National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026

To the Committee,

I am writing as a parent and disability advocate to express my serious concerns regarding the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026.

I support the need for accountability, fraud prevention, and long-term sustainability within the NDIS. Participants and families also want a system that is safe, fair, and sustainable. However, I am deeply concerned that many of the proposed reforms risk harming the very people the scheme was created to support.

As a parent of autistic children with significant support needs, I know firsthand that disability support is not a luxury. It is what allows children to access education, regulate safely, participate in the community, develop communication skills, and reduce long-term crisis outcomes for families.

The proposed changes appear heavily focused on cost reduction and tightening access, rather than ensuring people with disability receive appropriate supports to live safely and with dignity.

1. Reduced access through stricter eligibility and functional assessments

The proposed move toward standardised functional capacity assessments concerns me greatly. Disability is complex, particularly for autistic children and people with fluctuating, developmental, psychosocial, or invisible disabilities.

A standardised assessment process risks overlooking the real-world impact disability has on daily life, especially for children who may mask difficulties in unfamiliar environments.

Parents and existing treating professionals know the individual best

Their evidence and lived experience should remain central to all access and planning decisions.

I am also concerned about proposals suggesting people may need to exhaust “all appropriate treatment options” before qualifying for support. Many disabilities are lifelong. Families should not be forced into endless assessments, therapies, or medical interventions simply to prove permanence.

Increased stress and administrative burden on families

Families caring for children with disability are already under immense pressure. Many are navigating therapy appointments, school issues, safety concerns, continence care, emotional regulation challenges, and advocacy responsibilities daily.

The proposed reforms appear likely to increase reassessments, reporting requirements, evidence gathering, and administrative complexity. This disproportionately impacts carers and parents who are already exhausted and overwhelmed.

Many families do not have the financial resources, education, advocacy skills, or emotional capacity to constantly fight for essential supports.

Concerns regarding reduced flexibility and automated decision-making

I am deeply concerned about increased reliance on automated systems, standardised budgeting, and reduced flexibility in planning.

People with disability are individuals, not numbers. Support needs cannot always be captured accurately through rigid frameworks or computer-generated processes.

The strength of the NDIS has always been its ability to provide individualised support. Moving toward inflexible systems risks unsafe outcomes, inappropriate supports, and increased appeals.

4. Risks to autistic children and early intervention pathways

I am particularly concerned about the future impacts on autistic children and developmental disability supports.

Early intervention and ongoing therapeutic supports are critical for communication, emotional regulation, participation, independence, and long-term outcomes.

Reducing access or narrowing eligibility for autistic children may create greater long- term costs across health, education, child safety, and mental health systems.

Children should not have to reach crisis point before receiving support.

5. Families are being impacted by failures within systems they did not create

It is disappointing to see that while there have clearly been providers and services that have abused or misused the NDIS system, people with disability and their families are now the ones being punished through reduced supports, stricter processes, and increased barriers to access.

Families who rely on the NDIS are not responsible for the failures in regulation, ostersight, or provider accountability. Yet it feels as though participants are being expected to carry the consequences of these failures.

At the same time, mainstream systems such as education are already struggling to provide appropriate support for children with disability, particularly in Tasmania.

The ongoing strikes and disruptions across Tasmanian schools over the past two years have highlighted that schools and staff are not adequately equipped or resourced to meet the needs of many children. These disruptions have had a significant impact on

• children with additional needs, who often rely heavily on routine, consistency, regulation supports, and safe learning environments.

As a parent, I have had to enrol my children across three different schools, not out of preference, but because I have been forced to search for environments that could appropriately support each child as an individual.

The emotional, logistical, financial, and mental load involved in coordinating multiple schools, appointments, support plans, communication systems, and differing educational approaches is enormous. Families are already carrying responsibilities far beyond what many people realise.

Tasmania also faces some of the longest wait times in the country for essential allied health and developmental services. Families are experiencing significant delays accessing psychologists, paediatricians, developmental assessment teams (DAT), speech therapists, occupational therapists, and other critical supports.

Children in Tasmania are reportedly waiting up to three years for Developmental Assessment Team (DAT) assessments. These delays can prevent children from accessing early intervention, diagnosis, appropriate educational supports, and timely disability services during critical developmental periods.

There are also significant barriers within referral pathways for older children attempting to access services such as the Tasmanian Autism Diagnostic Service (TADS). Many pathways require referrals from psychologists or paediatricians, yet families are already facing waitlists of two years or more to access those professionals in the first place.

These systemic delays are not caused by families. They are the result of under- resourced mainstream systems that are already struggling to meet demand.

When access to diagnosis, assessments, and therapeutic supports is delayed for years, families rely even more heavily on the NDIS to bridge those gaps. Tightening access to disability supports while mainstream systems remain overwhelmed risks leaving vulnerable children without meaningful support during critical stages of development.

When mainstream systems cannot provide adequate support

When mainstream systems cannot provide adequate support, reducing access to disability supports through the NDIS places even greater pressure on families and increases the risk of burnout, educational disengagement, and poor long-term outcomes for children with disability.

The reality is that many families are already filling the gaps left by under-resourced systems. These reforms risk widening those gaps even further.

Consultation with the disability community has been inadequate

The consultation timeframe for this Bill has been extremely limited for legislation of this scale and significance.

People with disability, carers, families, and advocacy groups deserve meaningful consultation and adequate time to review and respond to proposed changes.

The principle of “Nothing about us without us” must be upheld in practice, not only in language.

Recommendations

I respectfully urge the Committee to:

• Extend consultation and review timeframes to allow meaningful community participation.
• Ensure functional assessments remain informed by treating professionals and lived experience.
• Protect access for autistic people, children with developmental disabilities, and people with complex support needs.
• Avoid overreliance on automated decision-making and standardised funding models.

• Ensure reforms do not increase administrative burden on participants and carers.

• Preserve flexibility and individualised supports within the NDIS.

• Ensure all reforms are co-designed with people with disability and families.

The NDIS has changed lives for many Australians, including my own family. While improvements and safeguards are important, reforms must not come at the expense of vulnerable people losing vital supports and dignity.

The long-term sustainability of the NDIS should not be achieved by making access harder for people with genuine disability-related needs.

Thank you for considering this submission.