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The $50 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has become a perpetual motion machine that is driving ‘jobs and growth’ across the economy while acting as a lead weight on the federal budget.
As illustrated in the following chart from CBA, the NDIS has delivered an unprecedented boom in healthcare and social assistance jobs, which, since 2020, have decoupled from other English-speaking nations:
The NDIS has also swelled the ranks of the public service, with the ABC reporting that the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) was responsible for almost 70% of all new APS jobs in 2025, adding nearly 2,000 staff as the government tries to slow NDIS cost growth.
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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.