17/07/2025
We have just mailed out the first set of Harm Tracker comments. They have been de-identified.
They are devastating.
One provider tells the story of a child who lives remotely, who she supports with swallowing. She can no longer travel to see them. She reports that worse case scenario, this child may choke to death without ongoing swallow support.
Another allied health worker, who is pregnant, tells how she has experienced so much overwhelming psychological distress from the cuts and their impact on her capacity to support the people she serves, that she is worried about the impact of the stress on her unborn baby.
Yet another working remote tells how her non speaking child clients now have no supports. There are none in that area and now nobody can get to them. All the progress they have made in learning to use AAC will likely stop, and their parents do not have capacity to teach them.
Yet another talks about her clients with acquired brain injury who she was teaching to cook safely in their homes. That therapy has now stopped.
The participant comments are even more horrifying. It was impossible to read them without crying. People report being pressured to give up their Independent Living funding, having support hours cut, and fearing imminent death. Being unable to go anywhere, access the community, eat, or get clean.
Choking. Isolation. Death. Being cut off from communication. Laying in bed unshowered, starving.
Were these the NDIS cuts you ordered, Anthony Albanese?
The comments - over 70 of them, very detailed and all verified and de identified - were sent to Senators and MPs, media contacts, and every DPRO in Australia. They were also lodged with the Disability Discrimination Commissioner Rosemary Kayess, and Children's Commissioner - Anne Hollonds.
We sent the following to Ministers Butler and McAllister and the CEO of the NDIA.
We remind everyone that the NDIA board can stop this at any time. They have the authority to. They have the power to protect us. Contact Kurt Fearnley, Board Chair, and let him know how you feel about it.
Why won't they?
"Hi all,
Please see attached.
The NDIS Cuts Harm Tracker can be accessed at:
www.thisisanpa.org/the-harm-tracker-project
Please share widely among your networks.
We will continue to document and provide this to media and all MPs, Senators and the public, until the NDIS Cuts are reversed and supports are reinstated for all who need them.
We are also tracking people longitudinally to follow long term outcomes of the Cuts.
Stats, a harm heat map, participant and carer comments to follow.
Please note our coalition receives zero government funding.
We are not afraid of you. Cut our plans, and we will come harder, longer, and with more focus than before.
Welcome to Autism. 💋
In Power,
Sarah (she/her)
President
Australian Neurodivergent Parents Association
'Nothing About Us Without Us'
Email: exec@thisisanpa.org"
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A copy of the Harm Tracker report is available to the public and media on request. Visuals and a heat map available from tomorrow.
In Power, and solidarity. With deepest love, grief and determination to serve. We love you. We are sorry. Keep going.
Xx Sarah
The ANPA
Senator Jordon Steele-John Jenny McAllister Mark Butler MP Australian Human Rights Commission People with Disability Australia Children and Young People with Disability Australia All Means All - The Australian Alliance for Inclusive Education Larissa Waters Human Rights Watch Australia Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) Senator Fatima Payman David Shoebridge The Saturday Paper Julia Gillard Autism Support Directory Giarne Ashby
[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A comment from a participant provided to the National NDIS Cuts Harm Tracker that says "All of the above and I am dying from serious neglect - no healthy food, water or way to leave my home to go anywhere safely. If at all. Zero access to the community or doctors etc. I get so hungry and am so so swollen and in agony from not being able to get my treatments. I cannot believe this is Australia. What happened to our country?"]
