QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator McALLISTER (New South Wales—Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) (14:46): Senator Payman, you raise an important issue in relation to the NDIS. You are right to identify that this is a world-leading program and one that has substantially changed the lives of many people with disability. You're right too to observe that the program is dependent on having a workforce and a provider system that is capable of providing high-quality supports that deliver value for money for participants.

I'd add also that, in establishing the NDIS, one of Labor's objectives was to generate a level of innovation within the provider community too so that the range of services that people with disability might be able to access would increase over time and they would be able to purchase services that were more aligned to their needs. The pricing in the NDIS really goes to the heart of the question that you ask.

The pricing for the NDIS is set each year by the NDIS board. It's a board made of eminent persons, many of whom themselves have a disability or who have lived experience of disability. The board is conscious that there are opportunities to improve the way that pricing takes place.

In the last term, the board sought advice from an independent pricing committee. It's received that advice and it's published that advice. The advice indicates there are opportunities for us to move to differentiated pricing, an approach that would recognise some of the features that drive quality in the NDIS service system.

The board has also indicated in releasing its latest pricing guidelines that it intends to publish a work plan which will step through some of the things that they will be doing as they embark upon a process of introducing differentiated pricing. The PRESIDENT: Senator Payman, first supplementary?