Before the Reform Bill Passes

Three families, and what is already happening

Disclaimer: This article reflects publicly available information as at 26 July 2026. The NDIS reform bill has not been passed. This article is for general information only and does not constitute disability support, legal, or financial advice.

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Three stories emerged this week that, taken together, describe something important.

The NDIS reform bill is still before the Senate. The final inquiry report is due 14 August. The bill has not been voted on. And yet the consequences that families have been warning about since the reform process began — inadequate plan funding, service closures, isolation, families reaching their limits — are not hypothetical. They are already happening, under the current system, before any new legislation takes effect.

This is not a commentary on what the reform bill will do. It is a description of what is happening now.

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Max's Family: From $98,000 to $27,000

Max is nine years old. He has Level 3 autism and other complex disabilities. He is, by his parents' description, the sweetest and most affectionate child — he loves cooking, animals, swimming, and cuddles.

He is also, at times, physically dangerous to the people around him. His parents Renee and Dave have documented episodes in which he has scratched, bitten, dragged, pushed, and slammed people during episodes that can last between five minutes and three hours. Renee describes sustaining serious physical harm from these episodes on a regular basis.

Until recently, Max's NDIS plan provided approximately $98,000 per year in funding for therapy, support workers, and in-home care. His most recent plan review reduced that to approximately $27,000.

The NDIA's stated position is that plans appropriately reflect a child's changing needs, including as they access other community supports such as early childhood education or school. Renee and Dave believe the reduction leaves their family without the support they consider essential to keep everyone safe.

Renee has installed security cameras inside her own home. When asked what life looks like following the cuts, her answer was brief: "Very bleak." She and Dave are not telling their story to assign blame. They are asking for the support to be restored, describing their situation as one of genuine desperation.

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Zeahn's Story: "The Difference Between Crisis and Safety"

As part of its "Reasonable. Necessary. Ordinary" campaign, People With Disability Australia has been collecting and sharing stories of what NDIS funding actually makes possible in the daily lives of participants.

Zeahn is 15. He has an acquired brain injury from cancer treatment, autism, ADHD, intellectual disability, epilepsy, severe anxiety, and PTSD. His support needs are complex.

His family's submission to the campaign is direct. They describe the NDIS not as a luxury for Zeahn, but as the difference between crisis and safety, between isolation and connection, between a child being managed as a problem and a child being supported as a whole person.

What the NDIS funds for Zeahn is not exceptional. It is trained support workers who understand his behaviour plan, who help him regulate, who support him to attend school, access the community, maintain routines, and stay connected with the people and activities that matter.

His family is clear: without the NDIS, Zeahn would not simply miss out on extras. He would lose the supports that enable him to live an ordinary life.

The family has direct experience of what happens when supports are inadequate: crisis, trauma, family breakdown, unsafe situations, hospital presentations, and placement instability.

The PWDA campaign is deliberately focused on this: the word "ordinary." The ordinary things the NDIS funds — school attendance, community access, safe mornings — are the things at stake in any reduction to support levels.

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Mareeba: A Supported Employment Program Closes

On July 31, Mareeba Business Solutions (MBS) in Far North Queensland will close.

MBS provided supported employment for almost 20 people with disability — sorting lychees, grading coffee beans, processing document-destruction bins, refurbishing water sprinklers. It has operated since the 1980s.

Endeavour Foundation, the national provider which now operates MBS, cited two reasons for the closure: challenges in securing adequate NDIA funding and dwindling commercial contracts. Losses exceeded $200,000 in the last financial year.

For the families of employees, the impact is immediate. Jo Thistle's adult children Nathan and Chloe have worked at MBS three days per week. She describes how much they love going to work and how it gives them a sense of purpose and contribution. For people who are excluded from much of mainstream employment because they process information differently or need more time, supported employment is not a stepping stone — it is the destination. It provides dignity, structure, purpose, and peer connection.

For Chloe Murray, one of the employees, the news of the closure was deeply distressing — a reaction her family says caught everyone present off guard.

The closure is not unique. Regional supported employment programs have been closing progressively across Australia as NDIS funding structures and commercial market conditions make them increasingly unviable for not-for-profit providers.

Endeavour Foundation has not confirmed what will happen to the site after closure. The Mareeba Lions Club, which originally funded the building of the facility in the early 1980s, is challenging the decision and is concerned the property may be sold rather than preserved for community benefit.

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The Pattern

Three very different situations, all this week, all pointing in the same direction.

A child's plan is cut from $98,000 to $27,000 under a standard plan review, leaving a family without support they believe is necessary for basic safety.

A teenager's story illustrates what the NDIS actually funds for people with complex needs — not extras, but the difference between a managed crisis and an ordinary day.

A regional employment program closes because the funding model no longer works, removing meaningful work from twenty people with disability and leaving their families without a pathway they had built their lives around.

None of these are caused by the reform bill. The bill has not passed. These are outcomes of the current system, as it operates today.

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What Remains Before August 14

The Senate inquiry final report is due on August 14. The committee's work during this period — and whatever amendments the government agrees to before the final vote — will determine whether the reform bill, if it passes, includes stronger safeguards for the kinds of situations described above.

The three stories this week all involve children and young people with complex, high-level needs. They are exactly the group that disability advocacy organisations have argued most urgently needs specific protections in any reform package — not vague assurances about "reasonable and necessary" assessments, but concrete, documented safeguards that prevent the system from cutting support for people whose safety depends on it.

Whether those safeguards will appear in the bill's final form is not yet known.

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What Participants and Families Can Do Now

If your plan has been reduced, you have options. Request an internal review within 3 months. Gather your evidence — current allied health reports, specialist letters, carer statements, behaviour support plans, incident records. See our guide: What to Do If Your I-CAN v6 Outcome Doesn't Reflect Your Needs.

Document everything now. If you are anticipating a plan review in the coming months, begin building a thorough, specific, domain-by-domain record of your support needs today. The families in these stories are all, in different ways, fighting decisions that were made without adequate evidence of what daily life actually requires. Preparation before the review is your most effective protection.

Connect with independent advocacy. PWDA's "Reasonable. Necessary. Ordinary" campaign invites participants to share their stories. DANA provides independent advocacy support. Your state and territory disability advocacy services are also available at no cost.

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Sources: Nine / A Current Affair (20 July 2026), ABC News Mareeba (23 July 2026), People With Disability Australia Reasonable. Necessary. Ordinary campaign (22 July 2026).