09/06/2026
For the past 4 days in Cairns, Deaf Plus Australia has been working alongside a mother and her adult daughter living with lifelong complex disability support needs while they navigate homelessness, trauma, exhaustion, and the overwhelming reality of failing disability systems.
This young Proud 1st Nations Woman of the Wuthathi People of Cape York lives with a permanent genetic disability requiring high levels of structured support, emotional regulation assistance, culturally safe care, disability-specific accommodation, and communication supports including adjusted Basic Auslan and familiar relational communication methods to safely express her needs, emotions, routines, and daily living requirements.
The reports exist.
The Functional Capacity Assessments exist.
The Occupational Therapy recommendations exist.
The safeguarding concerns have been repeatedly raised.
Yet tonight, they remain homeless.
Over the past several days we have sat together in temporary accommodation coordinating emergency responses, preparing NDIS and QCAT advocacy, attempting to engage services, and trying to create some form of safe pathway forward — all while witnessing the emotional toll this crisis is taking on both mother and daughter.
What continues to become painfully clear is this:
The issue is not that vulnerable people are receiving “too much” support.
The issue is that participants with the highest and most permanent disability support needs are still unable to access the practical supports repeatedly identified as essential by professionals.
For participants who rely on adjusted communication, familiar relational supports, and consistency of care, the breakdown of trusted support systems can itself become a safeguarding risk.
For First Nations participants, these failures are even more devastating when connection to Country, kinship systems, trusted relationships, and culturally safe care are not recognised as critical protective factors.
No family should be trying to survive a homelessness, guardianship, disability, communication, and mental health crisis alone while simultaneously navigating systems designed to support them.
The proposed NDIS reforms cannot move forward without genuine understanding of what is already happening on the ground to vulnerable participants and families right now.
This is not policy theory.
This is real life.
And vulnerable people are falling through the cracks.
Every way of communicating is valid.
Every person deserves safety, dignity, culture, housing, communication access, and support.
Senator Jordon Steele-John
Senator Lidia Thorpe
Jenny McAllister
David Pocock
NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
NDIS National Disability Insurance Scheme
Queensland Government
Friends of Freyr - Inclusive Activities for All-Abilities Bali
— Deaf Plus Australia
