National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 634
The Pepperpot Collective™
Name: Neil McCarthy Location: United Kingdom Role: Founder Contact e-mail: Website: www.thepepperpotcollective.com
Submission to the Senate Inquiry into the NDIS Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track) Bill 2024
My name is Neil McCarthy, and I am submitting this evidence from the United Kingdom. I am the founder of The Pepperpot Collective, a disability-led organisation built on a simple ethos: “How can I help?” — the belief that disabled people are not only service users, but contributors with insight, expertise, and solutions.
As part of this work, I have developed Althing™, a disability-designed safeguarding and counter-fraud model intended to reduce harm by ensuring that no participant is ever required to coordinate their own protection during a crisis. This submission does not seek to promote a product; rather, Althing™ is referenced only as an example of what becomes possible when disabled people are invited to help shape the systems intended to keep them safe. I would be happy to provide further detail or technical explanation should the Committee wish to explore this model in more depth.
I write as a neurodivergent founder whose lived experience informs my understanding of how safeguarding systems function in real-world conditions. My partner is an NDIS participant, which gives me additional insight into the practical challenges participants face when seeking help, particularly in unsafe or coercive environments. These perspectives shape my work within The Pepperpot Collective and underpin the disability-led design principles behind Althing™, which I reference only to illustrate the value of disability-led innovation.
As an observer who is not an Australian citizen and does not currently reside in Australia, the proposed reforms to the NDIS appear to prioritise cost-containment before disability-led consultation. The disability community understands that reform is necessary to preserve the Scheme and its positive impact, and that demonstrating value for money to the Australian taxpayer is essential.
However, the scale and speed of the proposed cuts give the impression that they are being used as a substitute for disability-led reform — reform that could achieve similar outcomes without the harmful consequences these cuts will have for disabled Australians.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 634
In particular, the existing safeguarding framework requires a participant in crisis to contact three
t separate bodies, often while still in an unsafe environment. This is a structural failure. Disability-led
solutions exist that could address these safeguarding gaps and strengthen system integrity without
reducing supports.
Disability-led innovation and consultation have the potential to offer alternatives to the proposed
cuts. Althing™ is one example of an ND-designed safeguarding and counter-fraud model that enables nsafe, early-intervention communication without requiring the participant to coordinate their own nprotection. To this end, disability-led innovation has the potential to reduce the fraud and rorting nwidely cited as drivers of the current reforms — and to do so without negatively impacting NDIS nparticipants. Models such as Althing™ demonstrate that strengthening integrity and safeguarding ndoes not require reducing supports, but rather redesigning systems so disabled people are no longer nforced to coordinate their own protection during moments of crisis.
At the same time, disability-led solutions allow the NDIS to tap into a resource that has been nconsistently under-utilised in reform: the participants themselves. Disabled Australians are willing to ncontribute to safeguarding and integrity improvements, and their lived experience is one of the nstongest assets available to guarantee both the sustainability and long-term future of the NDIS.
I thank the Committee for considering this submission.