21/08/2026
I usually don't post on politics. But this has been a devastating week.
Labor, the Coalition & One Nation all voted in favour of massive cuts to the NDIS.
Here's the thing, I agree the scheme needs to be sustainable. I agree there is fraud. Unnecessary red tape is endless.
Equipment suppliers often have insane mark-ups. There are providers doing the wrong thing. The NDIS loses 75% of the appeals against them at a cost of $65 million in legal fees.
That all needs an overhaul.
That's not what these reforms will do.
Instead all participants are set to lose up to 50% of their funding for community, civic and social participation. What does that mean in real terms?
This is the funding for support workers that enables disabled people to:
*go to work
*attend medical appointments
*visit family & friends
*go shopping
*engage in leisure activities
*study
*carry out volunteering
The NDIS has never paid for these activities, they have funded the support for people like myself to do them.
If I want to access my community now I will be expected to attend a day program. Where, when, who, what, how will be removed from my control.
I sit on six different boards/advisory groups where I give of my time to the community I live in. I work. I'm a Justice of the Peace. I attend endless medical and rehabilitation appointments to keep myself as healthy as possible. I enjoy socialising with the people I love.
My opportunity to do all those things will now be severely curtailed. I will have to rely on my husband John to do more for me. So he has to be my carer not my partner. He won't be able to do all of the things he enjoys doing, and deserves to do them.
Tens of thousands of support workers (a high percentage of them female) will become unemployed. They will no longer be spending their wages in their communities. Many will need to access Centrelink. This will have a huge flow on effect to small business.
Bluntly, disabled people will have their quality of life significantly worsen. There will be increased hospital admissions causing added strain to Medicare. Higher unemployment. Some disabled people simply won't survive.
The government had the opportunity to do the right thing. They could have clamped down on fraud. Put a cap on equipment costs. Removed the endless bureaucracy that adds to cost overruns. Crafted people's plans correctly so that $65 million wasn't wasted on appeals.
They didn't.
Instead, they took the easy way out & decided that being disabled means you're a second class citizen. You don't get choices about how you live & what a full life looks like.
Really wish I wasn't disabled right now.
Photo description
Selfie of Rach & the beautiful Sascha from Sargood On Collaroy kayaking at Clontarf. They are both smiling.
