Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

First, I note that the House accepted the Productivity Commission recommendations in 2011 when the NDIS was legislated. I'll read from page 327 of the PC report. It says:

In order to promote independent outcomes, assessors should be drawn from an approved pool of allied health professionals. Assessors should also be independent of the person being assessed to reduce the potential for 'sympathy' bias. This means that health professionals — GPs and others — with past treatment and support responsibilities for the person, would not undertake assessments.

Indeed, John Walsh, who is arguably the grandfather of the NDIS, especially in his role in shaping the Productivity Commission report, was recently quoted as saying, 'If I had a magic wand, I would have done assessments right at the start.'

Independent assessments were always part of the NDIS. The first independent assessment pilot took place from November 2018 to April 2019, to better understand and assess the impact of disability for people seeking support from the NDIS. In November last year, the government's NDIS plan was announced, including reference to independent assessments, and an expanded second pilot then commenced 12 months ago. However, it was cut short because of the pandemic—in fact it was postponed in March. Knowing full well we would continue it, on 25 June a public tender to establish a panel closed, and responses are currently being evaluated. In August I announced the government's response to the Tune review, and on 23 October the second pilot, which was temporarily halted, recommenced. It will involve up to 4,000 participants to further develop the process around planning decisions.

So we have continued our deliberate, consistent approach. We have informed the market as to what we're doing. We can walk and chew gum, frankly, in terms of the independent assessments, having done one pilot and commenced a second. Building on the recommendations of the PC committee as to the time to roll out the independent assessments, based on the results of the trial, we will then have our providers fully in place to do that. That is ostensibly the basis of where we're coming from.

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