National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 749 - Supplementary Submission
Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee
Re: National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment Bill 2026
Realising Every Dream Ltd
Submitted by: Marie Gale, CEO
Realising Every Dream is a small, community-based not-for-profit and registered NDIS provider operating in the Northern Rivers of NSW since 1991.
This submission follows our earlier submission and responds to urgent calls and letters from anxious families whose adult sons and daughters rely on our Community Participation services. Their fear is real and growing.
Cuts are already occurring through plan reviews, despite government assurances that changes would wait until legislation passes. Families are worried they will have to leave work to provide unpaid support, that their sons and daughters will lose access to work, community, peers and skill development, and that eligibility is being reassessed without clear warning or transparency. This is causing unnecessary hardship and fear.
Families are bringing these fears to our staff, who are now deeply worried about job losses. In the current uncertainty, we cannot guarantee ongoing services or employment.
Ethical community providers like REDinc have supported the NDIS from the start, yet we are again expected to absorb the consequences of poor scheme management and waste within the NDIA. The Agency itself must be urgently and transparently reviewed.
The Senate inquiry has heard the warnings. Many ethical providers may not survive this year. If they are forced out, who will be left to support people with disability safely, legally and well?
The system needs ethical providers. Without them, the risk is that only the least scrupulous will remain.
We ask that:
-
No cuts be made to Community Participation or Capacity Building funding until the Inclusive Communities Fund is operating and savings from other measures are realised.
-
Government consider external modelling showing these cuts are unnecessary and savings can be achieved elsewhere. (Grattan Institute)
-
A fair, accessible appeals process be established, and the NDIA stop wasting public funds on legal contests that could be avoided by getting plans right in the first place.