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

Submission 3823

Personal submission re: The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026.

The following personal submission is written from my perspective as:

• A carer and support for multiple family members who receive NDIS funding. This includes my brother for whom I grew up as a young carer and am now a guardian of due to the extent of his needs.
• An Occupational Therapist (and previous disability support worker) who has worked across multiple public mental health settings and specialises in comorbid Autism and mental health difficulties. As such I have extensive experience working with those living with psychosocial disability including applying for NDIS funding, advocating for reasonable and necessary supports and being on the front line of the fall out when supports are inadequate.
• A person with Autism who deeply cares for their disabled, neurodivergent and chronically ill friends, and holds great concern for the wider disability community in Australia should this bill pass.

Those living with disability, including psychosocial disabilities, will be far worse off under this legislation. It will greatly increase the distress and difficulty navigating an already confusing system in which they already face significant barriers. “Non-contactable” participant engagement rules in particular will disadvantage those who experience psychosocial disability. Those I work with in the western suburbs of Melbourne already have to contend with compounded mental health issues and financial disadvantage that has only worsened in recent years with the current cost of living. Many such people face many communication barriers including hospitalisation due to being unwell, higher degrees of suspicion or mistrust including of systems, or being unable to maintain stable housing or communication pathways. The idea that in addition to facing such barriers, they may risk their necessary supports if not able to respond in a manner timely enough for the NDIA is sickening.

As an Occupational Therapist I am specially trained to provide standardised assessments on functional capacity. It is laughable that instead the government would consider use of one “standardised” assessment tool for all types of disabilities, likely to be utilised by workers with far less experience in specialist disability, including mental health, areas. This deeply undermines the knowledge, training and expertise offered by health staff, especially allied health and Occupational Therapists in particular.

This bill will only negatively impact those living with disability in Australia. Without a doubt the number of admissions to mental health wards and services like mine and other areas of our hospital systems will increase. These systems are already heaving with the pressure placed upon them. The cumulative cost to the government overall will only increase with crisis presentations which are already very common when NDIS supports have been inadequate or pulled out from under people.

I do not support this bill and hold grave concern for the safety of those I support in my career as an Occupational Therapist, my own family, friends and loved ones, and the broader growing Australian disability community should it pass.

I hope mine and the living experience of others is taken under the highest and most serious consideration with regards to this bill.

Senior Occupational Therapist