Campaigners for a secure NDIS unsuccessful as government continues bulldozing

Days out from Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ budget announcement, large crowds gathered in Wollongong and Sydney to demand a stoppage to proposed cuts to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

As confirmed last Tuesday, the Labor government aims to remove 160,000 participants from the scheme, to save an estimated $35 billion over a decade.

The government proposes to enforce a permanency test, which will only allocate funding to those with a “permanent and significant disability,” moving away from people able to access “treatment that will treat or alleviate the impact of an impairment.”

Among the protesters outside Member for Cunningham Alison Byrnes’ Crown Street office were NDIS participants and their carers, who demanded the Labor MP speak to her constituents directly.

Disability support worker Eren shared a message from a friend on the scheme, outlining their frustrations at an already difficult process to eligibility tests.

“Becoming sick is not an individual moral failing. It can happen to any one of us,” they shared.

“What I’ll say to Alison Byrnes is this: It can happen to you too.”

NDIS recipient and coordinator of the protest Maddy gave a powerful speech declaring the moral and ethical failures of government officials in charge of the decision.

She spoke of how the scheme has vastly improved the quality of life for people with disabilities by relieving financial burden.

“We are people who deserve lives. We deserve to see the sun. We deserve to have dignity, and they don’t care,” Maddy proclaimed.

“How dare you make us feel ashamed for being alive in the first place?

“It can’t just be me speaking up… It has to be an able-bodied person as well, because you are the majority of people.”

She highlighted existing failures of the scheme, and alleged her friends have been stripped of their funding without even being notified.

Campaigner Kyle Montgomery ripped into the government’s funding priorities, particularly the AUKUS deal, expected to cost $368 billion upon delivery of the nuclear submarines.

“This country is never lacking money, only a fucking conscience,” Mr Montgomery said.

“This is a human rights issue. Disabled lives are not budget liabilities.

“People spend years being rejected. They’re redirected onto programs — like the new Thriving Kids — underfunded state systems, never built for complex needs.”

That scheme, Thriving Kids, is a $4 billion federal investment to replace NDIS for children with “low-to-moderate” autism.

Experts like Professor David Trembath, an architect of national guidelines to support autistic children, are concerned that some will slip through the cracks of both programs due to the unclear definition of developmental delays.

From Gadigal

On Wednesday in Sydney, a similar action organised by activists gathered at Town Hall took place, aiming to march towards NSW Parliament.

Organising the rally, co-disability officers of the University of Sydney SRC Kayla Hill and Remy Lebreton opened the day about how outrageous Labor’s cuts to the NDIS were.

Ms Hill informed the crowd of the aid station to the side with masks and water, and pointed out the support workers amongst the crowd who can help anyone should they need aid. She kindly reminded the crowd to “come as they are.”

“160,000 lives, going on 300,000, and no doubt more moving forward, will be thrown into an uncertain future if we let these cuts, this act of eugenics, move forward unchallenged,” Lebreton said.

Mr Montgomery made the journey up from Wollongong to echo his demands from the previous day.

“It’s pretty encouraging, it’s pretty wonderful to see everyone with disabilities here together,” he said to a decently large crowd. The Gala approximates that the crowd was around 300 strong.

“They found 53 billion dollars to fund arms abroad, they can’t find enough to fund survival at home.”

Another activist, Sam Noonan, also made the journey up from the Illawarra for the Sydney demonstration.

She was joined by her support worker Sharon, and is thankful for the privilege provided to her by the NDIS, which she wished would extend to everybody else.

“Every human being deserves dignity and autonomy over what happens to their own body and their own personal spaces,” Ms Noonan said.

“We all deserve the right to be included in our chosen communities, we have the right to ask for what we need, the right to work with the people we choose, and the right to be an equal contributor within society.

“We people with disabilities are asking for the chance to govern our own lives and reach our full potential, whatever that may look like for each of us, just as any other human demographic does.

“The Labor government does not have the right to treat us as second-class citizens, or burdens, or fraudsters, or something to be cut.”

Speaking against the cuts, NSW Greens Legislator Abigail Boyd spoke about her struggles fighting for the disability community in state parliament.

“When we talk about the NDIS as being a cost, it’s not, it’s an investment,” Ms Boyd said.

“It’s an investment in allowing people to just get on with their lives like everybody else.”

Ms Boyd spoke about how she struggles to push for accessible public transport systems, raising the minimum accessibility standards of new builds, and protecting the NDIS.

Speeches wrapped up and a march to NSW parliament began, building noise and blocking traffic on the way. Activists shut down the street in front of state parliament as a final round of speeches were shared.

Gabrielle McCutcheon shared a personal experience of how a friend of hers, who she identified as “Sarah,” took her own life after the system failed her.

“I’m here because a few weeks ago I almost gave up,” Ms McCutcheon said.

“Sarah decided to let go after three years, not because she wanted to but because she was tired.

“We had been fighting the NDIS for three years together.

“Three years she sat in the gap in pain, without care, while two agencies pointed fingers at each other while no one accepted responsibility for a human being who needed help.”

Ms McCutcheon went on to call out the lies being perpetuated about the NDIS being used for fraud and the false estimate of 3,000 disability care workers in Lakemba.

“They tell us the NDIS is unsustainable but they have money for weapons and war,” she said.