http://www.hopeincolour.com.au/

Hope In Colour- Disability & Child Safety Advocacy, Melbourne (2026)

01/06/2026

WHAT REASONABLE ADJUSTMENTS CAN YOU ASK FOR YOUR CHILD?

Too many parents are told their child is “too hard,” “too disruptive,” “not coping,” or “unable to participate” when in reality, the school simply has not implemented appropriate adjustments.

Disabled children are legally entitled to reasonable adjustments to access education safely and equally.

Some examples include:

• Reduced or modified workload
• Sensory breaks
• Flexible seating options
• Access to headphones, fidgets or regulation tools
• Alternative learning formats
• Adjusted attendance or gradual return plans
• Safe person or wellbeing support
• Visual schedules and supports
• Movement breaks
• Modified uniform requirements
• Access to quiet spaces
• Support during transitions
• Trauma informed behaviour responses
• Communication supports
• Rest breaks for chronic illness or fatigue
• Adjusted assessment methods
• Additional processing time
• Flexible classroom expectations
• 1:1 support where required
• Excursions and camps made accessible
• Safety plans for vulnerable students

And importantly:

Reasonable adjustments are NOT “special treatment.”

They are what allow disabled children to access education on the same basis as their peers.

A child should not have to become distressed, dysregulated, school avoidant or traumatised before support is provided.

If your child is struggling at school, start documenting concerns in writing and ask the school directly:

“What reasonable adjustments are being implemented to support my child’s disability and educational access?”

Because inclusion is not just about being physically present in a classroom.

It is about whether a child can actually access education safely, equally and with dignity.

28/05/2026

The government’s own modelling appears to show the planned dismantling of the NDIS in real time.

According to Senate documents, by 2030-31:
• 241,000 participants are assumed to be “exited” from the scheme
• projected participant numbers collapse from 944,000 to 598,000 after reforms

Let’s call this what it is.

This is not “sustainability.”
This is a mass reduction strategy.

Disabled people are being treated like a budget blowout instead of human beings.

Because 241,000 people do not magically become less disabled.
Children do not suddenly stop needing therapy.
Autistic people do not suddenly stop requiring support.
People with intellectual disability do not suddenly become independent because Treasury wants cleaner balance sheets.

The disability is still there.
The need is still there.
The support is what disappears.

And when support disappears, the burden is dumped directly onto families overwhelmingly mothers.

Women will leave jobs.
Women will lose careers.
Women will lose superannuation.
Women will become financially trapped.
Women will burn out caring around the clock with no support while politicians stand at podiums talking about efficiency.

Meanwhile governments will act shocked when:
• carers break down
• mental health crises explode
• hospitals overflow
• children disengage from school
• child protection notifications rise
• homelessness increases
• family violence escalates
• and disabled people are left neglected, isolated and unsafe

The modelling itself references:

* tighter eligibility
* stricter reassessments
* ending plan rollovers
* restricting supports
* changes to children’s access
* and a new “substantially reduced functional capacity” threshold

This is not reform.
It is systemic exclusion by design.

And while politicians and commentators accuse disabled people of “costing too much”, they conveniently ignore the billions of dollars of unpaid labour already being performed inside Australian homes every single day mostly by women desperately holding broken systems together.

The government is not removing disability.
It is removing support.

Then expecting families to bleed quietly in the background to compensate.

We will not stay silent while disabled Australians are slowly pushed out of the very scheme created because mainstream systems were already failing them.

Disabled people are not economic liabilities.
They are human beings.

And families should never have to destroy themselves to access basic support and dignity.

28/05/2026

Yesterday, both myself personally and Hope in Colour were blocked by Carers Australia for publicly criticising them and questioning why full time carers are being met with polished PR campaigns instead of real advocacy around poverty, burnout, unpaid labour and the devastating impacts of NDIS cuts.

Since then, other carers have privately contacted me to say they too have now been blocked.

Let that sink in.

The national peak body claiming to represent 3 MILLION carers is actively silencing carers who are speaking honestly about the reality of caring in this country.

Not trolls.
Not abusive people.
Not harassment.

Full time carers.
Disabled families.
Parents already at breaking point.

Parents and carers who have lost careers, financial independence, superannuation, relationships, health and sometimes their entire identities to unpaid care work that keeps this country functioning.

And what triggered the blocking?

Questioning why Carers Australia appears more focused on “future workforce participation” and politically safe corporate messaging than fighting for carers who are drowning under impossible levels of unpaid labour.

Because here is the truth nobody wants to say out loud:

Most profoundly disabled people are not surviving because the system works.
They are surviving because parents and unpaid carers are destroying themselves to hold it together.

