Submission 463
Submission to the Senate Inquiry
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment
(Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
28/05/2026
To the Committee,
My name is Kimberlee McIntyre, and I am an Occupational Therapist working with children and families in regional New South Wales. Every day I work alongside participants, parents, carers, educators and support teams who are navigating the realities of disability. I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the proposed amendments to the NDIS legislation and the significant impact I believe they will have on people with disability, their families and the professionals who support them.
I want to begin by acknowledging that many people, including myself, recognise that changes were needed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the NDIS. No one disputes that the Scheme must be sustainable. However, sustainability cannot come at the expense of the very people the Scheme was created to support.
My greatest concern is that these proposed changes appear to be built around people administrative efficiency and budget control rather than the lived realities of disability. Throughout the Bill there is a recurring theme of standardisation, categorisation and narrowing definitions, as though disability can be neatly measured, grouped and managed through blanket policies.
In my years as an Occupational Therapist, I have never worked with two participants who had identical support needs, even when they shared the same diagnosis.
Not once!
Two children may both have autism, yet one may communicate independently while the other is non-speaking. One may have strong family supports while another may be in kinship care. One may manage a school environment while another experiences daily distress and dysregulation. The diagnosis may be the same, but their functional needs, risks, environments and support requirements are entirely different.
Kimberlee McIntyre
Occupational Therapist
Disability is not a blanket experience.
Provider No; 1967441A
WWC1877236E
The proposed changes, particularly those relating to functional capacity, support needs arising “directly” from impairment, funding caps and increased ministerial PO Box 70, powers, appear to move the Scheme away from individualised assessment and Nana Glen, NSW, 2450 milestonesot@outlook.com
ABN 61 342 118 071 1
Submission 463
Submission to the Senate Inquiry
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment
(Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
towards broad assumptions about what people with disability should need. This is deeply concerning.
As Occupational Therapists, we do not assess people in isolation from their environment because that is not how human beings function. We assess the interaction between the person, their environment, their supports, their relationships, their routines and the barriers they face every day.
The proposal to assess functional capacity without considering assistive technology, environmental modifications and supports risks creating an artificial picture of disability that bears little resemblance to real life.
Many of the people I support appear capable because extraordinary supports already exist around them. Parents spend years providing constant supervision, emotional co-regulation and advocacy. Families restructure their lives around appointments, behavioural support, transport and care needs. Assistive technology, home modifications and therapy help people participate in daily life.
These supports do not remove disability. They simply help people live with it.
Removing these factors from consideration risks underestimating genuine support needs and creating decisions that are disconnected from reality.
I am also deeply concerned about the proposed ability to apply funding caps, percentage reductions and benchmark-style approaches to participant funding.
The NDIS was founded on the principle of individualised support.
The reality is that disability cannot be averaged.
You cannot place participants into broad groups and assume their support needs are comparable. Doing so ignores the complexity of disability and the factors that influence a person’s ability to participate safely and meaningfully in their community.
Reducing funding does not reduce disability-related need.
It simply transfers the burden elsewhere.
It transfers it to parents who are already exhausted.
It transfers it to carers already operating beyond sustainable capacity.
It transfers it to schools, hospitals, emergency departments, mental health services, child protection systems and housing services.
The support need does not disappear because funding is reduced.
The consequences simply emerge somewhere else.
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Submission 463
Submission to the Senate Inquiry
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment
(Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
I am particularly concerned for participants who may not have the capacity, knowledge, communication skills or support networks required to understand and respond to these changes.
Many people living with intellectual disability, psychosocial disability, acquired brain injury, communication difficulties or significant executive functioning challenges already struggle to navigate complex systems.
These proposed amendments introduce additional layers of complexity into a system that many participants already find overwhelming.
How can we expect people to advocate for themselves when they may not fully understand what is changing?
How can we expect people to challenge decisions when they may not have the communication, literacy, financial or cognitive resources to do so?
Those who are most vulnerable are often the least equipped to navigate increasingly complex administrative processes.
For legislation that is repeatedly framed as protecting the future of the NDIS, I struggle to see how many of these changes protect people with disability.
Instead, they appear designed to create greater control over access, funding and decision-making.
Protection should mean safeguarding participation, inclusion, independence, dignity and quality of life.
Protection should mean listening to people with disability and ensuring they remain at the centre of decision-making.
Most importantly, I am concerned that these reforms have not been developed with sufficient consultation from the disability community and the professionals who work alongside them every day.
The people most affected by these changes should have a meaningful voice in shaping them.
Participants, families, carers, advocates, allied health professionals, support coordinators and disability providers all bring valuable insight into how disability support operates in practice.
Without this consultation, there is a real risk that policy decisions will be made based on assumptions rather than lived experience.
The disability community is not asking for a perfect system.
We are asking for a system that understands complexity.
A system that recognises that disability occurs within real lives, families and communities.
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Submission 463
Submission to the Senate Inquiry
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment
(Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
A system that acknowledges that people cannot be reduced to diagnoses, categories or averages.
And a system that continues to uphold the founding principles of individualisation, participation and choice.
I urge the Committee to carefully reconsider these proposed amendments and to undertake genuine consultation with the disability community and frontline professionals before implementing changes that may have far-reaching and unintended consequences.
As someone who works alongside participants and families every day, I can say with confidence that poorly supported disability does not disappear. It reappears through carer burnout, family breakdown, mental health deterioration, school disengagement, hospital admissions, safeguarding concerns and increased long-term costs to other systems.
The true measure of the NDIS should not be how efficiently costs are reduced.
It should be how effectively people with disability are supported to live safe, meaningful and connected lives.
Thank you for considering my submission.
Kind regards,
Kimberlee McIntyre
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