Submission 680
Good afternoon,
I’m writing to strongly object to the National Disability Insurance Scheme amendments (securing the NDIS for future generations) Bill 2026, as these changes would dramatically reduce the critical supports my family and I rely on. In this submission, I explain how the NDIS currently enables my father’s care, what the proposed changes would mean for us, and why these amendments must not proceed.
What the NDIS looks like for my family and me presently.
I am the advocate on behalf of my father, I am the decision-maker on behalf of his NDIS needs, and I am the enduring guardian. I have no family living close by and no friend that I could rely on to help with him. Because of the NDIS framework, from morning till mid-afternoon, he has two support workers during the week, the first support worker who manages cleaning the house and some social activities, and the second support worker manages my father’s medical appointments, social outings, and grocery runs. Additionally, he has a psychologist but meets with him fortnightly. One of the benefits of the NDIS was that I was able to find a job that worked alongside my father’s NDIS plan. It is certainly not perfect, as he’s gotten older, his health situation has become more and more complicated, and most days I’m getting home mid to late in the evening. Another benefit is that I can leave the responsibility to the support worker to manage my father’s demands, taking the pressure off me.
How will the proposed changes work?
A 30% cut in social engagements and community participation would fall back on me to complete, which would raise significant tension between my ability to do my job and meeting his needs of social engagement and attending meetings. My biggest concern with such a cut is that it would leave him more prone to fending for himself, which, because of his disabilities, he simply cannot do.
My thoughts about the foundational supports are complicated. Based on my information, I read from the IPART report on mental health and crisis treatment, which stated that funding for these disciplines is currently and solely locked into the NDIS. States and territories have widely said, but they are unable to have the same funding structures as the NDIS does. If you look more broadly at state-based mental health, it is estimated 33% of people will try to access the mental health system and never receive care (Soit,2023, para. 8, Australian Psychological Society, 2022, para. 2, 6). Another concern is the fact that there is no best-case situation that has been properly researched and endorsed by case studies and partnerships in order to place autistic children in foundational support care. Again, placing children into a lesser-funded system will put heavy pressure on parents and caretakers, who will be further caged into systems that cannot work for them and for their children’s complex needs. I urge the government to consider setting up a co-design agreement with parents and children, partnering with existing universities and research organisations to develop our best-case situation for autistic children. Secondly, a federal and state and territory joint funding agreement that focuses on autistic children.
When I heard about the proposed one social worker for three participants, I grew angry. Why should my father, who has vast complicated health needs, be pushed into a group housing situation that has been earmarked by a number of federal inquests as being abusive and outright the wrong thing
Submission 680
to do with people with disabilities? I suspect that because of my father’s quiet temperament and his inability to fend for himself, alongside other participants, he would be drowned out, not get his needs met, and perish. My question to the committee is, why did we abolish in the 1970s psych wards, which mainly consisted of people with disabilities, in order to be re-established in 2026. This inference to place people back into care homes is utterly barbaric and due to the committees’ injustices and discrimination, which are breaches of the global goals, being 10 being reduced inequalities and 11 Sustainable cities and communities (Project everyone, n.d.a, para. 3, Project everyone, n.d.b, para. 3)
What would happen if these changes were placed on my
father’s plan?
One of the major changes would be a lack of support from a support worker. I will have to give up my recently acquired job in order to care for my father. It will place a heavy burden on me, due to the fact that I’m already a child carer, and spent numerous years as an adult taking care of his needs over mine and will send me to breaking point. With no family members and friends close by, a greater prevalence of me and people around me in the community to essentially do crisis support and with my knowledge of how lacking the supports are out of the NDIS, if there is support that can be offered there is likely to be a miss match best support that matches my father’s needs which will likely lead to my father’s end-of-life.
All the points mentioned, I formally request that the committee throw out the bill, formally speak and interact with key people from disability groups like Autism Network, and go out into the community and find a harmonious solution to the NDIS, so we can continue our funding structure and live life the way it should be before this bill takes place. Please note, I would suggest to the committee that they take a look at NDIS providers to reclaim the necessary funding.
References
Australian Phycological Society. (2022). Bleak new figures confirm depth of mental health crisis. https://psychology.org.au/about-us/news-and-media/media-releases/2022/bleak-new-figures confirm-depth-of-mental-health-c
Soit,H.(2023). Analysing Australia’s Mental Health Crisis. https://psychology.org.au/about-us/news-
and-media/aps-in-the-media/2023/analysing-australias-mental-health-crisis
Project Everyone.(n.d.a). 10 Reduced inequalities. https://globalgoals.org/goals/10-reduced inequalities/
Submission 680
Project Everyone.(n.d.b). 11 sustainable cities and communities. https://globalgoals.org/goals/11 sustainable-cities-and-communities/