Submission 842
Submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs
Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for
Future Generations) Bill 2026
Name:
Gender:
Pronouns:
My name is . I am a blind and autistic mother(recently diagnosed 2025) raising my autistic child as a sole parent. I live with myopic macular degeneration and nyctalopia, which means my vision is severely impaired, particularly at night. I was diagnosed autistic as an adult, and my son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Global Developmental Delay in 2021.
I have been an NDIS participant since 2016. I am deeply grateful for the NDIS because it gave me the ability to safely leave a domestic violence relationship in 2017 and rebuild a life for myself and my child. Without the NDIS, I do not know how I would have survived that period of my life safely.
I agreed to become a parent. I agreed to raise my child as a single mother. What I never expected was how difficult it would become to access appropriate support once my son’s disabilities became clear. In 2020, I began approaching the NDIS for assistance because it became obvious that he required additional support. In 2021, he was formally diagnosed with autism and Global Developmental Delay.
Since 2022, I have repeatedly requested support worker assistance to help my son safely access therapies, appointments, community activities, and cultural programs. One of those activities is Spanish school, which is one of the few mainstream social environments where he feels connected, included, and able to engage with his cultural identity.
Due to my nyctalopia, I cannot safely travel independently at night. It is unsafe for me to navigate public transport or walk outside in low-light conditions with my child because I cannot see properly. This is not a matter of preference or convenience. It is a direct consequence of my disability.
Despite this, I was told by a senior planner that my life “would have been better if I partnered so my partner could take my son to appointments.” As a survivor of domestic violence, this comment was deeply upsetting, inappropriate, and discriminatory. It ignored both my disability and my lived experience as a sole parent. It also reflected a concerning assumption that unpaid family members should absorb gaps left by the NDIS.
Submission 842
This is why I am deeply concerned about sections 34(1G)-(1J) of the Bill, commonly referred to as the parental presumption provisions. These sections appear to assume that parents will naturally provide substantial levels of support regardless of their own circumstances, disabilities, or capacity.
I am particularly concerned because these provisions do not reflect the reality of families where both the parent and child have disabilities.
I am both an NDIS participant and the sole carer of an NDIS participant. Since 2022, I have repeatedly sought support worker assistance to enable my son to safely access therapies, appointments, community activities, and social opportunities.
I have met other parents whose children receive support worker assistance to attend appointments and activities when those parents cannot reasonably provide that support themselves. This leaves me confused as to why my son’s need for similar assistance has been repeatedly questioned despite my significant disabilities and the genuine barriers I face as a blind sole parent.
The reality is that I already use much of my own time, energy, and supports to help my son access the services he needs. Yet despite this, I continue to encounter expectations that I should simply do more.
The proposed parental presumption provisions risk turning these expectations into law. They risk creating a system where disabled parents are expected to overcome barriers created by their own disabilities in order to compensate for reduced supports for their children.
These reforms would not improve my vision. They would not make public transport safer at night. They would not reduce the challenges associated with being a blind autistic sole parent. What they would do is place additional pressure on families like mine while reducing the supports that allow our children to participate in the community, develop independence, and access opportunities that many other children take for granted.
My son’s supports are not luxuries. They are what allow him to participate in the community, attend therapies, engage in activities, and build independence. Support workers are also what allow me, as a blind parent, to safely support my child in the community. Without those supports, we would become increasingly isolated.
If our supports are reduced because the NDIS assumes I should simply do more as a parent, the impact on our family would be severe. My son could lose access to important developmental and social opportunities. We would become more socially isolated, more exhausted, and more vulnerable.
I am also deeply concerned about section 59B(4), which would allow automated systems and algorithms to make decisions involving judgement and discretion.
Submission 842
My experience with the NDIS has already shown me how easily complex human situations can be misunderstood even by human decision-makers. I cannot imagine how an automated system could properly understand the reality of being a blind autistic mother raising an autistic child while managing disability-related barriers, trauma, safety concerns, and caring responsibilities.
A computer cannot understand context. It cannot understand domestic violence. It cannot understand the risks associated with navigating public transport at night while visually impaired with an autistic child. It cannot understand the physical and emotional exhaustion that comes from being both a participant and a carer within the same household.
I fear that automated decision-making will reduce people like my family to assumptions, algorithms, and cost-saving measures rather than treating us as human beings with unique circumstances.
The NDIS was originally created to support disabled people to live safely, independently, and with dignity in the community. For families like mine, the Scheme is not about convenience. It is about safety, participation, inclusion, and basic human rights.
I respectfully ask the Committee to seriously reconsider these proposed changes.
Specifically, I ask the Committee to:
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Remove or substantially amend sections 34(1G)-(1J) so disabled parents and carers are not unfairly expected to provide unsafe or unreasonable levels of unpaid support.
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Remove or significantly limit section 59B(4) so that automated systems cannot make discretionary decisions about people’s lives and supports without meaningful human oversight.
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Ensure that lived experience from disabled parents, sole parents, and survivors of domestic violence is properly considered before any reforms are passed.
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Delay passage of the Bill until stronger safeguards and independent review mechanisms are in place.
I ask the Committee to remember that behind every policy change are real families. Families like mine already live under immense pressure. Reducing supports or replacing human understanding with automated decision-making will not create a stronger future for the NDIS. It will create more hardship, more isolation, and more risk for vulnerable people.
Thank you for considering my submission and my lived experience.