Who should be eligible? Many millions of Australians have a disability of some kind. Disability comes in many forms, with different impacts and lasts for different lengths of time. Some people need a lot of help, and some a little. Some disabilities last a few years, some wax and wane over time, and others last for the rest of people’s lives. Some people have disabilities where early interventions have a large benefit and others not. 
Who should be in the new scheme and how could they be practically and reliably identified? - Any person with a serious disability should be in the scheme	
Which groups are most in need of additional support and help? - Amputees, Mental Illness, the Aged	
What could be done about reducing unfairness, so that people with similar levels of need get similar levels of support? - remove discrimination for amputees who have lost their limbs as a birth defect or disease as opposed to amputees who have lost their limbs as a result of an accident	
4. Who gets the power? Increasingly, there has been a shift to provide people with disabilities and their carers and families with more control. That might involve giving them control over funding (‘individualised funding’), greater choices among services, and an obligation by service providers to take greater account of people’s individual needs. Some decisions will probably still be made by others — such as whether a person is in the scheme or not, or the amount of financial support and services they get. 
How could people with disabilities or their carers have more power to make their own decisions (and how could they appeal against decisions by others that they think are wrong)? - an accessible review board as well as input from medical practitioners	
How should the amount of financial support and service entitlements of people be decided (and by whom)? - level of support should be related to the level of difficulty in accessing health care providers IE country people need support to attend medical appointments etc in the city	
5. What services are needed and how should they be delivered? Many services are currently provided, including aids, transport assistance, accommodation, respite and care. But people say that there are not enough services and sometimes not the right ones. 
What kinds of services particularly need to be increased or created? - A lot of the present services are a closely guarded secret, information on what's available is simply not made public and does not get to the people in need	
How could the ways in which services are delivered — including their coordination, costs, timeliness and innovation — be improved? - a good starting point would be to educate GP's and the medical system and to actively give information on available services	
Are there ways of intervening early to get improved outcomes over people’s lifetimes? How would this be done? - Early intervention is vital, especially in cases of dementia, blindness etc	
How could a new scheme encourage the full participation by people with disability and their carers in the community and work? - simply by getting the information to the people that NEED it and stop keeping available programs hidden from those in need	
How can a new system ensure that any good aspects of current approaches are preserved? - It can and SHOULD!	
What should be done in rural and remote areas where it is harder to get services? - Make more transport available, in most places it's almost impossible to travel from rural Victoria to Melbourne and I'm sure the rest of Australia is no better served	
How could a new system get rid of wasteful paper burdens, overlapping assessments (the ‘run around’) and duplication in the system? - for a start, when a person is diagnosed with a PERMANENT disability, accept that it is PERMANENT and stop sending people around to waste valuable time, valuable medical resources etc simply to prove for example that an amputated leg has not grown back again!!	
6. Funding A new scheme will need more funding, and people will need to be confident that funding will meet their future as well as current needs. There are many choices about how much funding might be needed and where it would come from. For example, it might come from existing taxes, a new levy or in other ways. 
How should a new scheme be financed? - Through the Health system, perhaps through Medicare	
How can it be ensured that there is enough money to deliver the services that are needed and provide greater certainty about adequate care in the future? - The Governments, State and Federal, need to supply appropriate funding and not constantly cost shift etc	
7. Organising and implementing a new disability policy A new disability scheme will change the way that people get services and how much they get. That will mean many decisions will have to be made about a new scheme, such as: • the roles of service providers, people with disabilities, their carers and governments (eight governments are heavily involved in providing and funding current disability services) • how existing arrangements would fit in with a new scheme • how risks and costs would be managed to make a scheme sustainable for the future • what workers would be needed in a new scheme, where they would come from, what training requirements would be appropriate and what could be done in the short-run to boost their numbers • the transitions to a new scheme. 
What are your views about the ‘nitty gritty’ aspects of a scheme that will make it work practically? - Any transition needs to ensure that people are not disadvantaged while the transition is taking place	
How long would be needed to start a new scheme, and what should happen in the interim? - A new scheme could be up and running fairly quickly and again, assurance must be given that at the very least, the new scheme will be no worse than the current shambles	
8. You may have many other ideas for a good scheme The above questions are only a guide to help you give us your ideas about some of the most important issues. The more specific and detailed your ideas are, the better. For example, telling us that more money should be provided does not tell us where that is needed, how much, the chief priorities for reform, where the money will come from, how it would be given out, and a host of other important questions that need to be taken into account in building a new system. Your personal responses do not have to be long. A few specific comments or insights in a particular area can be very useful for us. 
What other ideas do you have? - For once, consider a scheme for the WHOLE of Australia, do not allow it to develop so that people in different states get treated differently to each other	
9. Please select an option. 
Yes, I'd like you to make a submission to the Productivity Commission on my behalf and share this information with the government and general public. I'm happy to publish my name publicly.