TO: Committee Secretariat
Community Affairs Senate Enquiry
NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Dear Senators and all Australian MP’s
At the very beginning when Ms Jenny Macklin (now retired MP) requested the Productivity Commission Review to consider the thought of a Disability Care Scheme, I was the President of Carers Australia and then became Vice President when Tony Abbot (then Prime Minister) announced the scheme will begin. I was witness to the Productivity Commissioners recommendations to Government, and to the purpose of this scheme.
In 2026, as an aging mother and informal carer, I am now horrified at the current situation and the Labor Government’s proposal, of the current NDIS Amendment Bill 2026.
Firstly, I am more than happy to speak at the Enquiry Hearing in Melbourne and represent my adult son who I have cared for and supported 24/7 for over 32 years and to also represent all people with disabilities and their informal unpaid family carers across Australia.
You cannot and must not let this NDIS Amendment Bill 2026 pass in Government.
I am the voice for and on behalf of my son, and collectively along with family members, our broader disability community across Australia and unpaid family informal carers, (all who vote) and we absolutely DO NOT support this current NDIS Bill Amendment 2026 as drafted.
YES, we must, and we need to tighten Compliance and stop the Fraud within NDIS, but not to the detriment of People with Disabilities throughout Australia.
My adult son (NDIS # ) is aged 32yo and lives
with us in our family home in regional Victoria.
has multiple, complex and profound disabilities.
received a NDIS Plan in 2020 due to a 5-year delay because of a diabolical error occurring in our area between the NDIA and our LAC
LCHS. Another long terrible and discriminative story, but at this time, we will park this NDIA error. We were out of pocket of over $200K to bring him home from hospital after receiving an unexplained post-operative spinal cord injury causing paraplegia. Now the government are considering Mean’s Testing! We are already out of pocket over many years! Stop punishing us and causing financial risk and harm to us!
We do support reasonable measures that strengthen the integrity and long-term sustainability of the NDIS. However, the Bill as it is, represents a fundamental shift away from the NDIS’ rights-based, individualised design, and is now moving towards a more standardised and capped service model and these changes will overwhelmingly affect my son’s quality of life, daily supports and create enormous risks to him on a daily basis. It will also affect the ongoing sustainability of care and support that we continually provide him, as his aging, loving, committed, dedicated and extremely exhausted parents.
I urge the committee to understand that sustainability cannot come at the cost of people with disability being pushed out of the Scheme, cut off from our communities, or denied the support we/they need to live safely.
This is a major shift in how the NDIS should work and exist.
The NDIS was created around individual need. Each person’s support should be based on their disability, their own life, family situation, home, culture, community and goals.
A broad power to cut funding for whole categories of support risks replacing individualised decision-making with blunt budget control.
It could and will allow funding reductions without each person’s circumstances being properly considered. It could mean cuts are made through a general decision, rather than through a proper assessment of what a person needs to live safely and with dignity.
This is dangerous because once this power exists, it will not only be used to reduce social and community participation and therapy funding, it will enable cuts to other supports or groups of supports across the Scheme.
My son, and all people with disability, also including the many families/carers across Australia, should not have our lives shaped by broad funding decisions made behind closed doors.
Any power to reduce funding must have strict limits, transparent reasons and clear review rights.
People must be able to challenge decisions that affect the supports which are relied upon each and every day to live a full, happy, healthy and inclusive life.
The proposed ‘standard’ social and community participation cuts to all budgets, no matter what, are clearly dangerous and WILL cause risk, harm and maybe even death.
For many people with disability, including for my adult son who requires full co-active support that helps him leave home, see his family and friends, take part in community life, go to events, do his volunteer work under his micro-business ( ), to shop, build skills, stay connected, to exercise and for many to study and/or work.
Cutting this funding from existing NDIS Plan will result in real harm.
It will mean fewer hours outside the home and more time isolated. It could and for my son it will mean he will lose his routine (which will cause severe behaviours), sever relationships, his confidence and his overall independence which is the purpose of the NDIS, to improve and sustain independence. It could and in our case will mean that families (informal unpaid carers) will be forced and left to fill the gap, again!
That is unacceptable. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. I cannot and will not go backwards. The NDIS and my son’s current approved NDIS Plan have changed his and our life ALL for the better. My son now has a quality life and so do we as his aging parent/carers.
The NDIS was created so people with disability could be part of the community. A 50% cut to community participation support strikes at the heart of that promise. This cut was part of the budget announcement, once again for sustainability purposes, the Minister and his Government have proposed a targeted 50% cut to all NDIS Plans with those who have budgets for social, civic and community participation funding, and also a 10% cut to some capacity building daily activity funding (for reasonable and necessary supports like therapies). These cuts are proposed to start from 1 October 2026, as plans are renewed or reassessed.
These reasonable and necessary supports is funding that is clearly not optional. It is not a nice extra. It is not a lifestyle perk. It is a MUST and is mandatory for the overall health and wellbeing for my son with profound, multiple and complex disabilities and for many people with disabilities throughout Australia.
The Bill and related Budget announcements point to major changes across the Scheme.
