Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I've a couple of points in response. Firstly, as I reported last time to the chamber, upon passage of this bill—should it receive support here—it is envisaged that that process of developing the needs assessment tool will take 12 to 18 months and that current participants will be transitioned across to the new needs assessment tool over the course of a period of around five years.

The provisions that we're discussing—in essence, you are right that one of the outcomes of this legislation is that participants' plans may only be funded in relation to impairments that are consistent with, or have been assessed to, arise from sections 24 and 25. But, conceptually, this idea of a participant's holistic circumstances, the broader assessment, which includes all of their impairments, will be considered for the purpose of their plan regardless of when they first arose.

That is a significant shift from the way the scheme currently operates, where participants are not necessarily informed about the basis upon which they entered the scheme, and planning decisions can be based on information that's outdated or not aligned with their disability support needs. That assessment is taken on a holistic basis. It recognises that needs may also be impacted by factors such as where a person lives or impairments that do not meet the relevant criteria but do impact on a person's overall support needs. That assessment, in the new assessment tool developed over that period, will be applied to each individual, but, as you correctly say, the funding that forms their budget must be linked to impairments that arise under sections 24 or 25.