20/08/2026
I'M SORRY.
I'm sorry that your government was warned about the challenges facing the NDIS, yet participants are now being asked to pay the price for years of inadequate oversight, poor policy decisions and a failure to properly address the underlying problems within the Scheme.
I’m sorry that instead of clearly separating fraud, provider misconduct, regulatory failure and genuine participant need, so much of the public conversation has allowed them to become tangled together.
And I’m sorry that people with disabilities, and the families who support them, are being made to feel as though they are somehow responsible for a system they did not design, regulate or administer.
You are not.
Over the years, there have been very few times when I have personally felt Australian values have been ignored or diminished. COVID was one. This is another.
I have watched the disability community become a target for people within the Australian Public Service and our major political parties who should know better. At first, I thought perhaps they didn't understand the consequences of what they were doing.
I have come to a different conclusion.
I think they understand. I just simply don’t think they care.
It is easy to talk about billions of dollars, growth targets, sustainability and budget savings from an office in Canberra. It is much harder to look at the person whose Saturday social activity might disappear, whose necessary support hours might be reduced, or whose opportunity to build independence and friendships might be taken away, and explain why their life should become smaller because governments failed to properly manage the Scheme.
The care of others seems so far removed from the comfortable world in which some of these decisions are made that the people affected can become little more than numbers on a spreadsheet, discussed over a half-strength soy caramel latte.
But you are not numbers.
You are people.
You are Australians.
And you deserve better treatment than this.
There are problems within the NDIS. We have never pretended otherwise. There is fraud. There has been exploitation. There are providers who have taken advantage of the Scheme. There are structural problems that should have been addressed years ago.
Deal with them.
Prosecute fraud.
Stop exploitation.
Fix the regulation.
Hold providers accountable.
Fix the structures that aren’t working.
But don’t make participants pay the price for failures that belong elsewhere and stop pretending that this is nothing more than a cost-saving exercise.
Don’t take away the friendships, independence, confidence and community inclusion that the NDIS was supposed to make possible and call it reform.
And don’t mistake silence for acceptance.
There will be another federal election in 2028. Between now and then, participants, families, carers and everyone who believes Australians with disability deserve better must continue to make their voices heard.
But when the time comes to vote, remember.
Remember those parties and people that abandoned their promise and made life just that much harder for you.
I’m not going to tell you who to vote for. That decision belongs to you.
But I will tell you this: your voice matters, and your vote matters.
Cowards, bullies and those incapable of original thought rely on people eventually becoming tired, becoming quiet and moving on.
Don’t.
What is happening to the NDIS is not an abstract political
argument for the people we support. These decisions affect where people live, what they do, who they see, how independent they can become and whether they remain connected to their communities.
Those consequences can last far longer than any politician’s term in office.
So once again, to our participants and their families:
I’m sorry that you are having to fight for things you were told the NDIS existed to provide.
I’m sorry that you are being made anxious about a future that should hold more opportunity, not less.
And I’m sorry that the failures of governments, regulators, providers and systems are being allowed to cast a shadow over people who have done nothing wrong.
But I’m not sorry for speaking up about it.
And neither should you be. Your voice matters, so let it be heard.
Scott Hirst
Founder | Owner and proud supporter of the disability community
