QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator McALLISTER (New South Wales—Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) (14:50): Thanks again, Senator Payman. The board has been very clear about the methodology it has used to set prices, and I think you're asking particularly about therapy prices. This year's pricing review saw the board consider as many as 10 million different data points from services provided across a range of therapies in different service systems like veterans systems and Medicare, and they use that to benchmark current pricing rates.

The principle that the board articulates—and they're really clear about this—is that people with disability should not pay more for services than other people in the community. The purpose of undertaking the benchmarking is to understand what prices are being paid in other parts of the community and make sure that the prices being paid within the NDIS don't exceed those.

That's the basis on which the pricing review was set on this occasion.