‘Toxic, chauvinistic’: Staff turn on company running NDIS

Employees are lifting the lid on what it is really like to work for the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). Read their scathing remarks.

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) – where the CEO Rebecca Falkingham is on a package of $808,600, $220,000 more than the Prime Minister – was rated just 2.3 out of 5 by employees on job site Seek. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“Toxic”, “backstabbing”, “chauvinistic”, “incompetent”, “a mess” and “band aid fixes” is how employees describe what it is really like working for the beleaguered agency running the NDIS.

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) – where the CEO Rebecca Falkingham is on a package of $808,600, $220,000 more than the Prime Minister – was rated just 2.3 out of 5 by employees on job site Seek.

Reviewers complained about working there, while others were concerned about the negative impacts on people with a disability.

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) was rated just 2.3 out of 5 by employees on job site Seek.

One lamented that there was zero “focus on the client” and another despaired they were “expected to have detailed knowledge of disabilities” they’d never heard of.

But it’s not all bad: One wrote that the hours and working from home were “great if you want to ride the Government gravy train”.

In a comment in January on job site, Indeed, a former employee said the most stressful part of the job was the “bad managers, awful culture, hot desking, no team spirit” and that “people stab you in the back”.

Spinal Life Australia CEO Mark Townend said he wasn’t surprised at the comments. He said the “NDIA machine was broken” and billions of dollars were being wasted. He gave one example of where the agency had only allowed a client to hire a specialised bed for his condition, but with the money spent, he could have bought four beds.

Results from the Australian Public Service Employee Census last year, confirmed that one in 10 staff did not think the NDIA was a good place to work, while a quarter said they did not have the tools or resources to do their job properly.

One in 10 claimed to have been discriminated against, with a shocking 30 per cent of those saying it was because of their disability.

Another one in 10 said they had been bullied, with 43 per cent of those saying their work had been undermined or sabotaged by a colleague, and a third suffering verbal abuse such as shouting, screaming or offensive language.

Three months ago in an open letter to NDIA leadership, a Reddit user, under the name SpeakUp NDIS, wrote: “Bullying, harassment, and poor leadership remain entrenched in the agency, and this toxic culture is directly impacting the quality of support provided to participants.”

Rebecca Falkingham started as CEO of the NDIA in October 2022. Picture: Supplied

They went onto to say staff “feel so unsafe that they either lie on the APS Census or avoid completing it altogether”.

Employees at the National Safety and Quality Commission, the disability watchdog, recorded worse results, with 17 per cent of those surveyed saying the organisation was not a good place to work and a fifth claiming to have been bullied or harassed at work in the last 12 months. Four in 10 also said their work group did not have the tools or resources to “perform well”.

A spokesman for the NDIA said it had established a framework to prevent, address, support and report concerns of unacceptable workplace behaviour.

It said 5464 new workers started in 2024 and in December the retention rate was 93.7 per cent; the second highest retention rate among public service agencies.

The agency refused to answer how many of the 5464 workers were replacing staff that had left and how many were starting newly created roles.

A spokesman for the Commission said it was “committed to providing workplaces where all employees are treated with respect and courtesy, and without harassment”.

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Originally published as ‘Toxic, chauvinistic’: Staff turn on company running NDIS