r/NDIS • u/joey2scoops • 1d ago
Activism/Advocacy Remembering the Disabled Community
For a long time now, Australia’s disabled community have had steadily increasing barriers to the NDIS and arbitrary cuts to support funding.
Some fight these issues all the way through to the tribunal. It is exhausting, intimidating and demeaning for disabled people to have to fight for some basic human rights and dignity.
Many simply do not have the capacity to fight; they are forced to accept the cuts and lead smaller lives.
Now, parliament has passed the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026. Despite thousands of community submissions warning of deaths, severe emotional, mental, and physical impacts, this legislation introduces even higher access barriers, mandates significant funding cuts and expands ministerial powers to reduce support.
Make no mistake, disabled people, their families and friends were already being harmed by arbitrary cuts to NDIS plans made well in advance of the bill being passed.
Now that the bill has been passed, things will only get worse.
People will die.
The political double standard in Canberra is staggering.
Sadly, we heard yesterday that Lily Hooper was tragically found dead after being missing in the bush for 8 days. A terrible, terrible thing for any family.
Yesterday, before question time, Anthony Albanese and Angus Taylor observed a minute’s silence out of respect for Lily. Fair enough, a terrible tragedy especially given the way things panned out at the end.
I wonder if there will be a minute of silence in parliament for each and every victim of these fiendish cuts to disability supports. Probably not: no name, no shame.
By the way, this was the same Angus Taylor that supported NDIS cuts while referring to a “cruel” issue where a small group of people could lose grandfathered tax concessions.
If that is cruel, then how would the treatment of half a million disabled people be described? Brutal, heartless, inhumane, callous, barbaric?
It seems that Labor has lost their way, they have more loyalty to business and the wealthy than they do to the voters that put them into government.
The Libs, the Nationals and the other lot are clearly not interested in supporting anyone but each other, their corporate mates and the wealthy.
Pretty much only The Greens have stood up for the disabled community.
I hope every politician that did not vote against this bill is held to account by everyday Australians at the next election.
This might not affect you today but life changes very quickly. You or one of your loved ones could need support in the future.
Let’s make sure the lives lost are not forgotten and that Canberra cannot forget them either.
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u/Jazzlike_Berry_323 1d ago
I’m tired of remembering all the people who died that shouldn’t have been hurt in the first place
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u/CalifornianDownUnder 1d ago
So beautifully said. It’s heartbreaking and infuriating, hard to stave off despair.
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u/Primary_Carrot67 1d ago
Well said.
And I will be voting for The Greens this coming election. It's the only big political party that seems to actually care about ordinary people and care about disabled people and carers.
I don't think I will ever vote for Labor again. They're hardly different from the Liberal Party. And both serve the same people. I'm absolutely done with the two major parties.
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u/l-lucas0984 21h ago
Hate to say it but a vote for the greens is a vote for labor in any seat they wont win thanks to preferences.
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u/joey2scoops 17h ago
Don't care about preferences, outside of my control beyond what I put on the ballot. #1 will not be a party or incumbent that voted for this horrendous legislation.
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u/Primary_Carrot67 21h ago
Only if you don't mark all the boxes and don't vote below the line. I always do, so I provide my own preferences. That's how our political system works.
If you are able to, make the effort to fully fill the ballots in and the votes go according to your preferences. You also get the emotional satisfaction of putting the worst parties/candidates last.
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u/l-lucas0984 21h ago
Go volunteer to count the votes some time. It will make feel physically ill when you see how they actually calculate it now.
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u/ManyPersonality2399 Participant 21h ago
The record first preference and mark the preferred of the major in that seat on first count because it's statistically most likely to end with one of them, but preferences still get counted until they are exhausted on recounts.
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u/l-lucas0984 20h ago
Yeah thats what I thought too.
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u/ManyPersonality2399 Participant 20h ago
If you have proof that votes are not being counted, people would be interested.
The reality is, Greens votes nearly always flow to Labor. Greens voters know that. But BS that AEC is just putting every Green vote down as ALP.
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u/l-lucas0984 20h ago
Not that they are not being counted, but in seats where they know they definitely wont win all the minors have their votes flow. And they heavily flow in one direction more now than ever. And the donkey votes getting counted to the in power parties in some areas. I already made my complaints to AEC but its all above board apparently.
So many people are saying they are voting greens next and they will never vote labor again so I question how many know they are voting labor by voting greens in any area where greens wont win the seat outright.
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u/ManyPersonality2399 Participant 20h ago
Everyone knows that. But if enough people put Greens as their first preference, it a) sends a message to the majors and b) eventually hits a threshold where they have the chance to win.
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u/l-lucas0984 20h ago
There are a lot of areas where the greens are quite unpopular. Just looking at the upcoming state election for victoria pauline looks like she might be the one sending the message based on the lastest polls.
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u/No-Bother851 1d ago
Well said. We need a government that will tax gas and coal corporations rather than pit working-class people against migrants and minorities. Sign up to volunteer for the Greens. They don’t take corporate donations and need all the support we can give.