DISABILITY SERVICES, SELF-MANAGED FUNDING

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:13): By way of supplementary question, the state government actually brought over Dr Simon Duffy from the UK to look at the issues around self-managed funds. Will the minister advise whether or not in so doing they have asked him to look specifically at the model that this state government has put up and, if so, does he agree with the model?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (15:14): Dr Simon Duffy was brought over to share his experiences in changed modelling in the UK. He has been at the forefront of this enterprise in the disability area for the last 15 years or so. He has been brought over as a community asset to sit down with community organisations as well as government providers and talk them through the processes they underwent in the UK, to talk about the pitfalls they encountered over there and the sorts of things we should be looking out for here in terms of making our program more flexible rather than less flexible.