Carers are lifting bodies, managing violence, administering medications, surviving on broken sleep, fighting schools, hospitals, NDIS reviews, discrimination and bureaucratic cruelty every single day while living in financial insecurity and chronic exhaustion.

Many carers cannot “work flexibly” because caring already IS a full time unpaid job.

And instead of rage, advocacy and political pressure from the organisation supposedly representing carers, we get Parliament House photo ops, networking events and sanitised PR language carefully crafted not to upset government relationships.

At this point people are starting to ask a very legitimate question:

Has Carers Australia become so politically compromised and dependent on government funding that it is no longer capable of genuinely advocating for carers in a way that challenges power?

Because organisations that truly represent vulnerable people do not silence criticism from those communities. They listen to it.

Blocking exhausted carers for saying “Where are you? Why aren’t you fighting harder for us?” is one of the clearest admissions imaginable that protecting the brand now matters more than protecting carers.

And honestly? The irony is staggering.

An organisation that constantly speaks about “elevating lived experience” has now blocked multiple carers for sharing theirs.

That is not advocacy.
That is reputation management.
And carers deserve far better.

Carers Victoria
Kirstie Shaw Advocacy
Australian Neurodivergent Parents Association - ANPA
Every Australian Counts
Women with Disabilities Victoria
Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA)
Herald Sun
The Guardian
abcnews_au
Lizzie Blandthorn
Senator Jordon Steele-John

28/05/2026

🚨 SUBMISSIONS CLOSE MONDAY — WE NEED MORE VOICES 🚨

Only 157 submissions have been made so far regarding the proposed NDIS changes.

That is nowhere near enough for reforms that could fundamentally impact disabled people, carers and families across Australia.

We know people are exhausted. Burnt out. Overwhelmed. Many families are surviving day to day crisis management while also trying to navigate impossible systems. But silence will be interpreted as acceptance.

Your submission does NOT need to be perfect, formal or written like a lawyer.
What matters is your lived experience.

✍️ EASY TIPS FOR MAKING A SUBMISSION

1. Keep it simple

You do not need legal language.
You can write plainly and honestly.

Even a short submission matters.

2. Talk about REAL impacts

Explain:

* What supports mean for your child/family
* What happens if supports are reduced or removed
* Impacts on:
* safety
* mental health
* education
* employment
* housing
* burnout
* finances
* siblings
* carers

3. Personal stories matter

Decision makers need to hear the human reality behind policies.

Examples:
* Leaving work to become a full time carer
* Losing income/superannuation
* Waiting years for supports
* Children excluded from school
* Carer burnout
* Unsafe situations without support
* The difference therapy/supports have made

4. You do NOT need to answer everything

Pick the issues that matter most to you.

A submission can literally be:

* a letter
* dot points
* a few paragraphs
* your story

5. Be direct

Say clearly:

* what you oppose
* what worries you
* what needs to change
* what supports families actually need

⚠️ IMPORTANT
“Parental responsibility” is increasingly being used to justify shifting more unpaid labour onto familiesparticularly mothers and ageing carers.

Families are already carrying extraordinary loads.
The answer cannot be pushing disabled people and carers further into poverty, burnout and crisis.

YOUR VOICE MATTERS

You do not need to be an expert.
You just need to tell the truth about what life actually looks like.

Because policies written without lived experience cause harm.

Link: https://buff.ly/TCxgdX8
Please submit if you can.
And encourage others to do the same before Monday.

If you would like help writing, structuring or putting together your submission, please feel free to message the page or email:[email protected]

Kirstie Shaw Advocacy

27/05/2026

The Federal Government is quietly pushing through the proposed “Securing the NDIS for Future Generations” Bill 2026 and families need to pay very close attention to the language around “parental responsibility” and “informal supports.”

Because behind the political spin is something far more dangerous:

The normalisation of exploiting parents particularly women to prop up a disability system governments no longer want to properly fund.

Let’s call it exactly what it is.

This Bill risks embedding the expectation that mothers should absorb the gaps left by government failure through endless unpaid labour.

Labour that destroys careers.
Destroys financial security.
Destroys mental health.
Destroys relationships.
Destroys physical health.
Destroys futures.

And society applauds it as good parenting.

Women are already leaving the workforce in staggering numbers to care for disabled children because the system is so inadequate. Many lose:

* careers,
* income,
* superannuation,
* independence,
* housing security,
* and long-term financial stability.

Many become trapped in poverty while performing work that would otherwise cost governments hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

Yet now we are seeing increasing language suggesting parents should simply do more.