These changes effecting my son in all areas of his life include:
cutting social and community participation and therapy funding
This cut will cause isolation, harm and serious risks to my adult son and many Australians with a disability
making it harder to get an unscheduled reassessment when circumstances change
This change will seriously affect my son as is deemed palliative so his circumstances WILL definitely be changing at any time
introducing new functional capacity assessments from 2028
FCA must be personal and individualised and not a standard once size fits all. I was forced to deal with the NDIA Technical Advisory Branch (TAB) who clearly did not understand my son’s multiple, complex and rare disabilities and I challenged their decision through an Internal Review (IR) where errors occurred as additional evidence was not read or documented in the IR Outcome Decision letter. We were then forced to go to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) where all supports were returned plus extra and a heartfelt apology was provided by the NDIS Delegate at the hearing, saying “the reduction of supports and consumables should never have occurred and/or ended up at the ART”. With our situation, how are the new style Supported Needs Assessments going to reach quality outcomes and especially with the introduction of the new Functional Capacity Assessments?
reducing choice over support coordination and plan management
The reductions in choice of local SC will cause all the issues that Support Coordination can and does overcome. I agree more regulations should be places on these services especially where COI is apparent. However, as we live in a regional/rural area it also needs to be noted that I Self Manage my son’s NDIS plan due to the issue of Providers not supplying quality and consistent Disability Support Workers. We now bring in our own DSW’s and RN’s as Independent and Sole Traders which works amazing for my son and provides high quality 1:1 supports over a 24/7 period.
expanding mandatory provider registration
I have no problems expanding Provider Registration to all providers supporting PWD’s and their family Carers. Also, as a Plan Nominee and a Self-Manager of my son’s NDIS Plan, I also have no problem ensuring ALL Independent DSW’s are registered as providers but this needs to be done at a minimal sensible cost to these workers.
strengthening NDIA compliance and information-gathering powers
YES
introducing tighter record keeping and claim rules
YES, but with training to Nominees and treated fairly when honest mistakes occur and not as a criminal who has committed a major crime – which is occurring now when contacted by the NDIA Integrity Unit.
giving the Minister broad powers to reduce funding for groups of supports
NO - These new powers for the Minister to cut funding when and where he/she sees fit is a huge danger and are clearly unjustified. It is clearly targeting cost savings in the wrong area! Person Centred Supports must be considered at all times and this ‘broad power’ the Minister is seeking is very concerning in all aspects especially for various disability cohorts as mentioned ie the Autism community etc.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
Changes to “reasonable and necessary” tests
NO! - The current bill changes how “reasonable and necessary” is applied in practice. It allows rules and determinations to set maximum funding, maximum intensity, and maximum worker-to-participant ratios for particular supports or for different groups of participants.
The CEO must now:
compare the cost of supports and favour lower-cost comparable options, where possible
There is no other low-cost comparable options or support framework available for my son. Even local Service Providers will not hire staff to support High Intensity NDIS Participants due to costs in training, supports to these staff and the litigations risks.
consider leasing equipment rather than buying, and presume leasing is better value unless there is evidence otherwise
All my son’s equipment is customised and built specifically for him due to his complexities. This standard change must be removed.
weigh research and evidence in a strict order, giving priority to published, peer-reviewed evidence over individual outcomes.
Rather than put funding into AUKUS – failed submarine contracts costing the Australian Government over $880 million in 2022, put necessary funding into research on these matters rather than make assumptions and standardised outcomes for PWD’s.
With this AMENDMENT BILL:
The CEO can also decide not to fund a support as “effective and beneficial” if there is limited research evidence or limited individual evidence, even if one of those is positive.
What background knowledge will the NDIS CEO and/or the Minister have in regards to my son’s profound, multiple and complex disabilities and be able to make these decisions as to what is ‘Effective and Beneficial’, or ‘Reasonable and Necessary’ OR supports can be provided by the mainstream systems. Which ALL evidence and experience show it CANNOT! He will die if we rely on these systems! HE WILL DIE!
Greater focus on other systems providing supports
The bill tightens the rule that the NDIS should not fund supports “more appropriately” provided by other systems, like health, education, housing or aged care. It emphasises that NDIS funding should not cover things that existing government service systems should provide.
With the proposed Amendment Bill as it exists, this will mean more people with disabilities will be told to rely on state or federal mainstream services, even when those systems are already stretched or hard to access.
MEDICARE funded Allied Health Supports are only subsidised. PWDs and their parent/carers cannot afford to sustain Reasonable and Necessary therapy supports via the mainstream system.
The Health system continually let my son down, even to the extent saying he is too complex to have his SPC changed when blocked at our local major hospital therefore we must rely on our private Specialist Continence Nurse to provide this service
In summary, the current government says these changes are to “secure the NDIS for future generations” by making funding more sustainable and tackling fraud and misuse.
However, it is clear there is total disregard, misunderstanding and no knowledge of the damage, risk and harm this NDIS Amendment Bill 2026 will have on many Australians both with disability and their families, informal carers, paid support workers, therapists.
SOLUTION:
I urge you to STOP this BILL now and to demand a full review and change all the inappropriate recommendations which will clearly cause unimaginable high risk and harm to people with a disability and their families and carers.
I am available to answer any questions, provide further information on any of my comments AND attend a Hearing to discuss and share our situation if required.
Thank you for taking the time to read my submission
Kind regards
Mother and Unpaid Informal Carer
For and on behalf of