Senator FIFIELD (Victoria—Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Assistant Minister for Social Services) (14:17): I am sure all colleagues will recall the background to the abolition of the dementia and severe behaviours supplement, which was the fact that in its first and only year of operation, the last financial year, rather than costing $11.7 million, as was budgeted for and as was designed by the previous government, in the end it cost $110 million. Rather than 2,000 people being eligible, as those opposite thought would be the case, there ended up being 29,000 people eligible. Clearly, the government had to act—and act I did to conclude that supplement. But, before acting, I looked at the supplement long and hard to see if it were possible to salvage the design. I look to see whether it were possible to develop an interim measure. I looked to see if it were possible to salvage that supplement, and I reached the conclusion that it was not. I am glad that Senator Polley refers to information that has come to light through a freedom of information request by a publication on ageing which states— Senator Moore: Mr President, I rise on a point of order on direct relevance. A single question was asked, which was: when will the interim measures be announced? The PRESIDENT: The minister has been answering the question. He has been addressing the key elements of the question and he has been directly relevant. Senator FIFIELD: The publication that received the freedom of information material says: The documents cast doubt on the feasibility of calls from the Opposition and some parts of the industry to redesign the supplement, which the department said would take "several years." So a leading ageing publication, on the basis of the material to which Senator Polley referred, said that those documents cast doubt on the feasibility of the opposition's calls to redesign the supplement. I have made clear that we are working with the sector for a replacement that can be sustainable and can operate within the original funding envelope. I have convened and already conducted a forum with people in the sector to work towards that very end.