Ms Celeste O'Callaghan:

The decision made by the Government was in relation to people who have a prognosis of up to 24 months. At the moment, that is the basis on which we are working to develop the legislation. On the difficulties of making a prognosis, the clinical advisory group was clear that as one moves further out and as a person is likely to live longer, making a prognosis becomes more challenging. I am not a clinician but we are mindful that there is a crossover space between terminal illness and chronic disease which needs to be thought about. As we are developing the legislation, we will look at all those issues to try to come up with a definition and an implementable model. Within that context, we will inevitably acquire more information about what issues or challenges might arise if a decision was made by government in the future to go beyond the 24 months.