NDIS must be governed properly: chair

The man heading the national disability insurance scheme agency says it needs to be governed effectively if it is to succeed.

NDIS agency chair Bruce Bonyhady for the first time addressed the controversy surrounding the government's decision to replace the board overseeing the $22 billion scheme.

Positions for directors were advertised nine months before contracts for existing members expire next year, a move criticised by disability groups concerned it will prioritise corporate experience over lived experience with disability.

Mr Bonyhady, regarded as one of the key people behind the scheme's birth, could lose his position at a time when the agency prepares to reel in more than 400,000 people into the NDIS.

He said the new appointments were a matter for government and he was only focused on doing the best he could while still in the job.

"What will happen will happen. In every role you have to work on the things you can control," he told AAP on the sidelines of a disability conference in Brisbane.

Mr Bonyhady said his only interest was in good governance.

"This is a very, very important scheme, it needs to be governed as effectively as possible."