Submission 414
Submission for NDIS Amendment Bill 2026
Firstly, I am a Parent of a Participant on the NDIS Scheme. She has been in the Scheme since 2022. At the time she was in Grade 5. Currently, she is in Grade 9 and nearly 15. She has ASD level 2 and more recently, a diagnosis of dyslexia.
Secondly, I was also a Trainer for 3 years for people with a disability at a company called
Thirdly, in addition to this, I am a trained Primary Teacher. I have worked since 1994 as both a permanent and Relief Teacher in QLD State Schools.
Fourthly, I work as an Exam Supervisor at a High School. I regularly see the adjustments made for students who have an AARA applied in exam situations, due to disability. Without these small adjustments, a lot of students with a disability would likely fail and fall through the cracks.
So, from these 4 perspectives, it puts me in a fairly good place to understand about disability, education and socialisation of disabled Participants. I understand being in the Scheme. I am familiar with working with disabled Participants, and as a Teacher of over 30 plus years I have had special needs children in my classroom. I also understand adjustments made for student with a disability. More recently, I have watched as we transitioned to inclusion and now a classroom of 30 children can have up to maybe 5-8 children with a disability and that is not including children who have ADHD or ADD. I think all these experiences put me in a good place to talk about the NDIS Scheme, Participants, Social & Community Participation and moving children 0-8 into Thriving Kids, 9-16 into Foundational Supports (both which have not been planned or thought through properly before announcing and in some cases removing children from the Scheme already in the name of saving money for the Government who seem to be able to spend it on Billionaires, Submarines ($300 000 000 for AUKUS), no tax for gas companies but funds for international countries or international people within Australia. Also, putting the responsibility for people with a disability back on to the States (with significantly less funds) and onto schools whose ability to adjust for or help those with a disability is already stretched to the limit. Not to mention, Teachers have already had strikes to ask for more pay due to workload stress and classroom behaviour already without the added stress that ASD children who will soon lose supports or be removed from the Scheme. As Mark Butler wants to remove 160 000 Participants from the scheme which is likely to be the Autistic Participants as they represent 4 in 5 people on the scheme and half all NDIS participants. It would be really easy to demonise those with autism in order to save money for the NDIS,
As a Parent of an ASD Participant, losing funding for Social and Community Participation is devastating. So many ASD children suffer with making and keeping
Submission 414
friends and don’t naturally understand the “rules†of social etiquette like their peers but rather, have to be taught. Working for Jigsaw, a lot of the Participants attended a program called Chill where they would socialise and do activities with other people who had a disability. Often, that was the only time in the week these Participants socialised. One of my Trainees at Jigsaw on a regular basis was a Participant with Downs Syndrome. So, for me to read that you want to take Down Syndrome people’s funding away for Social and Community Participation, truly breaks my heart. Often the only socialisation my Down Syndrome Participant knew was the Chill Program, hanging out with his Personal Trainer or cooking or shopping with his Support Worker.
Currently, my Daughter’s supports include OT, Speech, Psychology and Exercise Physiology. To lose these supports for her would be devastating. Her therapists have all worked really hard with my Daughter to establish rapport with her. According to the slogan of videos, I was made to watch when starting at Jigsaw, we were told choice and control were paramount to the Participants. If we are removed from the scheme we will lose that rapport, choice and control.
In relation to that, my support coordinator is my choice, as a Parent, for my Daughter. He is my former colleague from Jigsaw and He is awesome at his job! However, you want everyone to be registered. What you don’t explain to the public is registration is very expensive. The reason He is not registered, is, this is not his fulltime job, just a part time job. Yet he works full time in disabilities.
Local Area Coordinators are supposed to help you find local therapists. I can tell you, NEVER ONCE, has an LAC EVER helped me with finding a local therapist. However, my Plan Manager and my Support Coordinator have. I am not exactly sure of the role or responsibilities of an LAC as they can’t help you with funding (that is up to the Delegate of the CEO or ART the Australian Review Tribunal). Mainly the LAC’s take ID documents (twice by the way as the new system didn’t bring over the old information) or read your plan to you. Once, my LAC gave me misinformation about potential funding we could get, discouraged us from taking it any further and was wrong about it.
While we are on the subject, I would like to talk about Plan Managers. My Plan Manager has paid bills and been extremely helpful over the phone when enquiries are made. Mark Butler however, wants to do away with Plan Managers like we don’t need actual accountants to deal with large plan funds or to locate a receipt and an amount from 3 years ago.
