to improve my health and fitness, in order to carry out my duties as a father, an employee and a partner.
An arbitrary count of 50% to all NDIS participants’ social and community participation funding will have a devastating impact on the health and well-being of all NDIS participants. While the government cynically claims that vital supports (such as for showering, eating and other most basic life-sustaining) activities will not be cut, it is impossible for NDIS participants, along with any other person society, to live happily confined to their house/bedroom/bed.
A 50% cut to my own social and community participation supports will force me to choose between going to the prosthetist to fix my prosthetics or going to the gym to improve my health. NDIS participants should not be forced to make these impossible choices.
Capacity Building
The Bill also proposes to make a 10% cut across the board to all NDIS participants Capacity Building supports. Capacity Building supports provide funding for professionals to deliver support to enable NDIS participants to live better. The funding simply allows us to address, and at least partly mitigate, the impairments that have led to our disability.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 3697
UNOFFICIAL
In my own case, I am funded for fortnightly visits to the physiotherapist. Walking as a bilateral amputee is a relatively unnatural process, which places significant strain on the back and legs in particular. Physiotherapists provide therapy and guidance on exercise to improve mobility and reduce pain. A 10% cut will simply mean that I am able to attend the physiotherapist less regularly, that my pain levels increased and that I am less able to mobilise independently. I have similar concerns regarding access to an exercise physiologist.
Ironically, cutting capacity building supports will make me more dependent on support workers, essentially unable to mobilise independently and a greater cost to the system over time. And my story will be common among NDIS participants. This is simply a false economy, which while it might look good for political reasons, is in fact a shortsighted and ineffective fix to the problem that NDIS was established to meet.
Walk a mile in my shoes Before you cut the funding of NDIS participants, forcing us out of the workforce, forcing us off the streets and back into our houses (or even worse: institutions), I ask Ministers of the government to walk a mile in our shoes: or perhaps better still; walk a mile in my prosthetics.
Prior to succumbing to septic shock, I lived a healthy, engaged and full life. I walked, cycled and exercised frequently and was an engaged member of my society.
NDIS has been frustrating, bureaucratic and opaque in its operations. I have had frequent cause to complain, including taking redress to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Nevertheless, without NDIS not only I, but also my partner (who is a full-time teacher) would be unable to work and contribute to society. We would be unable to continue to be the kinds of good role model that we seek to be for our son: forced to retreat from society, relying on welfare and be unable to have the same kinds of opportunities as any other person in this society.
Don’t accept the lie that these cuts are good policy. This is a lazy attempt to scapegoat PWD for the failures of a government that has run out of ideas. Cut AUKUS. Tax the wealthy. Tax the fossil fuel industry. But lay off attacks on persons with disability.