National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 991
23rd May 2026
NDIS Submission
I became a paraplegic at the age of 14 due to a car accident. After six months in hospital learning to walk again I went back to school using arm crutches. I was still living at home then so my parents provided anything I needed which wasn’t much at that age. I started work as soon as I could and have worked all my life, now aged 66.
I was a part of any government subsidy scheme for disability related supports like hand controls for my car and then I gained access to the NDIS in 2017 when it was rolled out in my area. In the nearly ten years I have been on the Scheme, with increasing age my disability related supports have increased which has been reflected in my plan over time.
I now use a wheelchair so have supports in place to accommodate this both in the home and out in the community. I still work part-time at home so can still contribute to my support needs financially away from the NDIS.
I cannot go into the community on my own as I cannot get the wheelchair in and out of my car on my own so always need someone with me, usually my partner. If I did not have him then I would using my Social & Community Support NDIS bucket to fund this just to leave home. Without it I would be house bound.
My Capacity Building Supports have always been important given my permanent disability is physical so maintaining physical abilities has been very important. I need strength and flexibility to use the wheelchair or the small distances I can walk with crutches. I have developed osteoarthritis as I aged given the unevenness of my gait since the age of 14 and this has reduced my ability to walk such that I cannot take a single step unaided now, hence the need for a wheelchair for any sort of distance.
When I was still more physically able, just using crutches, I invested in my own health with regular exercise and gym attendance. This is no longer possible so I use local physical therapy options in a targeted one-on-one fashion to maintain my shoulder strength and balance so I can be relatively safe using the wheelchair and crutches when needed.
With the paraplegia and osteoarthritis I have developed osteoporosis over time which makes me more vulnerable to bony injury with falls, another reason to maintain my strength and flexibility to reduce the risk of falls or at least recover from a fall more easily.
The NDIS changed my life with appropriate, targeted funding for where I needed it most. When I had an acute medical illness in 2019 I never really recovered physically (took six months to be able to walk again) and with the appropriate reports obtained increased NDIS funding for a wheelchair and bathroom renovation to cater
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 991
for that. My daily support needs also changed due to wheelchair use and this was appropriately changed by the NDIS as well in my Plan.
Registration of Providers is contentious on a broad scale given Registration does not mean quality. Just means someone / a group is prepared to do the paperwork or pay a price, does not reflect quality of service. I live in a semi-rural area and all my providers are local people for whom I am just one of their Clients. Many are involved with My Aged Care as well for which they are registered. They would not register with NDIA as there would be no advantage to them. This means I would lose all of my current Providers with many companies who have bothered to register not going into semi-rural areas (far worse in inland areas I imagine) so I would be left with no supports at all. Also companies charge far more per hour and charge for travel, none of my supports charge NDIS rates nor charge for travel given they are local people. My NDIS funding plan would be soon depleted if I had to go to companies, even if I could source them to come to my area. I have had my providers for many years, they are local and a stable service, why should this change for me because of abuses inflicted on vulnerable NDIS participants as there are not sufficient protections in place by the system that is paying for their services.
The NDIS has been a boon to people in Australia who qualify for it and is essential to maintain any sort of quality of life. After one year with an Agency to learn what was required I have self-managed my plan and have always kept within my budget with the use of a spreadsheet, knowing how much I spend each month on a regular basis and with one-off needs able to be funded within my plan. There is no doubt there has been gross fraud within the system (don’t even start my Physiotherapist on how Allied Health as a whole jumped on the gravy train) and the Federal Govt certainly needs to deal with that but punishing participants doesn’t seem quite fair. They are NOT the problem. As I am self-managed and capable I have the capacity to monitor my supports and funding but not everyone can and those vulnerable people need to be supported with strong oversight by the NDIA.
Thank you for the opportunity to put forward my views on the proposed changes.
Yours sincerely,