Needing to have functional capacity assessments rather than diagnosis. We have already had functional capacity assessments. These are expensive. Ours was about $1300. At review it was largely ignored. The delegate of the CEO said “You don’t have a report from an Occupational Therapist.†I said “Yes we, do, we have the FCA
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written by the OT.†If these reports (paid for with NDIS funds) have been ignored in the past (and I hear this from many people) how is it going to improve things going forward?
I think the media coverage of lying to the general public about NDIS funds being used for haircuts or movies and NOT for a Support Worker to attend with them is manipulative of public opinion of Participants on the NDIS scheme. Painting Participants with words like Grifters, Fraudsters or Criminals. Perhaps the Participant has schizophrenia and are hearing voices in their heads or have an intellectual disability and need a Support Worker to ensure they are not taken advantage of.
Now, the incidence of ASD children and suicide is extremely high. Pooled prevalence estimates in autism ranged from 34.2% for suicide ideation to 24.3% for suicide attempts. This is especially prevalent in teenagers. I can personally attest to this, my eldest daughter (not on the scheme), when she was in Grade 11, her friend (who has ASD) tried to commit suicide. We had to access psychology for my Daughter. I am done being silent on this issue. So, taking away Participants ASD supports, how do you think this will pan out?
School refusal amongst ASD students like my Daughter is extremely high. So, once again taking supports away, think carefully about where this leads. Students not finishing school. How does that help them to access employment eventually? Because what you are touting now as mild or moderate Autism, which on my Daughter’s diagnosis paper is prefaced with “requiring substantial supports†, those ASD 1 or 2 diagnoses’ will be your future workers, taxpayers and voters. I would think you would want to help them succeed, therefore.
The Productivity Commission – the body that designed the NDIS – identified autistic people as the population that the scheme was meant to serve. The claim that they were never meant to be covered is false.
Noah Johnston died in December 2025 after his ventilator tube became dislodged overnight because the NDIA had not funded a registered nurse to be present. Koa Gibson, only 4 years old, after support was reduced to 3 hours of nursing per week and her Mother’s request for additional funding was declined, died several days later. How many children with a disability must die because the scheme is costing Australia too much?
Australia is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which guarantees genuine participation by people with a disability in decisions that affect their lives. Has this happened? No. People with a disability and disability organisations have been largely ignored and no consultation entered into. They promised lifetime support once access was granted. This will not be the case.
Submission 414
These changes were not taken to the Australian People at the 2025 election. On what democratic basis does the government claim authority for changes of this magnitude?
What gender impact assessment has been conducted on workforce participation, superannuation and lifetime economic impacts mainly on women who will shoulder the responsibility because of the cuts?
Average NDIS plans are likely to be reduced by $5000. None of this was taken to the Australian people at the 2025 election.
The NDIS delivers $2.25 to the Australian economy for every dollar spent. Cutting it does NOT save money, it just shifts costs.
Fraud accounted for just 1.05% of the projected savings. A third of savings will come from removing children from the scheme. Those who can’t vote, but their parents or Carers CAN.
On the 3rd of July, a minister told parliament that billions were being rorted. The confirmed fraud figure at the time was $34.5 million across 72 active cases in a $42 billion dollar scheme. Once again, the public are being misled.
In March 2026 the government VOTED DOWN a Senate Inquiry into NDIS fraud, the very fraud it had spent two years citing as justification for these cuts.
Lastly, in the words of a wise prep teacher in her introduction to her prep class, she shows them a bandaid. She discusses fair versus equitable. Fair means everyone gets a bandaid regardless of whether they have a cut or graze or not. Equitable means you only get a bandaid if you NEED it. She uses this analogy to say you might see others in this class getting a little more attention (ie they might have a disability) and that is because they NEED it. You might look at this and think it is unfair. But I am giving someone else what they NEED. To draw another analogy, the general public is looking on and saying “it’s not FAIR that my taxes go to people with a disability…†But it is EQUITABLE, giving them what they NEED. Please fund what disabled people NEED.
You need to extend the submission deadline so more people have a chance to submit, require an independent human rights assessment before this passes or reject this bill until foundational supports are in place.
Parents of children with a disability or disabled participants in Australia are FIGHTERS. We fight nearly EVERYDAY in advocacy for our children or ourselves, since birth. Please don’t think Parents of disabled children or disabled Participants will stop fighting now, this fight has only just begun!
Submission 414