The qualifications listed mean board members will not be eligible for reappointment, including chairman Bruce Bonyhady who is considered the father of the scheme.

Disabilities Minister Mitch Fifield subsequently insisted it was not true that the board was being "spilled" – despite also saying board members were free to "apply" for their jobs – and issued a clarifying statement that suggested the wording of the job ad had been unfortunate: that in fact board experience was not necessary. He said that the government wanted to have a mix of new and existing directors on the post-2016 board.

Yet Senator Fifield's assurances – not just the wording of a recruitment ad – seem to continually be at odds with the government's actions.

One possible explanation for the government's actions may lie in the choice of KordaMentha to review the needs of the board, and in its subsequent report, a copy of which has been obtained by the Financial Review

The qualifications listed mean board members will not be eligible for re-appointment, including chairman Bruce Bonyhady who is considered the father of the scheme. Andrew Meares

KordaMentha provided crucial advice to the government on the future of the NBN. In its report on the board of NDIS, the firm notes it has a "unique set of requirements with few parallels in either corporates or GBEs in Australia", noting that "the closest parallel can be found in NBN Co".

While there is clear – and understandable – nervousness within the government about the potential for the NDIS to rapidly escalate into a financial disaster, the fledgling agency – unlike the NBN – has to date delivered on time and on budget in its pilot stages.

If it was concerned that there was not enough financial clout on the board, it could have filled a vacancy on the board that has existed since December 2013.


These are some of the reasons why some believe the hostility is more partisan and ideological.

Disabilities Minister Mitch Fifield subsequently insisted it was not true that the board was being "spilled". Geoff Jones

"It is hard not to think that the government thinks it has brought down Gonski and the NBN and that the NDIS remains as the only Labor policy it has not been able to do over", one source says.

Whatever the motives, the government has been seeking to get a change in the way the board operates for the best part of a year, with the matter initially raised with the state and territory disability ministers in December last year.

The NDIS legislation says that the states and territories must agree to the make-up of the board. The federal government only has control over the appointment of the chairman of the board.

Canberra was rebuffed by the states and territories on its proposal but it has persisted, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott also raising it with first ministers, and with the minister's office putting a request to the board earlier this year that half the board should voluntarily resign before their terms expire – a request unanimously rejected.

Unknown to the states last year however, the government had commissioned KordaMentha a month earlier to review the board requirements.

'Not engage with current board members'


In a rather extraordinary brief, the firm was told that "the review may include consideration of the views of relevant experts and stakeholders, however, we have been requested to not engage with any of the current board members or staff of the NDIA at this stage".

The report says the review was "not intended as an examination of the performance of the current board in overseeing the establishment of the scheme and we express no opinions on the performance of the current board or any of the members of that board".

It found that the "NDIA's board requires strong financial, operational and governance experience which should have been obtained in the very largest GEs and/or larger corporations, preferably with significant government/regulated industry interaction".

"We consider that the majority of the NDIA board members should have experience as a senior manager or CEO, as they have responsibilities as a communicator, decision maker, leader, manager and executor."

This is but one piece of advice which now appears to have been ignored by the government, based on last week's job ad which specified board level, rather than executive level, experience.

It appears also not to be taking the firm's advice on what is supposed to be the most crucial, and pressing, issue confronting the agency's governance in the immediate future: how to deal with the looming simultaneous expiry of board directors' terms.

KordaMentha suggests "these terms be flexed so that there is a rolling program of board appointments. This would ensure that fresh perspectives, skills and experience can be brought onto the NDIA board, whilst maintaining a degree of corporate knowledge and history of the organisation."

Senator Fifield has been publicly silent on this idea of rolling, or staggered, appointments, despite writing to his ministerial colleague, Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on the issue on July 7, saying he proposed "to develop an appointments plan for the board that includes staggered terms to ensure continuity".


However, the letter once again makes clear that Senator Fifield believes the board needs to be overhauled, saying that while he was "appreciative of the hard work and dedication of the current board to oversee the significant and challenging tasks of establishing the NDIA and the scheme's trial sites, as we move to the next stage of implementation – the transition to full scheme – the NDIA will require a board with a different range of highly specialised skills".

Senator Fifield says he will "commission an expert executive recruitment firm to identify appropriately skilled potential candidates" and put a shortlist to the ministerial council.

The use of an executive recruitment firm also goes against KordaMentha's advice, which says such a firm "should only be used to identify individuals who have the specific set of skills, experience and attributes" identified by a working party which, it suggests, "contain the current chair, key stakeholders and two experienced chairs from large GBEs and one or two experienced chairs from large corporates."

The government has ignored this advice about a working party too.

Victorian Disabilities Minister Martin Foley says he watched the developing story about Canberra advertising for the board jobs on Friday with "amazement" and has warned Canberra that it needs the agreement of the states on the make-up of the board.

"The federal government did not consult with the states about these hamfisted moves on the NDIS board", he says.

"We received a letter from Senator Fifield late [on Thursday] informing us of the moves. We have neither agreed to the new appointments process nor approved the wording of the ads."

"I was pleased to see the federal government back away from this position following the disability sector raising its concerns in response to the government's moves.

"Victoria had stressed the need for the lived experience of disability to be maintained on the board and for maintaining skill and experience at this important time in the NDIS roll-out. Of course we are open to improvements – but not to undermining the scheme on the edge of roll-out.

"As we now head into the final key bilateral agreement phase with the federal government to look to how we roll the NDIS out, we do not need this diversion."

Some of those involved in the NDIS believe state agreement to changes to the make-up of the board is likely become part of the horse-trading over funding in coming months, a move that would only further undermine the extent to which its future is set within best corporate governance practice.