Disability advocates lose funding as NDIS overhaul reshapes the sector

Longstanding disability advocacy organisations are losing their funding just as the people they support absorb the deepest cuts in the NDIS's history. The decades-old government program that bankrolls disability advocacy ends this month and is being replaced by a new model. Organisations in several states have been told by the Department of Health they are out.

Villamanta Disability Rights Legal Service, which works in regional Victoria, says it is losing 30 per cent of its total funding. CEO Annie Nash says the hit will be immediate, triggering job losses and a sharp drop in the help available — and the service can no longer take new clients. She framed the decision as a win for bad actors: dodgy providers unlawfully evicting NDIS participants, people using guardianship or administration powers to commit family violence, and services chasing participants for unlawful debts.

Nash says the call is hard to square with a March review by the Department of Health that named Villamanta a sector leader delivering an invaluable service. She said supporters have flooded in over the past 24 hours because the organisation is trusted and respected. Disability Advocacy Network Australia acting CEO Cherry Baylosis called the changes out of touch with what people with disability need right now, noting many advocates already cannot keep up with demand.

Baylosis said advocates help people through hospital visits and the hunt for emergency accommodation, and without them people will navigate crises alone or lean on families and carers who are already overloaded. The Department of Health did not directly say how many advocates lost funding, or whether the money was reallocated to stop people with disability seeking support. A spokesperson said the new model answers disability royal commission recommendations, with up to $184 million (GST exclusive) available across six financial years from 2026–27 to 2031–32 under an open competitive grant round. Organisations funded under the current model keep their money until February 2027 to ease the transition.

The advocacy squeeze lands alongside the Albanese government's overhaul of the NDIS, now worth more than $50 billion. About 240,000 participants are expected to leave the scheme over four years, saving more than $38 billion. Cuts to funding for therapies, and to support workers who take participants to appointments, work and social activities, began on October 1.

The scheme supports more than 782,000 participants and has been growing at 10.5 per cent a year — roughly half the pace of when Labor was elected in 2022. The government wants that growth down to a target of 2 or 3 per cent.