After 170 days without a chief executive, the National Disability Insurance Agency will soon be helmed by Martin Hoffman.
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Minister Stuart Robert also announced on Tuesday the agency responsible for delivering the National Disability Scheme would gain an extra 800 public service staff, after criticism a lack of staff had been contributing to delays for participants accessing their plans.
Mr Hoffman has a long career in the federal and NSW public service, and had most recently been appointed by Mr Robert to lead the strategic planning taskforce for the Department of Human Services' transition to Services Australia.
His appointment comes more than five months after previous National Disability Insurance Agency chief executive Robert De Luca called it quits.
Mr De Luca's sudden resignation to become the head of Zenitas Healthcare led to a six-month wait for a permanent replacement. Mr Robert said it was due to an extensive search.
"We've gone for a nation-wide search for the very best person who is available and I think we've found that in Martin Hoffman," he said.
It's the second role Mr Robert has appointed Mr Hoffman to since becoming minister for the scheme and for Services Australia, and said the public would see why when he started in early November.
"He's an impressive individual, a delightful family man, [and has] a real sense of compassion as well as drive," he said.
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Mr Robert said the new staff had been provided after a request from the agency, which believed it would need 4000 public servants by July 2020, when the scheme is expected to be completed.
As well as the 8000 contractors delivering the scheme, the NDIS workforce was approaching 12,000.
Despite criticism the number of external workers is too high, Mr Robert said the department didn't have a huge amount of contractors, and the contractor workforce was declining.
On Wednesday, Labor called for staffing numbers to be uncapped at the agency, and the minister didn't rule that out when asked on Thursday.
"The government will provide the staffing numbers that the agency needs, the agency has made it clear it needs numbers of 4000 public servant staff building on the 8000 contractors and other provider staff," the minister said.
"The department has been given every single resource that it has asked for."
But asked about delays in transitioning people from state and territory programs to the scheme, referred to in the agency's latest annual report, he stressed its complexity.
"Remember we're talking about up to 500,000 participants, all individual with individual conditions, individual requirement and individual plans. It's not a cookie-cutter approach."
Mr Robert denied there were delays and said there was no current backlog of people waiting for access to the scheme.
The minister said Mr Hoffman's top priorities would become clear when the government released a new NDIS plan "in the coming weeks".
"There's an extensive plan that has been signed off in cabinet on how we're bringing the scheme into full-scheme," he said.
About 500,000 Australians with disability are expected to benefit from the NDIS in the next five years.
- With AAP