Independent Advisory Council to the NDIS
2024-25 Year in Review (test page)

Our acknowledgement and commitment to accessibility

The Independent Advisory Council (IAC)’s Year in Review is made possible thanks to the efforts of people with disability. We acknowledge and pay respects to fellow Australians with disability.

We also acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the country throughout Australia, and their continuing connection to land, sea, and community. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present.

 

The Review

The purpose of this Year in Review is to let the disability community and Australian people know about the important work the IAC has done over the past year

We have been guided by our 2025-26 Work Plan and our Operating Model. The Work Plan and Operating Model maintain the accountability, integrity, and performance of our work.

 

Principal Member’s reflection

It is my pleasure to present the Independent Advisory Council (IAC) Year in Review for 2024–25. This is where we share our important work and achievements from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025. This includes our work to fulfill the IAC’s legislated role of advising the Board of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).

This year, the IAC continued its advisory work, with the support of our Reference Groups. We prepared our advice ‘End of life care, not the end of care: Palliative support and the NDIS’ for the Board to consider in the latter part of 2025. Our advice and ‘NDIS guiding principles and measures of success’ was endorsed by the IAC; the advice and Agency response are soon to be presented to the Board. We endorsed our advice ‘Participants who are ageing’ in preparation for next steps to the Board. And we began working on new advice to the Board, ‘Justice’ and ‘Home and Living Framework’.

Co-design continues to be a priority for the IAC. Our members work with the NDIA, disability representative and carer organisations, and participants to co-design reforms to the NDIS. This year we supported ongoing improvements to the NDIA’s co-design approach.

It is excellent to see such a strong commitment to co-design from the NDIA, and for the IAC to be a trusted partner in this work. Over the past year, members have worked with the NDIA and community on making improvements to the NDIS through the Reform for Outcomes program, which included 6 co-design initiatives:

  • workforce capability

  • better planning

  • plan flexibility

  • home and living

  • integrity

  • evidence-based supports.

Our work plan guides our advice to the Board and other priority work. This year, we extended our 2023–24 work plan in response to two significant reports from the Government that have begun shaping the future of disability supports in Australia. They are the reports from the:

The IAC has engaged with and provided advice to both the Disability Royal Commission and the NDIS Review.

We’ve engaged deeply with the panel of the NDIS Review to ensure its recommendations drive positive change for people with disability. We thank the panel members for their commitment to engaging with the IAC and its reference groups.

We look forward to continuing our open and honest dialogue with the NDIA and disability community. There has been some uncertainty throughout the disability community this past year, who have been confronted by significant changes brought about by changes to what we know as the ‘in and out lists’, and the Government’s announcement of the Thriving Kids program, which is set to change how the NDIS aids families with children with lower-level autism diagnoses.

There have been some changes in IAC membership this year. Recently, Mr Gavin Burner, a member of the IAC and the Intellectual Disability Reference Group, passed away. Gavin strengthened our representation of people with intellectual disability over his time on the IAC and IDRG. His contributions were highly valued, and he will be greatly missed.

IAC members Dr Leighton Jay, Dr Sharon Boyce, Mr Mark Tonga, Ms Patricia Malowney OAM and Ms Samantha Paior were all re-appointed to the Council. We also welcomed Mr Vaughn Bennison, Associate Professor Lorna Hallahan, Dr Gill Hicks, Mr Andrew Vodic, and Ms Jane Wardlaw. These members were all appointed by the then-Minister for the NDIS in December 2024.

The IAC also farewelled longstanding members, Sylvana Mahmic, Adjunct Associate Professor Jennifer Cullen AM, Mr James Manders and Dr George Taleporos in late 2024. I would like to acknowledge their significant contribution to the IAC over the and wish them all the best for their future endeavours.

As we reflect on this year and look to the next, I would like to thank the NDIA Board, and the NDIA more broadly, for their ongoing engagement with us. We appreciate the NDIA’s high regard for our advice to the Board and their ongoing efforts to realise the improvements we recommend.

I would like to extend my thanks and gratitude to various other government agencies and organisations in the disability sector for their commitment and support of the IAC. Throughout the year they have trusted us to provide advice and input to various projects.

While they may have learned a lot from the IAC’s collective wisdom and experience in disability, it is only through collaboration that we can all learn and work toward building a safer and more empowering Australia for people with disability.

Ms Leah van Poppel

Principal Member and NDIA Board member

30 September 2025

 

Highlight

Our Home and Living Reference Group concluded its work in 2025.

Home and Living Reference Group meetings were a place of affirmation, which promoted the values and rights that properly underpin the NDIS and the NDIA’s work. It was a place of constancy, where people stood with and represented the ideal case in people’s lives, around the nature of home, and what ‘home’ means.

The insights that the Reference Group has provided over the years will be carried forward in informing the work plans and advice that the IAC – and each of its Reference Groups – will produce. The IAC has provided home and living advice to the NDIA Board as part of its 2025-26 Work Plan.

In its final meeting, Home and Living Reference Group Members shared how group living continues to be the main option available to scheme participants, regardless of their personal wishes. Members reported that where supported independent living is the only option around group living, the provider market is essentially skewed in that direction. Improvements in this field is something which they feel should continue to be a focus of the Agency’s attention.

 

Our important advisory role

The IAC was established as part of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Act 2013. Our statutory role is to give advice to the NDIA Board, both at their request and on our own initiative.

We bring lived experiences of disability into the boardroom of the NDIA through our advice. Section 144(1) of the NDIS Act outlines that our advice should draw attention to the most important issues affecting people with disability. Our advice allows us to speak up for people with disability and put participants at the centre of the NDIS.

