People with Disability Australia (PWDA) says the Federal Government’s proposed NDIS overhaul will cause widespread harm across the disability community, warning hundreds of thousands of people will be pushed into isolation, crisis and segregation when they lose the supports they rely on to survive and participate in everyday life.
The warning comes as newly released government modelling reveals more than 241,000 existing NDIS participants are expected to be pushed off the scheme within four years of new eligibility rules commencing, with almost 350,000 fewer people projected to be on the NDIS by 2031 than previously forecast.
PWDA Acting CEO Mx Megan Spindler-Smith said the figures had devastated the disability community.
“People with disability are overwhelmed looking at these numbers and wondering how they will fill the gaps,” Mx Spindler-Smith said.
“We are wondering how we will survive, whether we will lose the supports that help them leave the house, keep working, raise children, stay safe or simply get through the day.”
“The Government keeps talking about sustainability. But people with disability are hearing something else entirely: that hundreds of thousands of us are expected to make do without essential supports.”
The modelling also reveals cuts to social and community participation supports are expected to deliver the single biggest saving in the reforms, accounting for $13.2 billion over four years.
Mx Spindler-Smith said those supports are routinely misunderstood in public debate.
“A lot of people hear ‘social and community participation’ and think recreation or lifestyle funding. These are actually supports that allow people to leave home safely, get to work, attend university, maintain relationships, parent their children or avoid becoming completely isolated.
“It is not an overstatement to say that this directly takes away from the safe and quality life every Australian deserves.
“The Government’s own analysis shows these cuts will disproportionately hit people with psychosocial disability, people with Down syndrome and people with visual impairment.”
PWDA warned the reforms risk recreating exactly the kind of isolation and segregation the NDIS was designed to prevent.
“The NDIS was supposed to move Australia away from segregation, institutionalisation and congregate models of care,” Mx Spindler-Smith said.
“But when you strip away the supports that allow people to participate in community life, people do not magically become independent. They become isolated. They become trapped at home. Or they are pushed towards ‘disability only’ settings because those become the only places support still exists.”
PWDA said one of the deepest concerns across the disability community was that Parliament is being asked to pass sweeping reforms before replacement systems and safeguards exist.
“People are being told there will be foundational supports and more inclusive communities in the future. But right now those systems do not exist and we have no idea what they will deliver, where they’ll be available and who will be able to access them,” Mx Spindler-Smith said.
“You cannot cut supports first and hope options will be available later.”
PWDA acknowledged the contributions made during this week’s House of Representatives debate by crossbench MPs Dr Monique Ryan, Kate Chaney, Zali Steggall, Nicolette Boele and Dai Le alongside Australian Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown, who raised concerns about consultation failures, automation, inequitable impacts and people being pushed out of support without anywhere safe to land.
“Dr Monique Ryan recognised what is driving so much fear in the disability community right now: Parliament is being asked to pass sweeping changes before people know who loses support, how decisions will be made or what safety nets actually exist.
“Kate Chaney was right to raise concerns about automated decision-making. The NDIS is not a parking fine. These decisions affect housing, safety, therapy, transport and whether someone can participate in community life.
“Nicolette Boele recognised the fear many disabled people are living with right now: being pushed out of support before replacement systems even exist.”
Mx Spindler-Smith said Parliament must not rush legislation that will fundamentally reshape disability support in Australia for generations.
“This Bill is deciding who gets support, who gets left behind and what kind of lives disabled people are allowed to have,” Mx Spindler-Smith said.
“This Bill must not pass in its current form. The safeguards are too weak, the risks are too high and disabled people are being asked to carry the consequences of decisions they were never properly consulted on.”
ENDS
About us:
People with Disability Australia (PWDA), is a national disability rights and advocacy organisation led by, and for, people with all kinds of disability. We are a non-profit, non-government organisation and our membership is made up of people with disability and organisations mainly constituted by people with disability.
https://www.pwd.org.au
Contact details:
PWDA Media and Communications
0491 034 479
