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

I'm going to try and answer this carefully, Senator, and ask my team to correct me if I'm wrong—and then I'll come back to you precisely. Subject to the needs assessment tool, which can only be developed upon passage of this bill, it will be the role of the needs assessor to determine what is funded in relation to sections 24 and 25, the impairments that a person is assessed as having, but they will be required to have regard to the holistic assessment of all a person's impairments. So it is possible and, indeed, likely that a person who might, for example, have a set of impairments that directly relate to section 24 or 25—they might have a diagnosis of autism. They may also have some ADHD impairments that sit outside of that, arguably, depending upon the person's individual circumstances. And the needs assessor will have regard to the whole of the person's impairments when determining the budget and the plan for that individual. But what is funded arises from the impairments that are assessed by the needs assessor to be consistent with section 24 or 25.

The only additional point I'd make is that it's important to say that the role of the needs assessor is not to determine the diagnosis or to do that work; their job is to apply the needs assessment tool and that framework to assessing the impairments of a person that arise from the application of section 24 or 25 and to have regard to the holistic assessment of how they impact upon the person.