The NDIS began as a moral and progressive reform. But it now exemplifies a wider phenomenon: the creation of vast employment ecosystems that signal compassion, order, and professionalism — while often delivering little genuine value beyond sustaining themselves.
The system is no longer a service — it’s a job market in disguise
Categories of Fake Contribution
| 🏰 Feudal Retainers | Symbolic loyalty (e.g., Executive assistants, interns)
| 🕶️ Goon Jobs | Harm others for gain (e.g., PR, lobbyists)
| 🧰 Duct Tapers | Keep broken systems limping (e.g., data clerks, compliance checkers)
| ☑️ Box Tickers | Create illusion of compliance (e.g., DEI consultants)
| 👔 Taskmasters | Manufacture busywork (e.g., project overseers)
How the NDIS Became a Job Factory
| 💼 Plan Managers → ☑️ Box Tickers
| 🧭 Support Coordinators → 🧰 Duct Tapers
| 🧠 Consultants & Optimisers → 🕶️ Goon Jobs
| 🧾 Compliance Officers → ☑️ Box Tickers
| 🧱 NDIS Bureaucrats → 👔 Taskmasters
Instead of simplifying care, it industrialized it and created the Illusion of Societal Contribution
NDIS jobs feel important… but often aren’t.
How NDIS introduced Systemic Waste into the Australian economy
- Layered Skimming: Only 14% of funding reaches direct care (Grattan Institute).
- Perverse Incentives: More complexity = more “coordination” jobs → NDIS now employs 270,000+ Australians.
- Outcomes Ignored: 44% of participants say plans don’t improve their lives (NDIS survey).
- Reform Paralysis: 270,000 jobs = 270,000 voting households → politicians fear restructuring.
