Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

This is on a different issue, Senator Siewert. Going back to the community panels that we talked about earlier, during the community affairs hearing there was a range of discussions about how they would operate. In your previous answers this afternoon, you were really clear that this was going to be determined by the community. We understood that was the process. I asked on the day at the community affairs inquiry: is it possible to have a range of options within the same community around this assessment process? We talked at the time and I raised the issue on the Hansardabout the fact that members of the community would feel more comfortable with different people. We talked in the discussion with the department that afternoon about whether it would be someone from Centrelink or a community determined panel, and whether the same people from an Indigenous community would be assessed by the same people as by the non-Indigenous community. This range of discussions occurred, and my understanding when I went away from that meeting was that it was still under consideration; however, there could be the possibility that there would be a range of options all determined by the community and all agreed by the minister to suit a number of the people in the community. I am just wondering whether that variation is still under consideration.