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Monday, 21 November 2011
Page: 8979

Senator SIEWERT (Western Australia—Australian Greens Whip) (13:24): I am reluctant to draw this out. Many of the organisations the parlia­mentary secretary listed also made submissions and appeared at the hearing into these bills. They expressed concern about the tables and about the consultation process. I will say again that the National Council on Intellectual Disability expressed very strongly, when these tables first came out, their concerns about the process around the outcomes for people with an intellectual disability. I will acknowledge that there have been some steps to address that. The point is that that is one example of where, yes, there may have been some consultation, but whether it was taken on board is another issue. The government has now had to fix up those particular problems. The same goes for chronic pain, for example. Other issues around regional accessibility have not, to our mind, been adequately dealt with. There is consultation and there is consultation. The fact is that the government is still having to make changes to these tables because there has not been sufficient process in terms of being able to come up with rigorous tables that address issues of concern. Until the National Council on Intellectual Disability raised those issues yet again, they were not dealt with.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN ( Senator Pratt ): The question is that schedule 3 stand as printed.

The committee divided. [13:30]

(The Temporary Chairman—Senator Pratt)

Question agreed to.