Rural and remote communities across Australia are hit hardest by NDIS funding cuts, leaving many without the disability support they need. Services are closing, workers are overwhelmed, and families are travelling hundreds of kilometres for help—or simply going without.
Disability advocate River Night says the situation has reached crisis point. He warns that people in regional areas are “being sent up the creek without a paddle” as support services vanish. “We are not even seeing the baseline support in these communities anymore,” he says.
He calls for urgent, tailored solutions—not just blanket reforms that ignore the specific challenges faced by rural participants. “It’s not enough to talk about fixing the NDIS at a national level when remote communities are left out of the conversation entirely.”
Without targeted investment and on-the-ground services, many say regional Australians with disabilities are being locked out of a system that was meant to support them.
