Coalition accused of ‘midnight ambush’ with ads for board that runs NDIS

The Abbott government has defended against accusations it staged a “midnight ambush” of the board that runs the NDIS.

The Abbott government has defended against Labor accusations it staged a “midnight ambush” of the National Disability Insurance Agency by running an advertisement “without warning” seeking candidates for the organisation’s board.

Assistant Social Services Minister Mitch Fifield said the government wasn’t trying to do something “odd or inappropriate” by advertising the positions in today’s Australian Financial Review and wants the next board, which will be established halfway through 2016, to consist of current and new members.

Labor has slammed the Coalition’s “outrageously rude” treatment of the NDIA board, saying the ad came at a time when the National Disability Insurance Scheme needed “certainty and stability” at the top and threatened its rollout “on time and in full”.

The independent agency was launched in 2013 and is responsible for implementing the NDIS, which is two-thirds of the way through a three-year trial phase.

“If the government was to do nothing in relation to board appointments then we would not have a board from the middle of next year,” Senator Fifield said.

“So what I have embarked upon is a process of consultation with the states and territories to lay out a process to look at the appointment of a new board from the middle of next year.

“This is an extremely important project. We’re moving from the trial phase of the scheme to full national rollout and it’s important that we take the opportunity to make sure that we have the best possible board with the right skill sets.”

Senator Fifield said the board had done “an extremely good job” and members were “very welcome” to express interest in a reappointment, emphasising the government recognised “the need for continuity”.

Earlier, Bill Shorten accused the government of deciding to run the ad “with no warning” to the board members.

“What (the NDIS leaders) have done … is they’ve made sure that the new National Disability Insurance Scheme gets the best start in life and they’ve now been repaid for their hard work by a midnight ambush where their positions have been advertised,” the Opposition Leader said.

Senator Fifield said the NDIS should be the one area of policy where partisanship was put aside.

“Do not use the NDIS, do not use the concerns of people with disability to seek to gain partisan electoral advantage,” he warned Labor.

The ad asks for candidates to “govern the agency as the NDIS transitions to the next phase of implementation, and the three-year term of the founding board members expire in 2016”.

“This transition will involve a rapid increase in participants from 30,000 to 460,000 over the next three years and responsibility for the expected $22 billion annual operating budget of this insurance-based scheme,” the ad reads.

The advertisement also states that candidates will be expected to have “substantial board experience either in a large listed company or a significant government business enterprise”.

National Disability Services said the board should include a mixture of “high-level skills, experience and expertise – in financial management, overseeing large comple projects and, critically, in disability support”.

“Business and governance skills should be complemented by a deep understanding of the nature, purpose and complexities of disability support,” NDS chief executive Ken Baker said.

More than 17,000 Australians are participating in trials of the ­National Disability Insurance Scheme and 95 per cent have rated their experience as “good” or “very good”.

Mr Shorten urged Tony Abbott and the government to reconsider “opening up all the board positions” and said it was “mean and heartless and just a little bit stupid” of the Prime Minister to “jeopardise the future” of the NDIS.

An “angry” Ms Macklin said the treatment of NDIA chair Bruce Bonyhady had been “outrageously rude”.

“We’ve got nine months to go in a very, very critical time for the National Disability Insurance Scheme,” she said.

“This is the period when the whole of the country is getting ready to roll out the disability insurance scheme in full. We need certainty and stability at the top of the scheme, not people being told in the dead of night that the positions were going to be advertised.”

Labor is pressuring the Abbott government to sign agreements with the states to finalise the full rollout of the NDIS.

Senator Fifield has told The Australian negotiations with all states and terri­tories were going well and several of them were close to conclusion.

He said the government was in no way looking to “slow negotiations or to slow the rollout of the scheme” and accused Labor of pushing “baseless lies”.

The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations, as well as people with disabilities and family organisations, said they were “extremely concerned” the proposed process and timeline to appoint a new board would “undermine the continued good governance of the NDIS”.

“Stability is so important to the NDIS, constant chopping and changing is counter-productive to a good scheme,” ADFO chief executive Matthew Wright said.

“It’s also of great concern that the advertisement in today’s (Australian) Financial Review places no importance on the personal experience of having a disability or being a family member. You cannot have an effective NDIS without valuing the experience of the people for which the NDIS is designed.”

Two members of the current board have a disability and another four have relatives who are disabled, ADFO said.

The latest sustainability report on the NDIS has found the scheme is on time, within budget and achieving a high level of client satisfaction.