Leah van Poppel ran the last meeting.

She is the Council’s Principal Member.

She’s also a member of the NDIA Board.

The NDIA Board is a group of people who make decisions about all parts of the NDIA.

The meeting was held on 13 April 2023.

Leah shared there was a meeting in April about the NDIA’s new computer system.

The meeting was with organisations from Tasmania who work with:

• people with disability
• carers.

They shared their experiences when they took part in testing the computer system.

Leah thanked these organisations for sharing their ideas in the meeting.

Leah explained that the Council will share these ideas with the NDIA.

Mr Kurt Fearnley AO is the Chairperson of the NDIA Board.

This means he runs the NDIA Board.

He explained that the cost of goods and services have gone up this year.

And how this:

• affects NDIS plans

• is something the NDIA will think about going forward.

Kurt also shared that NDIA staff should have more training to better support participants.

Participants are people with disability who take part in the NDIS.

Ms Rebecca Falkingham is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NDIA.

This means she runs the NDIA.

She shared that the NDIA is working with the community to think about how to change the structure of the NDIA.

Rebecca explained that the NDIA should be leaders in hiring:

• people with disability

• First Nations peoples

• culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) people.

CALD people:

• come from different backgrounds
• speak languages other than English.

She also explained that the NDIA should be leaders in hiring workers from the LGBTIQA+ community.

The letters LGBTIQA stand for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer or questioning and asexual.

The ‘+’ is for people who are part of the LGBTIQA+ community but don’t talk about themselves using a word from this list.