More therapy support.
More behavioural support.
More supervision.
More transport.
More regulation support.
More crisis management.
More school advocacy.
More care overnight.
More unpaid labour.

All under the banner of “reasonable parental responsibility.”

Disabled children do not become less disabled because their mother is exhausted enough.

And carers are not an unlimited government resource to exploit for budget savings.

The reality is many families are already beyond breaking point:

* surviving on fragmented sleep,
* managing severe behaviours,
* handling trauma and school refusal,
* attending endless appointments,
* fighting systems daily,
* unable to maintain employment,
* and carrying levels of responsibility most people could not sustain for even days.

This is not natural parenting, It is systemic exploitation.

And overwhelmingly, it is women carrying the burden.

The Senate Inquiry is currently accepting submissions into the proposed Bill.

If you are a parent, participant, advocate, educator or professional make a submission.

Tell them what this language will mean in real life.

Because once “parental responsibility” becomes a legislative loophole to deny supports, families will pay the price for generations.

Submit here:
https://buff.ly/TCxgdX8

27/05/2026

The proposed NDIS changes are not happening because disabled Australians are asking for too much. They are happening because governments failed to properly fund education, health, mental health and community support systems for years and now they want disabled people to pay for that failure.

And honestly, Mark Butler’s commentary around the NDIS has been one of the most disturbing parts of this entire debate.

The constant language around “cracking down,” “cost blowouts,” “sustainability” and “over servicing” has done enormous damage.

Because when ministers repeatedly frame disability support as a financial threat, the public stops seeing disabled people as human beings and starts seeing them as economic liabilities.

That is dangerous.

And families are not imagining the shift in tone.

We are watching governments quietly build a narrative that disabled children are receiving “too much,” while simultaneously pretending the mainstream systems families are being pushed back into are functioning.

They are not functioning.

Schools are collapsing under lack of support.
Public mental health is overwhelmed.
Parents are sitting on waitlists for years.
Children are being pushed onto reduced hours because schools cannot cope.
Families are already at breaking point.

Yet instead of fixing those systems first, governments are trying to tighten access to the one system many families say kept them afloat.

And the sneakiness of it all is what infuriates people most.

Because this is constantly packaged as:
“reform.”
“efficiency.”
“sustainability.”
“independence.”

But families can see through it.

You cannot talk about “foundational supports” while those supports barely exist.
You cannot push children out of the NDIS while schools still cannot meet legal obligations under disability law.
And you cannot claim this is about improving outcomes while parents are terrified their children will lose supports that allow them to communicate, regulate, attend school or function safely.

Let’s be honest about what this really is.

Governments are trying to reduce long-term disability spending without saying those words directly because they know the public reaction would be catastrophic.

So instead they slowly change language.
Slowly tighten access.
Slowly shift responsibility back onto families.
Slowly make support harder to access.
And hope the public does not notice until it is too late.

Meanwhile mothers are sacrificing careers, health, financial security and their own futures to hold broken systems together for disabled children governments increasingly speak about like budget problems.

Disabled Australians are not the crisis.

Government failure is.

And families are getting very tired of politicians using disabled children as an economic problem to solve instead of human beings deserving support, dignity and safety.

22/05/2026

Under Victoria’s Disability Inclusion model, schools can receive THREE levels of funding:

• Tier 1 Funding
Whole-school inclusion funding provided to ALL government schools.

• Tier 2 Funding
Additional funding based on a school’s level of need and student profile.

• Tier 3 Funding
Student-level funding allocated after a Disability Inclusion Profile meeting for students assessed as requiring substantial adjustments and support.

The issue?

Many families are never told:
• what funding their child attracts
• how much funding is being received
• what supports that funding is meant to provide
• or how the money is actually being spent.

The Victorian Department of Education states that Disability Inclusion funding is intended to support students with disability through reasonable adjustments, targeted supports, and inclusive education practices.

However, there is currently no standardised public reporting process that requires schools to provide families with detailed information about:
• how Tier 3 funding is allocated
• what supports are funded for individual students
• how adjustments are implemented in practice
• or how disability funding is monitored at the school level.

Under the Disability Standards for Education 2005, schools are required to consult with families about reasonable adjustments for students with disability.

The Disability Inclusion Profile process is designed to identify the educational adjustments and support needs of eligible students. Funding decisions are based on the profile outcomes and associated levels of adjustment.

We need greater transparency and accountability around how Tier 3 funding is being used in schools. Tier 3 funding is allocated based on the assessed needs of an individual child and should be clearly tied to supporting that student’s educational adjustments and inclusion needs.