 

Reference groups

IAC membership

IAC Members bring their advice to life through their skills, experience and knowledge about different areas of disability.

Follow the link to read more about the current IAC Members as of 30 June 2025.

IAC Reference Groups

IAC Reference Groups are an invaluable source of further expertise for our advice also help us represent the diversity of people with disability as part of the IAC. They have been determined as part of our own procedures, to give advice and feedback in relation to issues and opportunities across 4 focus areas. They add valuable expertise to the IAC’s advice around the areas of:

 

Work Plan

The IAC has a Work Plan for 2025-26.

The Work Plan is available as an information sheet:

This Work Plan is guiding us on the work we are doing during 2025-2026. It focuses on 6 priorities:

  1. NDIS program of change

  2. Home and Living

  3. Planning and support in emergency and extreme weather events

  4. NDIS and Justice issues

  5. Inclusion in community through the NDIS – Barriers and solutions to achieving outcomes

  6. Building the support workforce and markets in remote and regional areas.

As part of this plan, IAC aims to deliver advice to the NDIA Board that improves the NDIS for the best participant outcomes.

We also aim to strengthen community ties and trust through our Work Plan. We do this by working with:

  • Disability Representative and Carer Organisations (DRCO)

  • state and territory disability councils, and

  • the broader disability community.

We will also work together as part of the NDIA’s co-design work.

IAC Work Plans have also been written for the 4 Reference Groups in Easy Read.

 

Promoting our work

This year we have continued to share accessible information about our work to raise awareness and understanding of the IAC. We did this through:

  • Releasing 27 bulletins about IAC and IAC Reference Group meetings to the public

  • Providing Easy Read meeting packs for the Intellectual Disability Reference Group’s face-to-face meetings.

  • Releasing and promoting IAC’s Work Plan to the public

  • Releasing our Annual Report to the public

  • Updating online platforms to ensure up to date and accessible information

 

Year in Review

2024

July

  • The IAC and its 4 Reference Groups met in Melbourne. This was the first time the IAC and its Reference Groups have held a joint forum. The event allowed the IAC and its Reference Groups to deliberate on its Work Plan for 2024-25.

August

  • The Home and Living Reference Group met, discussing the prevailing community sentiment around the release of the Australian Government’s response to the final report of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.

  • The IAC met, where Members shared their views on how to prioritise areas of advisory work, set out in the 2024-25 Work Plan. They agreed to strengthen overarching governance arrangements to better link the IAC with its Reference Groups.

  • Similar concerns were aired at the Equity and Inclusion Reference Group meeting, where Members reported widespread uncertainty within the community regarding the broader program of reforms.

September

  • The IAC met in Perth and online. The NDIA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and members of the strategic leadership team were in attendance.

  • The IAC Children, Young People and Families Reference Group meets to start development of ‘Improving the NDIS for children and young people: the importance of being guided by their voice’ advice.

October

  • The Children, Young People and Families Reference Group met via videoconference .

  • The IAC Intellectual Disability Reference Group holds its second meeting for 2022-23 and discussed progress on the NDIA’s Supported Decision-Making Policy and Home and Living Framework.

November

  • The IAC endorsed its advice about participants who are ageing, titled ‘Age is not a number’, and commenced development of an Agency response to the advice.

December

  • Mr Vaughn Bennison, Associate Professor Lorna Hallahan, Dr Gill Hicks, Mr Andrew Vodic, and Ms Jane Wardlaw were all appointed to the IAC.

  • The IAC met, and welcomed the NDIA’s Board Chair, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Deputy CEO Service Design and Improvement. 

  • IAC holds further discussions about the ‘Improving the NDIS for children and young people: the importance of being guided by their voice’ advice.

2025

January

February

  • The First Nations Reference Group was formed, meeting for the first time in Narrm, Melbourne and online. All of the NDIA’s Deputy CEOs introduced themselves to Members, who were then presented an overview of the NDIA’s First Nations Strategy.

  • The Equity and Inclusion Reference Group met online.

March

  • The Home and Living Reference Group met online

  • The Board presented its Enhancing NDIA Practice in Behaviour Support to the Agency, which offered a response.

April

  • The Intellectual Disability Reference Group meets. Members shared community concerns about participants waiting long times for access decisions and plan reassessments.

May

  • The IAC endorses its ‘Improving the NDIS for children and young people: the importance of being guided by their voice’ advice.

  • The IAC discuss their Work Plan for 2023-24.

June

  • The First Nations Reference Group met in Gimuy, Cairns and online. A forum was also held to hear from representatives of the Gimuy/Cairns First Nations community

  • The Home and Living Reference Group met online on 18 June - this was the final meeting of this Reference Group

 

Advice to the NDIA Board

This year, our advisory efforts encompassed:

  1. Submission of the Improving equity in the NDIS (DOCX 307KB) advice to the NDIA Board, accompanied by an Agency Response.

  2. Creation and endorsement of the advice ‘Improving the NDIS for children and young people: the importance of being guided by their voice’.

  3. Development of ‘Enhancing behaviour supports in the NDIA’.

  4. Tracking how the NDIA is implementing our advice, including reporting, and monitoring the progress of historical and current IAC advice.

Over the years, we have generated a broad range of advice accessible on IAC’s website.

We remain committed to a planned redesign and redevelopment of the IAC website. The website and its content will meet the highest accessibility standards and user experience.

 
 

Easy Read

The IAC will publish Easy Read and Auslan versions of this Year in Review, as part of its commitment to accessibility.