NDIA Staff - Family Members of Disabled People

Question

Mr Fearnley: ...I would like to note-and it is a proud element of the agency and a focus of the board-that 23 per cent of our staff are disabled people. We want to be an employee of choice for disabled people, that they are able to feel like they are really valued members of the NDIA. I think we-me and Graeme Innes-even fought to keep that as a performance measure so that we are constantly held to account and to ensure that we do keep that representation of disabled people within the agency. The more that we can get disabled voices into lots of elements of the scheme, the better outcomes there will be for people with disabilities. I'd also lean into the changes that have been made at the call centre, where we have seen great outcomes from the experience of participants when they call our call centre. From last count-again, it is within a percentage point or two-40 per cent of our call-centre staff are disabled people. That means that, when a disabled person calls with a question, there is that greater level of understanding. From memory, we had close to a 90 per cent satisfaction rate from people calling in to our call centre and feeling like their questions were answered satisfactorily, which is extraordinarily high across other government sectors as well. Senator ANANDA-RAJAH: With your 23 per cent of staff, what's the distribution? Are they all the way through from grassroots up to middle management and above? Mr Fearnley: We have representation of disabled people at every level of the agency now. In our senior leadership team, for the first time, over the last four years it's been 50 per cent of our board and, as mentioned before, at the call centre it's 40 per cent. We want to continually improve and we want to make sure that we are continuing to provide a workplace that is safe, that is welcoming and that values people of all experience of disability in the space that they are at. Mr Innes: I'll add two small points, but I agree with everything that Mr Fearnley has said. The first is that that decision was made by the board at a recent board meeting in terms of keeping a performance accountability target of people with disabilities as a separate target to the other employment targets that we have. The second point is that, as well as the figures which Mr Fearnley has given you on disabled people, the agency also employs a significant number of people who are family members of disabled people. And so the figure is actually better than that 23 per cent if you broaden the grouping. Senator ANANDA-RAJAH: Maybe on notice you could supply us with some of that data. I think that's interesting.

Answer

Please see attached answer.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• NDIA SQ26-000149.pdf (opens in a new tab)