Whenever I see talk about the NDIS I go back to the original Productivity Commission report and I note a pretty obvious issue in the entire construction of the scheme

April 10, 2026 - 00:54 UTC

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Scomo and his merry band of ratbags wanted the NDIS to fail and to that end they allowed the for profit providers carte blanche as far as charges and services were concerned.
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It wasn't just the Commonwealth Govt that supported private contractors. In NSW the LNP got rid of ALL public services that catered to the disabled.

The attitude of of the LNP is the free markets create competition, reducing costs.
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Yes
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In a nutshell
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“Contestability”
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It was going to be a grift party from day one!
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the N in NDIS stands for Neoliberal.
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I also don’t think the word “consumer” was ever appropriate. They’re humans with health and social support needs - not units of consumption and trade in a market.
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Systems working as designed.
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Yep. The model also ignores that some services will be inherently prone to monopoly, near monopoly or lack of competition. The barriers to entry for say deaf blind interpreting or lawn mowing services are so fundamentally different.
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As soon as you turn any care activity over to profiteers, the industry is ruined without strong regulation and oversight. Plenty of evidence to support this claim. NDIS, Aged Care, Childcare.
#ausp
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Agreed. I'd add education, healthcare, and housing.
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Yes an obvious flaw right at the start
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Every time! Look at child care!
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Pretty much every current-day problem goes back to neo-liberal economics
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For-profit firms should be removed from the economic system of care - Child-care, health care, aged care, disability care and anything else I've missed (Sorry!)
Plus education at all levels
Federal govt can fund state & local govts to own and run them with proper pay and proper standards of care
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'For profit' so politicians can go and get cushy jobs.
Particularly cheesed* off right now with Optus putting prices up again but they have the money to shower on Gladys the Chief Customer Officer. Bring back Telecom.

*more than cheesed
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I’ve said it numerous times before, and it applies here as well - Never stand between an Australian business and a bucketful of government money.Every shonky practice will be rolled out in pursuit of it.
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Having dealt with the NDIS, the whole system is open to rorting by the private sector. Some of these providers are multi-nationals like the GEO Group & Serco. Others are real estate agents, accountants, etc that see a cash cow! No disability backgrounds needed. Sub-contracting is obscene!
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I worked for a while as a cleaner for 3 local NDIS clients. All were introduced by other locals on the lookout for someone to help their friends but I still had to subcontract through 3 different "service providers" who were indifferent, absent & useless, wasted program funding & provided nothing 🤨
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Yep! Private for profit … same big problem as in Aged Care and Child care/Early Childhood Education. Not for profits/Govt. Agencies only way to go.
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Glaringly obvious, isn't it?
#NDIS
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but Greg everyone knows the private sector delivers services most efficiently
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The ultimate goal being to dispense with public funding altogether apart from subsidies to the private operators.
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Yeah that was always going to be a problem. For-profit care of any kind is morally dubious and frequently fraudulent.
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As soon as you employ for profit organisations then it becomes all about money. We see that in aged care, in job training institutions, in childcare etc. But Australian politics doesn’t see to learn from their mistakes.
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Selling off public assets is easy but trying to get them back is just about impossible. Can you imagine MSM's bombardment of communism accusations etc. Before any reasonable advance can be made we have to have a Murdoch RC
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It's almost like they are too stupid to learn, but they can't all be that dumb. So the simplest, most obvious answer would have to be - corruption.

But what makes it even worse, is how many of punters know this implicitly and still they keep voting for them. Every single time.

Now THAT is dumb.
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I was at APH the day the NDIS legislation passed (I was there for something else) but was asked by several people abt my thoughts on NDIS (I’m a w/chair user/vision impaired) + was scorned because I commented about the lack of checks/balances + ? privatised model. BTW, I’m ineligible 4 NDIS
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We're paying either way, I'd rather it be through taxes or whatever going somewhere that can ultimately be *held accountable!
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Yes
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Is there any current data on the economic benefit of the NDIS?
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Key Findings from Per Capita on NDIS Economic Impact:High Economic Return: The NDIS is considered an investment in people’s lives, with a $1 investment generating $2.25 in economic activity.Job Creation: The scheme supports over 270,000 workers across various occupations and stimulates local 2/
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Very obvious.
Private operators seeking profit, and an adversarial process focused on limiting access and funding together account for a lot of wastage
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