Submission 454
May 27, 2026
Submission to Community Affairs Legislation Committee
NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Summary - An outline of the potential impact the NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 will have on people living with disability on Flinders and Cape Barren Island.
2 Thumbs Up Pty Ltd is the main provider of NDIS funded supports on Flinders Island and we also provide NDIS funded supports to a participant on Cape Barren Island.
2 Thumbs Up Pty Ltd has been existence for 10 years, and first established itself in North Eastern Tasmania in 2016 when the Tasmanian cohort of 15-24 year old participants were first able to access the NDIS.
2 Thumbs Up Pty Ltd transitioned business operations from North Eastern Tasmania to Flinders Island in 2019.
2 Thumbs Up Pty Ltd currently employ 12 support workers and delivers supports to 6 participants with NDIS funding living g in the Furneaux Group.
Participants are diverse in terms of age, gender, degrees of impairment and include different
disability types Multiple Sclerosis, Motor Neurone Disease, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Health and
Profound Intellectual Disability.
2 Thumbs Up Pty Ltd is not currently a registered provider but commenced in 2016 as a registered provider and opted to deregister when participants accessing its services decided to use financial intermediaries (plan managers).
2 Thumbs Up accepts we will; need to again register as a provider and we will seek to take steps towards registration. We share the view that registration of providers is a positive step towards regulating the marketplace and disincentivising the ‘bad actors’ in the sector.
However, we wish to highlight foreseeable challenges in engaging with auditing companies given our remote location and imagine this will be a challenge for providers working in very remote locations elsewhere in the country.
We foresee challenges with the cost, availability and willingness of auditors to travel to remote locations given time frame pressures while providers operating in remote areas of the country work towards registration.
The requirements for support staff to undertake and complete formal training given our remote location with the forthcoming requirement to register as a provider also presents challenges.
All support workers we employ possess and maintain First Aid Training and National Police Checks and training is provided specific to participant support requirements through supporting and visiting Allied Health practitioners and the management team of 2 Thumbs Up.
In relation to the ‘Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill we’re concerned about the impact Ministerial Determination will have on 3 of 6 participants here on Flinders Island if supports are reduced by 50%
2 Thumbs Up supports two young men with profound intellectual disabilities and a young lady with cerebral palsy whereby the majority of their support needs are met through the allocation and utilisation of social, civic and community participation budgets.
Submission 454
Currently these young adults are supported to engage in activities that actively and measurably have a positive impact on Flinders Island.
Specifically, these people were supported by 2 thumbs Up to process ten thousand units of recyclable material over the last year and in doing so raised $1000 for wildlife carers on Flinders Island utilising the Recycle Rewards facility at the Whitemark tip.
We continue to process recyclables and are working toward the next ten thousand!
These items (bottles and cans) are collected from accommodation providers, the Sports and RSL Club including the golf course, restaurants, local businesses and elderly or ill residents unable to take their rubbish to the transfer stations throughout the week.
Flinders Island does not have any alternate road side rubbish collection.
These young people are supported by 2 Thumbs Up to deliver meals on wheels to ageing residents across our Island two days a week and offer a backup delivery option on days when other delivery staff are unavailable. Often at short notice.
They also deliver groceries to ageing residents, provide a visiting service to ageing residents at risk of loneliness and isolation.
2 Thumbs Up works in partnership with the Flinders Council and Community Groups including the Furneaux Collective. The Flinders Council and 2 Thumbs Up co-funded a trailer for our use that assists in the collation and separation of recyclable materials.
The activities are meaningful, have a positive community impact, raise the profile and inclusion of people with disabilities in our community as well as contributing to our circular economy and reduction of waste.
So given our contribution to the Flinders Island community through the provision of support to
people with disabilities living here we have concern as to the impact under the proposedlegislation, whereby the Minister would have the power to reduce funding for a type of support across all participants’ plans.
It’s been announced that Minister Butler intends to use this power to reduce the funding for:
- social, civic and community participation budgets by 50%, and
- capacity building daily activity budgets by 10%. If the Bill is passed, these changes will take effect starting 1st October 2026 when a person’s plan is reassessed and renewed. It will apply to all participants with these supports in their plan
The Bill puts remarkably few restraints on this new power. The Minister can pick any support category and reduce funding by any percentage below 100%.
The Minister can also choose to apply these powers to only a particular cohort of participants.
It is suggested Ministerial reductions will not be made on a plan-by-plan basis and cannot be appealed. The reduction applies even if it leaves the participant with insufficient funds to purchase the support.
This is 2 Thumbs Up’s priority concern.
Submission 454
These powers appear to enable collective punishment whereby a penalty is imposed on a group or individuals for acts allegedly committed by one or more of its members (the bad actors in the sector) directly violating the principle of individual responsibility?
The impact of proposed reductions also extend beyond people with disabilities we support.
It impacts on their families too. It also stands to impact on the people in our community who are helped by the people with disabilities we support.
Prior to the arrival of 2 Thumbs Up on Flinders Island the two young men who live with profound intellectual disability had no services to access and were living full time with their parents for two years since they completed high school.
Currently the support provided to these brothers enables their mother to work at the local bakery through the week.
We also provide a few hours weekend support to the young men allowing both parents to have a short break together from their regular caring duties.
This would be especially important any time but even more so given their father is living with Myeloma.
50 percent of these supports are at risk of being taken off the table without regard to the impact this has on individuals, families and the Flinders Island community if this Bill is passed.
In summary we acknowledge there is work to be done to root out problem providers in the NDIS ecosystem.
However, this work ought not be undertaken to the detriment of providers, either registered or not, that are providing quality supports in accordance with the Disability Service Practice Standards, individual needs and interests and in doing so achieve a positive impact in rural and remote communities across the country.
Yours sincerely
Jamie West and Jacqui Cooper
2 Thumbs Up Pty Ltd
Submission 454