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

It's the intention here, subject to the exigencies of the consultation process that will commence should the legislation clear the parliament, that there be a commonsense approach to these questions, which is what I think people in the community would broadly expect. Underneath the functional assessment process, it is not automatic that a person with a diagnosis inevitably becomes part of the scheme, because they may have a diagnosis but a functional assessment determines that it is not the kind of lifelong disability that makes one eligible for section 24 or section 25 impairments and that whole process.

It is also possible that the functional assessment may proceed absent somebody turning up with a diagnosis from a specialist or from whatever the proper diagnostic process is. A person may present with autism, for example, but it's not necessary for the functional assessment process to wait for the substantial period that may be required to determine that a particular diagnosis was made, and a functional assessment may determine that the person is eligible absent that diagnosis. So there would be a process in parallel that would occur there, but it is very much, in the spirit of your question, that a commonsense approach be applied here and that the parameters of that approach be the subject of the consultation process with the community more broadly and, as you say, with the states and territories, who have much of the responsibility here as well.