28/05/2026
Kirstie Shaw Advocacy sums up the NDIS debacle very well.
Shame on the government for handling what was supposed to be a once in a lifetime positive outcome for people with disabilities, so poorly. 🤬😡😤😖😠
Before the NDIS, disabled people were institutionalised, segregated, left on endless waitlists, trapped at home, forced into inappropriate housing, and denied support unless families were already drowning in crisis.
Parents became unpaid full-time carers because there was nobody else. People lost education, employment, relationships, independence and safety because governments rationed disability support and called it “sustainable.”
Australia held a Royal Commission because those systems caused violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and lifelong harm.
Despite the HORRIFIC scale of violence, abuse and neglect exposed by the Disability Royal Commission, the Federal Government initially accepted only 13 of the Commission’s 222 recommendations in full, with most others merely accepted “in principle,” deferred, or left under consideration.
And now the government is trying to repackage watered-down supports under shiny new branding like “foundational supports” and “Thriving Kids” while tightening access to the actual supports keeping disabled people stable, safe and included in community life.
Disabled people remember what life was like before individualised supports, when responsibility fell onto exhausted families, segregated settings and underfunded mainstream systems.
They lived through that s**t.
They know what life was like before.
And they REFUSE to go back!
They DEMAND better for the next generation!
Better than outdated, harmful, behaviouralist approaches that focus on compliance over wellbeing, autonomy and human rights.
Better than forcing disabled children to “normalise” themselves to access support.
Better than subjecting parents to “parenting courses” that blame them for their child’s disability, shame families, and push pseudoscientific “cures” instead of providing meaningful, evidence-based support.
Better than systems that treat disabled people as problems to be managed instead of human beings deserving dignity, inclusion and genuine support.
And despite “co-design” being thrown around like a PR slogan, disabled people, families and frontline communities are screaming that these reforms will harm people, and they are still being ignored.
You cannot claim “nothing about us without us” while freezing out Disabled People’s Organisations and refusing to genuinely consult with the very people these changes will affect.
That is not co-design.
That is managed optics.
You can call it reform.
You can call it sustainability.
You can call it “Thriving Kids.”
Same old bulls**t. Same harmful outcomes. Absolutely against best practice. Absolutely a violation of children's human rights.
You can cover a turd in glitter, but it still fu***ng stinks!
