Please reconsider taking away funding from vulnerable children and people in our community.
I am writing as a constituent, and as somebody deeply concerned about the proposed NDIS legislative changes currently before Parliament. I am asking you to oppose this bill and to seriously consider crossing the floor if necessary. Many Australians are being told these reforms are about “sustainability”, but disabled people, carers, families and professionals are seeing something very different. We are seeing proposals that may:
- narrow disability recognition
- increase reassessment and evidentiary burdens
- reduce participant choice and control
- increase reliance on unpaid family labour
- make supports harder to access
- reduce access to trusted non-registered providers
- create more barriers to reviews and appeals
- increase discretionary power within the NDIA and Ministerial processes For many families, the NDIS is not funding luxury. This is the case for my family – we have 3 children, all with disabilities who currently access the NDIS, with two under the ‘early intervention’ stream.
NDIS funding is basic survival, safety, regulation, communication, participation and dignity. The public conversation around the NDIS has become deeply concerning. My children and other disabled people are being portrayed as financial burdens rather than human beings entitled to support, inclusion and safety. Families are being forced into impossible conversations about who is “disabled enough” to deserve support. Meanwhile, the enormous invisible labour carried by parents, carers and especially women continues to go unrecognised. Many disabled people only appear to be “coping” because family members are sacrificing their own health, employment, finances and wellbeing behind closed doors to keep them safe and functioning. Removing supports does not remove disability or support needs. It simply transfers the burden onto families, hospitals, schools, emergency systems, homelessness services and unpaid carers. I am also deeply concerned by the growing narrative that large numbers of children accessing the NDIS automatically means the Scheme is being misused. If entire communities are showing high levels of disability, developmental delay, neurodivergence and support need, this should raise serious questions about broader systemic failures, unmet needs, environmental pressures, diagnostic access and collapsing community supports, not assumptions that children are receiving “too much”. Many children who appear to be coping are only doing so because families, particularly mothers, are providing extraordinary levels of unpaid labour behind the scenes. A child appearing “fine” does not mean the support need is not real. If Government is genuinely concerned about sustainability, then the solution is not to strip supports from disabled Australians. The solution is:
- properly funding foundational supports
- fixing failures in health, housing and education systems
- reducing administrative waste
- addressing provider misconduct appropriately
- ensuring genuine co-design with disabled people
- creating trauma-informed, accessible planning processes I ask you to listen directly to disabled people, carers, clinicians and advocacy organisations before supporting reforms that may cause significant long-term harm.
Please oppose this bill.