Submission 651
67 Bath Street, Alice Springs 0870 PO Box 3491 Alice Springs 0871
E: T:
ABN: 24 403 556 982
Dear Hon Mark Butler, Senator McAllister, Minister Bourke and Special Envoy to the
Arts Susan Templeman.
Re: Concerns and recommendations on the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill 2026
Incite is writing to express our deep concern regarding the recent changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), including reductions to social and community participation supports.
Incite Arts, based in Mparntwe/Alice Springs in the NT, has been committed to community-engaged arts for over 20 years.
Our work fosters belonging, identity, and cultural expression through live and digital platforms.
Programs are co-designed to be accessible, responsive, and transformative, with a strong emphasis on health, wellbeing, and social change.
Key partnerships include collaborating deeply with First Nations-led organisations, Elders and communities to co-design culturally rich programs.
Incite champions d/Deaf and Disabled Artists through disability-led co-creation processes, amplifying these unique cultural voices. Our disability-led work remains central to who we are. Our creative, responsive programming defines our organisation: listening to artists, investing in their growth, and trusting in the transformative power of the arts.
Incite has, since 2005, collaborated extensively with First Nations-led organisations and their youth programs in Mparntwe based and remote communities across the central desert region to co-create and deliver arts engagement and diversionary programs in a range of artforms though long term sustainable Creative Frameworks.
Incite is a consortium member of the Arts and Disability Network Australia (ADNA), one of the seven state and territory arts and disability peak bodies with decades of collective experience. As a member of ADNA, Incite contributes to working with arts and disability communities across the nation. Core to our purpose it to build on the achievements of Equity, the Arts and Disability Associated Plan. To achieve this, we facilitate new conversations with government and the arts and disability sector to
Submission 651
create a more equitable and inclusive future for disabled Australians.
ADNA is one of the leading initiatives to improve access and inclusion across creative industries and workplaces. We are a disability-led charitable organisation that advocates for, champions and amplifies the work of d/Deaf and disabled artists, artsworkers and screen practitioners across Australia.
Incite Arts concerns with the proposed reforms align directly with those of ADNA. Fundamentally, the proposed reforms are an increasingly narrow interpretation of what constitutes a “reasonable and necessary” support under the NDIS.
Integral to Incite’s work is representing the arts and disability community in our region, and offering mentorship programs, a disability-led performance ensemble and arts/ performance environments are structured, relational and community-based.
Our work enables disabled participants to build sustainable pathways into our regional social, cultural and economic life. These activities clearly meet the principles of reasonable and necessary support because they directly contribute to:
- social and community participation;
- increased independence and agency;
- capacity building;
- skill development;
- vocational readiness;
- economic participation;
- employment pathways; and
- improved mental health and wellbeing. NDIS funding for our programs function as a critical pathway into professional arts participation and employment outcomes.
Incite Arts, a small-scale arts and disability organisations, provides essential community infrastructure in our region. Incite supports participants, and in particular a unique cohort of First Nations Disabled Artists, to:
- develop professional creative skills;
- build social and peer networks;
- engage in mentorship and training;
- participate in exhibitions and performances;
- transition toward employment pathways;
- contribute to Australia’s cultural industries; and
- build long-term independence and confidence. Incite warns that reductions to flexible participation funding risks destabilising the trusted relationships, communication supports and long-term collaborative environments (some for over 20 years) that have allowed disabled artists to sustain participation in our community and build professional practice over many years.
This infrastructure is particularly significant in our regional and remote community, where Incite Arts provides some of the only culturally safe and professionally facilitated creative participation opportunities available.
Incite’s significant concern is if social and community inclusion activities are excluded from the NDIS, artists — particularly those from First Nations backgrounds,
Submission 651
may no longer be able to access programs that have supported their artistic and professional development over the past decade.
Our participants rely on Social and Community Participation line to sustain their attendance. Any proposed tightening, restrictions, or narrowing of definitions around what this funding covers will directly impact their ability to access the program. This is particularly dangerous for participants from low social economic backgrounds, who cannot afford to enter user-pay models for creative and community arts programs.
We need to know what is the long-term economic cost to taxpayers if disabled Australians no longer have access to the support systems and community infrastructures that these arts and disability organisations currently provide? If the economic value of social and community participation funded by the NDIS is undermined, the burden does not disappear. It simply shifts elsewhere — onto already overstretched health, mental health, disability and social support systems.
