Rebecca Falkingham has been appointed as CEO of the NDIS, so it's time to get familiar with this senior public servant.
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.
Today we learned that Paralympian Kurt Fearnley will be the NDIA board Chairman. Graeme Innes and Maryanne Diamond who, like Fearnley, have lived experience of disability were also appointed to the NDIA board. Rebecca Falkingham was appointed as CEO of the NDIS. She replaces Martin Hoffman, the controversial former chief executive most famous for trying - and failing - to bring independent assessments into the scheme.
But appearing among a group of familiar faces, you may well ask, who is Rebecca Falkingham?
Falkingham is currently Secretary of the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety, and was previously awarded a Public Service Medal for “outstanding public service through innovative policy design and service delivery of public service reform in Victoria”.
Once a Labor ministerial adviser, Falkingham also worked in the NSW government of former Liberal premier Mike Baird. Falkingham is a mentee of retired “top Victorian public servant” Chris Eccles, and is one of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ most devoted public servants.
In 2017, Falkingham was named in the inaugural group of the Top 50 Public Sector Women in Victoria. Earlier this year, she gave a keynote address at the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) Victoria conference that announced this years’ Top 50 - noting the challenges the pandemic has brought to light for women, in particular.
Falkingham’s work history includes roles with Impact for Women - a philanthropic fundraising service supporting Victorian women and children escaping family violence - and The Institute of non-violence.
In June of this year, Falkingham's name hit the headlines in a controversial story. The Age reported that the Victorian Ombudsman was “investigating an executive purge and mass hiring of replacement staff at the Department of Justice”.
This investigation brought to light what the paper called “brutal clean-out of the department’s executive ranks overseen by secretary Rebecca Falkingham” - an overhaul now known as the “Red Wedding”, giving a nod to one of the gorier scenes in the Game of Thrones series.
In defence of her swift action, through a spokesperson from the department, Falkingham told The Age that: “Recruitment of this scale is not unusual and sends a strong signal about a change to priorities.”
National Disability Services (NDS) CEO Laurie Leigh has welcomed Falkingham into the new role, saying her appointment “will be pivotal in the agency’s change of relationship with participants and providers”.
While Falkingham does not, as far as we know, have lived experience of disability, she does have professional insight into the barriers faced by the disability community.
She unveiled the Department of Justice and Community Safety’s ‘Disability action plan Framework 2019-2022’, saying that this plan “continues the Department of Justice and Community Safety’s ongoing work to reduce barriers experienced by Victorians living with disability in accessing justice services and participating in the life of the State.”
Overall, her background or leadership in government and social policy seems a solid foundation on which to build.
How Falkingham will go in her role as CEO of NDIS remains to be seen, but as her new colleague, Kurt Fearnely, said to the press after their titles were announced, the disability community is ever “hopeful” for positive progress.
