NDIA Accountability Project

Regional family’s struggle to reinstate overnight support after funding cuts

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

Submission 4068

Committee Secretary Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 via email: community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au RE; Submission to the Inquiry into the National Disabilities Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026

deeply concerned about this issue.

Dear Committee Secretary,

My name is Gillian Salmon, and I am writing as the parent of, and advocate for, my 34- year-old son, Phillip Salmon, who is an NDIS participant with profound disabilities requiring 24/7 care. We live in a regional area in Bathurst New South Wales. I am writing to strongly urge the Committee to reject or heavily amend the NDIS Amendment Bill 2026, which offers absolutely zero protections for the mental health and well-being of families forced into the complex NDIS appeals system.

The Profound Emotional and Psychological Toll of Appeals In 2025, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) cut my son’s funding package by 30% by discontinuing his funding for active overnight support. To fight this unsafe decision, we were forced to go to the Australian Regulatory Tribunal (ART) process that dragged on for an agonising 14 months. Because we live in a regional area, there were no advocacy services available at the time to help us navigate this complex process which forced us to deal with our appeal entirely on our own.

Compounding this, our government-appointed caseworker resigned mid-process and was never replaced. We felt completely abandoned. Navigating the ART process was made even more difficult for us by the critical shortage of experienced disability support coordinators in regional NSW. Our support worker resigned just prior to our review and tribunal process.

Crisis of Regional Support Coordinator Shortages Our region is a “thin market” where overstretched coordinators face unsustainable caseloads, and many local provider businesses have shut down because NDIS price caps have been frozen for years. It is completely unrealistic for the NDIA to expect aging parents to manage complex plans and survive14- month review and tribunal battles when we are unable to find or retain a professional support coordinator locally to assist us. The system is structurally failing regional participants.

While we were ultimately successful in reinstating our sons overnight support, the profound emotional, physical, and psychological toll of fighting a massive governmentureaucracy alone over an extended period had a profound negative impact on my physical and mental well being leaving me totally exhausted.

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

Submission 4068

Imminent Fear Regarding November 2026 Plan End Date

My son’s current plan ends in November 2026. I am living in constant fear and anxiety that under the proposed 2026 rules, his community access funding—specifically his attendance at his vital day program—will be cut or capped by the Minister’s new automated “support determinations.”

My son has a degenerative condition putting him at an increasing risk of having a catastrophic fall and an increased incidence of uncontrollable epileptic seizures. He requires 24/7 line-of-sight support. I do not have the psychological capacity or trauma-resilience to endure another adversarial ART process to defend his basic right to community participation and a higher level of support as his functional capacity declines. The fact that the new Bill leaves the stressful ART pathway completely unchanged as the only option for families is an institutional failure.

Urgent Recommendations to protect families from psychological harm]

I ask that the Committee insists on the following amendments before the Bill proceeds:

  • Create a “No-Disadvantage Safe Harbour” rule: Prohibit the NDIA from cutting core 24/7 care and community access budgets for participants with profound lifelong disabilities who have already successfully proven their support needs at a previous Tribunal.
  • Formally remove community access, day programs, and civic participation from the scope of automated Ministerial funding caps and reduction instruments.
  • Establish an independent, trauma-informed “Sustaining Informal Carers” triage pathway within the NDIA. If an aging parent or primary carer states they lack the psychological capacity to appeal, an independent advocate must be legally appointed and funded by the Agency to handle the entire review process on their behalf.
  • Address the regional thin market crisis by offering financial incentives for regional support coordinators.

Thank you for listening to the reality of regional families under your system. I give permission for this submission to be made public on the inquiry website.

Sincerely, Gillian Salmon