Walk a Mile in My Shoes
🥾 Walk a Mile in My Shoes
Before You Redraw the Map, Try Walking the Terrain
Once again, the eligibility criteria for the NDIS are under review. Once again, the commentary is aimed squarely at participants—those living with disability, those caring, those surviving—not at the architects of the system or the stewards of the budget.
The headlines don’t ask why government waste continues unchecked. They don’t question why billions in foreign aid are sent offshore while domestic support is rationed like wartime sugar. They don’t tally the untapped mineral wealth beneath our feet, or the missed opportunities to invest in Australia’s prosperity through ethical resource management.
Instead, they ask: Are too many people getting help?
Let me offer a different question: How many people are being failed by a system designed to support them?
🧠The Real Cost Isn’t the Participants
It’s the mismanagement. The duplication. The consultancy fees. The endless reviews that cost more than the services they scrutinize. It’s the political theatre that pits taxpayer against neighbour, as if disability is a lifestyle choice and not a lived reality.
Participants aren’t the problem. They are the reason the system exists.
đź’¬ Pull Quote:
“Before you cut my lifeline, try living my life.”
🪙 Wealth Isn’t Scarce—It’s Misallocated
Australia is rich in resources. Lithium, rare earths, gold, iron. We could be a global powerhouse of ethical export. Instead, we’re told to tighten belts while governments loosen theirs. We fund offshore projects, subsidise fossil giants, and pour millions into bureaucratic reshuffles—yet somehow, the person who needs a wheelchair upgrade is the one under scrutiny.
🧩 Stop Blaming the People Who Need Help
Look inward. Audit the spending that never reaches the ground. Question the priorities that favour optics over outcomes. And above all, walk a mile in the shoes of those who rely on the NDIS—not just to survive, but to participate, to contribute, to live.
Because if you did, you’d stop asking how to cut them out.
You’d start asking how to lift them up.
