The Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), Bill Shorten, has announced Paralympic gold medalist Kurt Fearnley as the new Board Chair of the NDIA.
Fearnley is currently a board member of Life Without Barriers and Sport Australia. As news of his new appointment broke, Fearnley told the press he’s worked for sixteen years in governance roles - as a director and on advisory committees - but that the single greatest role he ever considered was before him today.
“I am really excited to take on this role. I think it’s important that participants of the NDIS get to see themselves in this organisation,” said Fearnley. “I can’t wait to get to know the people within the organisation - the people building the NDIS.”
Fearnley hosts the podcast A Nation Changed, which explores where the scheme came from and why it was so desperately needed. Here, he talked to people who fought to change the system, those personally affected by the NDIS and those it’s failing.
A Nation Changed was funded by Hireup to be independently created, and Hireup’s co-founder, Jordan O’Reilly, was a guest on Fearnley’s own podcast, Tiny Island.
Rebecca Falkingham was also announced as the new CEO of the NDIS. Currently Secretary of the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety, Falkingham was previously awarded a Public Service Medal for “outstanding public service through innovative policy design and service delivery of public service reform in Victoria”.
Image: National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) chair Kurt Fearnley, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten, NDIS CEO Rebecca Falkingham and NDIA board member Dr Graeme Innes. Credit: AAP.
Former Victorian Premier Denis Napthine resigned from his position of Chair of the NDIA Board in July, and the agency has been without a permanent CEO since the resignation of Martin Hoffman - also in July.
Fearnley and Falkingham’s appointments come as the NDIS faces class action from Mitry Lawyers, representing individuals who are over 65 and feel they are unfairly excluded from the scheme.
Since stepping into the role of NDIS minister with the change of government, Shorten has been tackling the backlog of NDIS claims being processed by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal - and also working to get participants discharged from hospitals.
Graeme Innes and Maryanne Diamond who, like Fearnley, have lived experience of disability have also been appointed to the NDIA board. According to Fearnley, “The country needs an NDIS that is trusted, that is efficient and effective.”