If schools are relying on Tier 3 funding to fill broader staffing or resourcing gaps, then this points to a larger systemic issue of government underfunding not a justification for diverting funding away from the child it was intended to support.

Families deserve clear communication about how disability funding linked to their child is being used and whether the agreed supports and adjustments are actually being delivered.

21/05/2026

What parents need to understand about Disability Inclusion (DI) funding in Victorian schools.

A lot of families are told:
“Your child receives funding.”

But very few parents are actually told how the Disability Inclusion system works, how eligibility is determined, or what rights families have to be involved in the process.

Here’s what parents need to know.

Disability Inclusion (DI) is the Victorian Government’s framework designed to support students with disability and additional needs in mainstream government schools.

Schools can apply for additional supports and funding through the Disability Inclusion Profile process for students who require significant adjustments beyond what schools are expected to provide through standard funding.

Eligibility is generally based on:
• The impact of the child’s disability on their functioning at school
• Educational support needs
• Areas such as communication, social interaction, behaviour, learning, self care and safety
• Evidence from professionals and the school environment

Importantly:
A diagnosis alone does not automatically guarantee funding.
And equally, a child does not necessarily need a formal diagnosis to receive supports or adjustments at school.

The process usually involves:
• A Disability Inclusion Profile meeting
• School staff
• Parents/carers
• A facilitator
• Evidence and reports being reviewed
• Functional impacts being discussed across multiple domains

The profile then determines the level of supplementary funding and support the school receives.

But here’s the part many parents are never properly informed about:

Parents have a right to be actively involved in this process.

You have the right to:
• Attend and participate in profile meetings
• Provide reports and evidence
• Speak about your child’s needs and challenges
• Ask questions about supports and adjustments
• Request Student Support Group (SSG) meetings
• Request documentation and meeting minutes
• Ask what strategies are being implemented
• Ask how the school is supporting your child’s access to education
• Ask how Disability Inclusion supports are being used within the school setting

Parents should not be treated like passive observers in decisions affecting their child.

And despite schools receiving additional funding and resources through DI, many families still report:
• Reduced hours
• Constant calls home
• Lack of support staff
• Exclusion from activities
• Behaviour being punished instead of supported
• Children falling through the cracks academically and socially

Families deserve transparency.

Children with disabilities are legally entitled to reasonable adjustments and equal access to education under the Disability Standards for Education.

Disability Inclusion funding should lead to meaningful support for children, not confusion, secrecy and exhausted families fighting for basic accommodations.

Parents do not need to stay silent.
And asking questions does not make you “difficult”.

20/05/2026

‼️ Trigger Warning ‼️ mention of family violence, murder of disabled children.

Let’s stop, before it starts the reframing the alleged murder of disabled children as carer burnout.

Carer burnout is a conversation for another day.

Because according to reports, police allege these murders were planned for months.

That is not a parent snapping.
That is not a moment of crisis.
That is not burnout.

That is alleged premeditated murder.

Two non verbal disabled boys and their mother are dead.

And once again, society is dangerously close to softening violence against disabled children by centring the experience of the alleged perpetrator instead of the victims.

Disabled children are not burdens.
They are not disposable.
And their murders should never be rationalised through language about how “hard” caring for them was.

He allegedly made a choice.

A choice to murder his children.
A choice to murder their mother.
And notably like so many acts of male violence against women and children, he spared himself. That matters.

Because too often these cases are framed through sympathy for the man:
He was overwhelmed.
He was struggling.
He needed support.

Meanwhile the woman and children are reduced to footnotes in their own deaths.

No.

The focus belongs on the victims.

On two vulnerable boys who relied entirely on the adults around them to protect them.
On a mother whose life was taken alongside her children.
And on the dangerous societal narratives that continue to dehumanise disabled children under the guise of understanding violence against them.

These children deserved safety.
They deserved protection.
And they should still be here.

20/05/2026

There’s a pattern many mothers know all too well.

The moment you stop quietly accepting excuses…
The moment you start documenting.
Asking questions.
Escalating concerns.
Demanding accountability.
Refusing to minimise harm.

You suddenly become:
“Difficult.”
“Aggressive.”
“Emotional.”
“Too much.”

Especially mothers advocating for disabled children.
Especially mothers exposing institutional failures.
Especially mothers refusing to protect systems over children.

Too often, systems attempt to discredit the messenger instead of addressing the harm being exposed.

But mothers do not become dangerous because they speak up.

They become dangerous to systems built on silence.

Hope In Colour- Disability & Child Safety Advocacy

01/06/2026

28/05/2026

28/05/2026

28/05/2026

27/05/2026

27/05/2026

22/05/2026

21/05/2026

20/05/2026

20/05/2026

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