National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 76
Dear Committee Members,
I am writing to share my personal connection to the NDIS and my deep concerns regarding the proposed NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026. I am an NDIS participant and this scheme has changed my life—and the lives of those around me—by giving us the security and resources needed to participate in the community. For example, with the NDIS support I’ve gone from being almost bed bound and having to choose between going to the shops or showering to being able to exercise safely, have a clean home and even take part in my local community.
I am worried about losing these crucial supports as I watch the scheme’s focus shift. We are facing sweeping legislative changes, including plans to remove 160,000 people from the scheme and cut average plans by ($5,000), none of which were taken to the Australian people at the last election. My plan has just been changed, without my input, to remove consumables and transport allowance. These planned changes are causing immense anxiety for myself and my elderly parents and family whom I used the transport allowance to see on a monthly basis as well as to attend health appointments. It also took over 10 months and a complaint to the NDIS minister to get a decision regarding home modifications that would have given me much more independence and safety in my day to day life had it been approved but it seems my independence and safety are not considered “effective or beneficial†.
When NDIS support is removed, the need does not simply disappear. Instead, the burden moves onto hospitals, mental health services, and unpaid family care, the majority of which is carried by women. Crucially, the 2023 independent review prescribed foundational supports as a non-negotiable precondition before any changes to eligibility or funding were introduced. These foundational supports simply do not exist, and the original roadmap has been abandoned. I, like many other participants, do not have an unpaid support system that can step in where the NDIS is lacking.
Therefore, I urge the Senate Committee to not pass this bill until foundational supports are actively in place, to release the downstream cost modelling, and to conduct and publish a gender impact assessment of these sweeping changes.