Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Hansard source

For those from the department and the minister's office who are here now and anyone listening, I would implore you to, please, when looking at functional assessments, look at using tests that are already widely used by a lot of these diagnosticians. For example, do vinyl and/or a Griffiths or whatever the tests are form part of a functional assessment? Because you may actually be ticking two boxes by using the one assessment tool, rather than creating some new bespoke product, which—I'd just promise you right now; take my word for it—will be a complete disaster, because it will be some vested interest pushing a particular part of an assessment, with providers having to learn a whole new tool versus tools that they already use and apply regularly which are very consistent across the board.

This may be apparent, but I just want to get some clarity. I think we've lost the purpose of the scheme. It was designed for permanent and lifelong disability. We have seen conditions added, particularly in the early childhood stream. We have other conditions that are now part of the NDIS that are not permanent nor lifelong that are being pushed in, and that is in part because the states have vacated the field; quite often the NDIS is the only lifeboat in the ocean.

I want clarity on this. Functional assessment can show if there are developmental delays, if there is an inability to perform certain tasks. Some of those inabilities are not necessarily due to a lifelong and permanent disability. Parents out there, especially some of the mums, I know they absolutely loathe going to mothers groups and playgroups at the park. It is an overwhelming thing to hear about how all these women's children are gifted. Everyone's child is gifted. They are all so special, and, when you have a kid with special needs, it is a particularly galling place to be, when you are hearing about everyone's gifted children and there is barely a parent out there who can openly admit—you know what—that they are a great kid but they are just not the sharpest tool in the shed.

There is a great spectrum of people in the world. Some are really good at something; some are really good at something else. Not everyone is a natural-born genius. You wouldn't know that at mothers groups, but, in reality, not every child is a genius. I guess one of my concerns is that, if you end up with a functional assessment, is it going to be linked to a diagnosis? Is there still going to be a list of diagnoses that the NDIS covers? Or is it going to be more based on a skill set you have or don't have, or what you can do versus what you can't do? Will it open the door again to people who can pay for lots of expensive reports but not necessarily have a permanent and lifelong disability?