'NDIS Board Recruiter must be replaced'

Media release from the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (Down Syndrome Australia is a Federation member), 19 October 2016:

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Board Recruiter must be replaced after failing to offer up a single candidate with either a disclosed disability or lived experience of disability.” said Trevor Carroll, President of Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) and spokesperson for Disability Australia.

This is in response to today’s article in The Australian by Rick Morton that indicated not one of the potential candidates for NDIS Board positions has either a disclosed disability or lived experience of disability.
“Disability Australia members are dismayed at the fact that not one of the candidates put forward has been identified as a person with disability or having lived experience of disability’ said AFDO President Trevor Carroll representing 200,000 people with disability.” 

AFDO first raised these concerns in its Media Release on 4th September 2015, when the Department of Social Services (DSS) advertised for Board positions without including selection criteria that placed any value on a potential Board member being a person with a disability. 

We acknowledge the need for a Board which represents a range of different disability perspectives in the disability space, most importantly people with disability. 

“The NDIS is at its heart a scheme about people with disability. It beggars belief that experience of disability is not valued when recruiting for Board positions.” Imagine the community uproar if the government decided to appoint only men to an agency focusing on the wellbeing and rights of women: this is how people with a disability will feel about these mooted changes. 

It is the Minister’s responsibility to talk to people with disability organisations about suitably qualified applicants. 

“If you want the NDIS to be a success a Board member must understand and have first hand knowledge and experience of the constituents he/she intends to serve.”

Corporate Heavyweights Replace Bonyhady in NDIS Shakeup
Wendy Williams, Probono Australia News, 19 October 2016

The so-called “father” of the National Disability ­Insurance Scheme, Bruce Bonyhady, is set to be replaced in an agency clean up, according to reports ... Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services Jenny Macklin accused Porter of using Bonyhady as a scapegoat ... for problems with the scheme that are Mr Porter’s responsibility ...

Disability group concern with NDIS board

Rashida Yosufzai, Australian Associated Press, 19 October 2016
Imagine a women's rights agency run by a board of men. Or an indigenous welfare group managed by non-indigenous people.

This is the situation that those in the disability sector say is facing them. They're concerned about changes to the board of the agency overseeing the National Disability Insurance Scheme, principally that very few of the new faces know what it's like to live with an impairment ...