“We Are Absolutely Done…”: First Joint Interview with NDIS Commission Leaders Calls for Urgent Action on Disability Safety and Rights
In an exclusive first joint interview, both leaders of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission — Commissioner Louise Glanville and Associate Commissioner Natalie Wade — sit down with Summer Foundation's Dr George Taleporos on his podcast Reasonable & Necessary to deliver a powerful call to action for the safety, rights and dignity of people with disability.
This episode marks the first time both Commissioners have appeared together in a public interview since taking on their leadership roles in October 2024.
“We are absolutely done,” declares Associate Commissioner Natalie Wade in a raw and passionate statement:
“We are done with people with disability dying preventable deaths, of being raped and abused in services, we’re done with people with disability not getting what they need from services. It’s incumbent upon all of us in these privileged roles to ensure that we are absolutely investing our time and our effort and our focus on ensuring that there is an absolutely better, better future for people with disability in this nation.”
Commissioner Louise Glanville delivers a powerful critique of current inequality under the law:
“We shouldn’t be treating people lesser because they have a disability… Harm to a worker is a $1.5 million penalty, and harm to a person with a disability is $450,000. It’s really important to call those things out — because it tells us something about what we’re prepared to walk past, and we can’t walk past these things anymore.”
This landmark episode covers:
- The Commission’s reform agenda and push for new legislative powers
- Mandatory registration of key NDIS services
- Protecting human rights through regulation
- Balancing quality, safety, and participant choice and control
- The importance of co-design and centring lived experience of disability
- The significance of disability leadership within the Commission
Dr George Taleporos, host of Reasonable & Necessary, says:
“Hearing from both Commissioners together sends a strong message that the Commission is stepping up — and the community will want to hear what they’ve got to say.”
The episode is available on YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all major platforms.
Media contact:
George.Taleporos@summerfoundation.org.au