The head of the Organ and Tissue Authority will not be reappointed in the wake of an independent review which highlighted the body's tendency to limit debate on controversial issues.
A spokesman for Fiona Nash, the minister responsible for organ donation, said Yael Cass' five-year term as chief executive officer expired on Thursday, days after the review recommended the Turnbull government establish a board to govern the OTA to foster a culture of debate.
"The review recommends the new board of governance choose the CEO," the spokesman said.
Health department official Felicity McNeill has been appointed interim CEO for 12 months from Friday, pending permanent filling.
Senator Nash thanked Ms Cass for her determined and tireless service to organ donation and transplantation.
The authority declined to comment.
The Ernst & Young review on Tuesday found stakeholders were concerned about the authority's tendency to limit debate about controversial issues.
It said the authority's advisory council - previously chaired by TV presenter David Koch before his spectacular on-air resignation - did not provide any strategic oversight, performance monitoring or mentoring of the CEO, recommending a new board of governance.
It would then be a matter for the board to decide whether the advisory council would stay or go.
Mr Koch quit last May, accusing Senator Nash of caving in to a rich lobby group when she ordered the independent review.
A former colleague of Mr Koch, Anne Cahill Lambert, described his on-air resignation as "more melodramatic than useful", telling AAP change at the OTA was long overdue.
She quit the advisory council in 2013 out of frustration that it wasn't achieving anything.
It wasn't allowed access to the authority's budget and suggestions from the council were constantly brushed off, she said.
The report says Australia's donor rate has increased by 41 per cent since the national reform program was implemented in 2009 but there is still significant room for improvement of donation rates.
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