Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question to the minister goes to the amendments around needs assessments as included in revised sheet PA112. In response to calls for needs assessments to consider the whole of person, the requirement that needs assessments look only at impairments relating to disability requirements or early intervention requirements has been removed. This is a positive change, but there are concerns that this doesn't translate to the plan budget.

I want to take you to the amendments, specifically. There has also been a requirement added that any method for working out a budget must take into account a variety of factors that may affect a participant's need for NDIS supports, which is also a welcome improvement, yet the method can only consider the impacts of other impairments as far as they impact the impairments that meet access requirements. This appears to be a roundabout way of retaining the primary disability effect when considering a participant's need for supports. Minister, how can this method, as described in the bill, for determining a budget based on a needs assessment take account of all factors that affect a participant's need for supports when it's still explicitly required to effectively chop a participant's disability into discrete parts?