Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I just want to raise the issue of guide dogs. It is often and usually the case at the moment that individuals who need the assistance of guide dogs gain those at no cost to themselves as a result of the fundraising efforts of particular organisations which largely self-fund these services. Minister, I would appreciate your assistance in working through how that situation will operate under an NDIS. For example, you may have the scenario where an individual receives support, an entitlement, through the NDIS and they go to a service that previously provided, say, a guide dog at no cost to the individual receiving that service. How will that organisation be able to identify that that individual actually receives funded support as opposed to another individual who may not be eligible for NDIS supports?

Let's say they are over the age of 65, they go to a guide dogs organisation and they receive a guide dog at no expense to themselves.

I am interested in working this through as a representative example of how the NDIS might work. Will there be a requirement that the organisations providing the guide dogs have the individual, who will be in receipt of those services, sign a statutory declaration saying that they are or are not in receipt of NDIS supports? It would be appropriate that that individual put some of that NDIS support towards that organisation from which they might previously have received the service at no expense. What will be the mechanism for that organisation to receive the appropriate payments? Essentially, how will that organisation seek to identify those people who should be making a contribution to a service that may previously have been free through their NDIS supports?