Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, this is a very emotive and very challenging area. What the money is for is an adjustment, and it is for children under the age of six. It is carer payment (child). There are two separate issues to be clear on. One is the review, which has nothing to do directly per se with the ex gratia payments. It is a review that had already been announced. It will run through this year and report either late this year or early next year. This is not the first time we have done it in government, and no doubt subsequent governments will do this as well. Clearly every baby is totally dependent upon their parents or their carers; hence you have that difficult circumstance where for someone with a disability there is no more or less care at that early age. Quite often you have genetic issues which do not manifest themselves for a couple of years.

We have actually struggled to get the parameters around this to make it work—the Fishlock circumstances—to explain. We now have the documentation out. It should have gone out on 8 June for anyone who had already lodged. So, if your constituents contact Centrelink, they should not bother themselves with whether or not they are eligible; they should fill out that application and put it in. There is an independent body that is evaluating every case. It is up to $10,000, it is for children aged under six and it is an adjustment package.

Going to the Tyler Fishlock circumstances, the poor fellow had cancer in one eye and then the other and found himself blind. It is fantastic that he is alive—in fact, when I rang his home he answered the phone! That is a good thing. But there is a big adjustment for a family and this money is aimed at trying to assist people during that adjustment. It is up to $10,000, so we will not make judgements here; we will ask people to do that. Where this interplays with the longer review is that, when the review is complete, the interim payment will be re-evaluated at that point as to whether it should go forward or not. This is an interim to fill in until that work has been completed. I hope that helps, but they should contact Centrelink; the documents are now available.

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