The 2025 Tenant Voice National Forum didn’t appear out of thin air. It was built from months of conversations with SDA tenants and people trying to access SDA in our Tenant Voice Reference Groups across NSW, Queensland and Victoria. The forum program – and especially the safety session – was shaped by what tenants told us there.
Across those groups and on the day, we kept hearing two layers of safety. For 2026, we’re naming these as our focus: Big Safety and Little Safety. You might know this as “Big H harms” and “little h harms”.
The big safety issues are the things that hit the headlines: violence, abuse, neglect, people stuck in aged care or institutions, or pushed into group homes they don’t want. The little safety issues are the daily cuts and bruises of the system: the long delays, the “sweetie” and “honey” in your own lounge room, the property manager who walks in without knocking, the hoist that never turns up.
Both matter. Both add up.
Big safety: when the system itself is unsafe
We heard story after story of how the system is creating risk.
Tristram described an 18-month battle to get into his SDA home – conditional offers, wrong decisions (2:1 instead of 1:1), missed appeal windows because no one told him the full story. His life was effectively on hold. That’s not just annoying; it’s unsafe.
Greg shared examples from AAT/ART battles where people with trauma and complex disabilities were dragged through adversarial, trauma-uninformed processes. In one case, the fight was described as harder than deciding to have an amputation.
Senator Jordan Steele-John drew the bigger picture: a government and NDIA that are systematically steering people back towards group settings in the name of cost control – despite everything we know from the Royal Commission about the risks of institutionalisation. It’s a policy direction that puts people at higher risk of violence, abuse and neglect, even as it’s dressed up as “reform”.
Reference group members echoed this in very practical ways: uncertainty about funding, the fear of “computer says no”, and the sheer bureaucratic grind of navigating SDA housing, providers, legal issues and NDIA processes, even when SDA is already in your plan.
This is all Big Safety. It’s the structural stuff we’ll keep pushing on: funding rules, assessment models, appeals, and the quiet shift back to group homes.
Little safety: the everyday harms that wear you down
At the same time, we heard about the Little Safety issues that rarely make a policy paper, but shape how safe your life feels every day.
From the reference groups and the forum, people talked about:
- Doors and other repairs taking weeks to fix, even when they’re crucial for safe exits or worker access.
- Gaps in support – especially where there’s no 24/7 or on-site backup, or concierge staff who aren’t properly trained in equipment.
- Not knowing who is responsible for what, or who to call when something goes wrong.
- Essential equipment like ceiling hoists not delivered, with people’s health and strength deteriorating while they wait.
- The anxiety of never knowing if your plan will be cut, whether or not people have informal supports it’s a stress that people without disability couldn’t possibly imagine.
And then there’s culture. Lee previewed our No Sweetie campaign, calling out the “sweetie, honey, love, darling” that so many of us cop from support workers and providers. It might sound small, but it’s not benign. When you’re in an unequal power relationship and someone constantly talks down to you, it others you. Even though the person with a disability is technically their boss. It normalises the idea that you’re not a full adult with full rights. That’s exactly the cultural ground where bigger abuses can grow. Look out for our No Sweetie launch in March 2026!
Across the groups, people also told us what does help them feel safe: accessible design and automation that actually works, emergency buttons, security cameras and well-lit car parks, and being surrounded by people who know them and understand them. In other words, a place that feels personal – “a home, not a workplace or institution.”
Safety as power – and joy
A clear thread across the reference groups and the forum speakers was this: safety is about power. Who decides where you live and who you live with? Who has the keys? Who can walk into your home? Who chooses your OSS provider? Who can say “no” and have it stick?
And, as Senator Steele-John reminded us, safety also needs joy – connection, culture, spaces where we can rest and refill our cups. Because the government is banking on us burning out. We’re not going to let that happen.
So, in the year ahead, Tenant Voice will keep working on Big Safety and Little Safety: from rattling the chains on those who make legislation and funding rules, right down to the language on your front doorstep and how long it takes to fix your door.
If you’ve got a safety story – big or little – we want to hear it. That’s where the change starts.