Without access to supported creative participation, many disabled artists may require:
- increased mental health intervention;
- greater reliance on acute health systems;
- increased social care and crisis response;
- higher levels of long-term support dependency;
- reduced employment participation;
- increased disengagement and isolation; and
- reduced community connection and wellbeing. Incite, along with many other arts organisations demonstrate that arts participation already produces measurable social and economic outcomes. Incite, like many other organisations across the sector are supporting disabled Australians not only to participate in community life, but to develop vocational skills, access paid employment, build professional networks and contribute to Australia’s cultural economy. Without access to the Incite community-based ecosystems, disabled Australians in our community risk being pushed away from professional and cultural participation and back toward isolation, crisis-based support systems and segregated employment pathways.
Incite wishes to emphasise that our mentorships and creative participation programs should not be understood as optional cultural activities, but as preventative social infrastructure that strengthens long-term participant outcomes while reducing pressure on health, disability and social support systems.
Since the establishment of the NDIS, we have been operating within a system that was not originally designed to support creative practice, resulting in the need for us to continually retrofit our work into social and community participation categories. Despite these structural limitations, the NDIS has become one of the primary mechanisms through which disabled Centralians are able to participate in creative, cultural and community life.
Incite therefore urges the NDIS to ensure reforms both protect continuity of participation within Incite’s existing grassroots ecosystems and ensure future funding models strengthen, rather than replace, the community networks, creative pathways and support structures that our regional disabled artists currently rely upon.
Submission 651
Incite’s ecosystem in central Australia plays a critical role in upholding the commitments outlined within Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031, particularly in relation to inclusive communities, employment and financial security, personal and community support, health and wellbeing, and community participation.
Incite is committed to meeting its international human rights obligations under Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, which collectively recognise the right of all people to participate fully in cultural life and the arts.
Incite therefore recommends the development of a protected “Creative Participation and Pathways” framework within the NDIS.
-
Ensure that reforms do not disproportionately reduce access to social and community participation funding for disabled Australians participating in arts, culture and community based creative practice. This can be done by establishing a “Creative Participation and Pathways” Framework that recognises arts participation as preventative social infrastructure contributing to long-term participant wellbeing, independence, workforce participation and community inclusion.
-
Safeguard Participants During Transition Implement clear transition safeguards for participants likely to lose access to the NDIS or experience substantial reductions in funding, particularly neurodivergent participants and those with psychosocial disability.
-
Protect Continuity of Community Infrastructure Recognise Incites’ disability arts and mentorship programs as essential community infrastructure that reduces isolation, supports social cohesion and prevents greater pressure on health, mental health and social care systems.
-
Include Arts and Disability Organisations in Co-Design Processes Ensure Incite Arts and other disability-led arts organisations, supported studios and disabled artists are directly involved in the co-design of future participation frameworks, including the Inclusive Communities Fund. We urge you to work with ADNA to consult with the government on the development of this fund to ensure that it is relevant, accessible and responsive to the lived realities of disabled Australians, while strengthening the existing community, cultural and vocational infrastructures already supporting participation across the country.
-
Dedicated Funding for Arts and Cultural Participation Ensure a dedicated portion of the Inclusive Communities Fund is allocated to arts, culture and creative participation initiatives supporting disabled Australians.
-
Ensure that Access to the Inclusive Communities Fund is equitable and geographically distributed. Design funding models that do not disadvantage smaller, regional, remote and grassroots organisations that may have limited administrative and grant writing capacity.
Submission 651
- Recognise Employment and Economic Outcomes Acknowledge the role disability arts organisations play in:
- employment readiness;
- creative industry participation;
- leadership development;
- skills development; and
- long-term economic participation for disabled Australians.
- Align Reforms with Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031 Ensure proposed reforms uphold the commitments outlined within Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031, particularly in relation to:
- inclusive communities;
- employment and financial security;
- personal and community support;
- health and wellbeing; and
- community participation.
- Uphold Australia’s International Human Rights Obligations Ensure reforms remain consistent with:
-
Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
-
Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and
-
UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, which collectively recognise the right of all people to participate fully in cultural life and the arts.
- Engage in Ongoing Sector Consultation Establish ongoing consultation mechanisms with the arts and disability sector to ensure future reforms reflect lived experience, fluctuating support needs and the realities of community participation across Australia.
Incite Arts recommends the need to work with ADNA, as the national peak arts and disability organisation is well positioned to be an active and connecting force in this ongoing sector consultation. Please do engage with them and meet to discuss and progress the next steps, at your earliest convenience
Yours sincerely,
Jenine Mackay
Chief Executive Officer & Creative Producer
Delivering community arts and culture programs in the central desert region since 1998