Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, I will take that interjection—and to meet the needs of cancelled services. All those things, particularly therapy assistance, were identified as amounts that needed to be assessed. I'm glad that's occurred. The government is committed to continuing to work with NDIA and state and territory governments. A lot of passion brought together this great service. It's been a big shift, as I pointed out. What's more important than anything is the financial stability of this great institution. In many cases, even in my electorate, there are areas where the providers felt they couldn't deliver a service in a viable way without significant changes and restructures.

That is why it is absolutely important that we had a price review. I commend the significant increases in payments as a result of the review, particularly for attendant care and community participation; the new temporary transformation payments to enable those who worked under block funding arrangements to move to the new system, allowing therapy workers to be reimbursed for long journeys between patients and clients and for cancellations; and the increased amount of time that can be charged for in remote and very remote settings, as I pointed out. Finally, I want to commend the Australian people for never having hesitated in making sure that this great service has been made available from one coast to the other and is now finding its feet in every corner of the nation since the final rollouts occurred in the middle of last year.

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