Ms Zoe Hughes:

In regard to best practice, those examples are really good. The Nordic and Alpine countries are the ones to look at. A really important aspect is that within those countries, health and allied systems are much stronger and much better funded. They are better available to individuals. Many of those systems are run under municipalities so services are local to the area. The level of payment in a particular municipality will take account of what services are available to individuals within the municipality. It is worth noting that it is not just about pure numbers because we have in some ways one of the highest blanket rates of payment for one-off carer's allowance, not bee hives. That does not mean we have the best system by any stretch. That is a point worth noting.

The second point was around the Green Paper being scrapped. I understand exactly what the Senator is saying about this idea of medical need. We are definitely not in support of that hierarchy of needs in particular because that paper was around employability or the ability to work. Looking at assessment of needs and how much medical or allied care that a person needs from a family member will disrupt that family member's ability to go into the workforce or to acknowledge that level of support. Again, the model that crosses the social and medical models is often the ecological model that takes parts of both. It is about looking at people as the whole of their parts. Many disabled people have significant medical needs but there are also many who do not. It is about fixing, such as bringing ramps in and improving accessibility. That is not going to mean the person does not have medical needs that cannot be solved by that means. It is about trying to see that as a kind of a holistic piece. That is an additional piece I would add to that.