People living with disability are going to feel like they're "imprisoned" due to cuts to an important taxi subsidy for National Disability Insurance Scheme participants, wheelchair-user Scott Whatley says.
Mr Whatley's comments came on the day that the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability began.
He joined state Labor in Launceston to launch a petition calling on the Tasmanian government to reverse cuts to the taxi subsidy for NDIS participants.
From July 1, a $1000 cap for taxi costs was imposed on people with NDIS plans.
This will be cut to $350 annually from July 1, 2020 and remain that way until December 31, 2023.
While Tasmanian NDIS participants will still be able to enjoy a 60 per cent discount for trips up to $30, this will max out once their total discount over the year reaches the cap.
"I'm going to be definitely using my cap likely before Christmas, maybe even by the end of October," Mr Whatley said. "There's many people out there that are going to be affected."
"And essentially people are going to feel like they've been imprisoned in their own home.
"They want to be out and about and [to] have meaningful relationships ... [but] it's just not going to be financially possible to do so."
Mr Whatley said he'd be about $3000 out of pocket as a result of the $1000 cap and about $6000 out of pocket once it was lowered to $350.
Jane Wardlaw has recently spoken up about the state government's "discriminatory" new scheme.
"Today is an historic day with the royal commission holding its first public hearing," Ms Wardlaw said on Monday. "And people really are going to need taxis to get to these [hearings]."
"Tasmania is looking very unfair in the way that it is treating people with disability."
Opposition Leader Rebecca White said the cap was "punishing" Tasmanians living with a disability in order for the state government to bolster its bottom line.
"No other state does this ... and we think it's shameful," she said.
"The government shouldn't be trying to prop up their budget bottom line by targeting people with disability in our community and effectively punishing them because they've got a disability."
Transport Minister Michael Ferguson said the taxi subsidy scheme was "in addition to Tasmania's full commitment to the NDIS to allow Tasmanians to continue to access vital services as the full roll-out of the NDIS continues".
"Labor's stunt today ... is ... a shameless attempt to collect more email addresses for their political donation spam emails as they have done with every other 'petition'," he said.