The NDIS was Labor's. Four Labor figures chair the super funds that made hundreds of millions on it.

Four former senior Labor figures from the Rudd and Gillard governments later held chair or director roles at the industry super fund network whose $26.8 million stake in NDIS plan management was sold in 2023 for more than $400 million.

None of it is contested. The dates, the appointments and the deal are on the public record, in the funds' own announcements and the buyer's own statements. The money did not flow to the politicians personally. It went to the working Australians whose retirement savings sit in those funds.

Who built the scheme

Julia Gillard introduced the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill in November 2012. The NDIS Act 2013 received royal assent in March 2013. Her cabinet at the time included Wayne Swan as Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister, Nicola Roxon as Attorney General and former Minister for Health and Ageing, and Greg Combet, who held the Climate Change and Industry portfolios.

Lindsay Tanner had been Finance Minister under Kevin Rudd and into the first weeks of Gillard's prime ministership, before retiring from politics at the 2010 election.

All four left politics. All four took up roles in the same corner of finance.

Who bought into the plan manager

My Plan Manager, an Adelaide based NDIS plan management company, was founded in 2014 by former special education teacher Claire Wittwer-Smith.

In 2019, IFM Investors acquired a significant majority stake. IFM is the global funds manager owned by a group of Australian industry super funds, and lists the acquisition on its own portfolio page. The Switzer Daily column, citing market reporting, put the purchase price at $26.8 million.

By the time of that 2019 investment, IFM had a new chair. Greg Combet had taken over as chair of the IFM Investors board effective 1 January 2019. He held the role until 30 June 2023, when he stepped down to chair the Albanese government's Net Zero Economy Agency.

Two of the industry super funds that own IFM are HESTA and Cbus. Nicola Roxon was appointed independent chair of HESTA effective 1 January 2019, the same date Combet took the IFM chair. Wayne Swan was appointed independent chair of Cbus effective 1 January 2022. Lindsay Tanner joined the IFM Investors board as an independent director on 1 July 2023, the day after Combet's resignation took effect.

What the stake sold for

On 7 December 2023, IFM exited My Plan Manager. The US insurance firm Arthur J. Gallagher & Co announced its Australian arm, Gallagher Bassett, had acquired the company. Gallagher said the terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Switzer column put the sale price at "over $400 million" and the net return to IFM and its super fund owners at around $360 million. Industry tracker ION Analytics described the result as roughly a 12 times return on IFM's original investment in about four years.

Switzer's analysis was explicit on the legal point. "You can't point the finger of blame at the founder of MPM, nor the former Labor politicians, who've acted well on behalf of their super members," columnist Peter Switzer wrote.

No regulator has alleged wrongdoing by any of the four named former ministers, by IFM Investors, by HESTA, by Cbus or by My Plan Manager. The transaction was a regulated private equity buy and exit. The proceeds went to fund members, not to the chairs.

What the scheme costs now

The NDIS is now Australia's largest social spending program outside the Age Pension. Total scheme expenses for the 12 months to 30 June 2025 were $46.3 billion. Participant numbers reached 739,414 at the same date, an 11.8 per cent increase on the year before, according to the National Disability Insurance Agency's Q4 2024-25 quarterly report.

The 2026-27 federal budget projected NDIS spending of $53.8 billion in 2025-26, rising to $56.2 billion by 2029-30. The Albanese government has committed to $37.8 billion in savings over four years through legislation aimed at reducing annual cost growth to 8 per cent by 1 July 2026.

What it is losing to fraud

Fraud and non compliance estimates vary by source.

In August 2022, the then chief executive of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Michael Phelan, told 60 Minutes that 15 to 20 per cent of NDIS funding may be being misused, including by organised crime syndicates. That estimate was equivalent to about $6 billion a year. The figure has been disputed, and Freedom of Information responses have not produced an underlying methodology.

A 2023 NDIA internal estimate, cited in MacroBusiness, put non compliant, fraudulent or incorrect claims at 6 to 10 per cent of scheme outlays. On the most recent budget projections, that range works out to between roughly $3.2 billion and $5.4 billion a year. The Grattan Institute's 2024 analysis estimated annual leakage at $2 billion to $3.5 billion. NDIA integrity chief John Dardo has told a Senate committee that internal analysis showed roughly 90 per cent of plan managers handling fewer than 100 participants displayed what he described as significant indicators of fraud.

According to the same NDIA quarterly data reported by MacroBusiness, the June 2024 quarter recorded more than 7,000 tip offs to the NDIA fraud line. Sixteen of those allegations had been prosecuted. The March 2025 quarter recorded more than 7,000 tip offs again, with 78 active investigations on foot across the scheme.

The NDIA's most recent public count, in March 2026, put the total at 23 convictions for NDIS related offences since the Fraud Fusion Taskforce was established in November 2022.

The facts, lined up

The NDIS was legislated by a Labor government. Four former senior figures from the Rudd and Gillard era have since held chair or director roles at the industry super fund network that profited from an NDIS investment. The scheme they helped legislate is now spending more than $46 billion a year and, on the lowest published estimate, losing $2 billion of it to fraud and non compliance.

Those three facts are not in dispute. You can decide what to make of them.

Sources & Image Credit

Mosman Library, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Toby Hudson, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Troy, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bidgee, CC BY-SA 3.0 AU https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/au/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons

U.S. Department of the Treasury, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

IFM Investors, 'The Hon. Greg Combet AM appointed Chair of the IFM Investors Board': https://www.ifminvestors.com/news-and-insights/media-centre/the-hon.-greg-combet-am-appointed-chair-of-the-ifm-investors-board

IFM Investors, 'Statement from IFM Investors Chair Greg Combet AM' (13 June 2023): https://www.ifminvestors.com/news-and-insights/media-centre/statement-from-ifm-investors-chair-greg-combet-am/

IFM Investors, 'IFM Investors appoints new Chair, independent director': https://www.ifminvestors.com/news-and-insights/media-centre/ifm-investors-appoints-new-chair-independent-director/

IFM Investors private equity portfolio, My Plan Manager: https://www.ifminvestors.com/capabilities/private-equity/our-portfolio/

HESTA Board: https://www.hesta.com.au/about-us/leadership/hesta-board

Investment Magazine, 'Nicola Roxon to chair HESTA': https://www.investmentmagazine.com.au/2018/10/nicola-roxon-to-chair-hesta/

Cbus Super, 'Wayne Swan to Chair Cbus Super': https://www.cbussuper.com.au/about-us/news/media-release/wayne-swan-to-chair-cbus-super

Switzer Daily, Peter Switzer, 'Did Labor politicians cash in on the NDIS?': https://switzer.com.au/the-experts/peter-switzer/did-labor-politicians-cash-in-on-the-ndis/

Record Point, 'Record Point advises IFM Investors on its divestment of My Plan Manager': https://www.record-point.com/news/record-point-advises-ifm-investors-on-its-divestment-of-my-plan-manager/

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co, 'Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Acquires My Plan Manager': https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arthur-j-gallagher--co-acquires-my-plan-manager-302009430.html

National Disability Insurance Agency, Quarterly Report Q4 2024-25: https://www.ndis.gov.au/media/7950/download

Department of Finance, NDIS Supplementary Budget Estimates brief: https://www.finance.gov.au/sites/default/files/foi-25-26-146-document-01.pdf

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, 'Budget 2025-26: Strengthening the NDIS': https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/budget-2025-26-strengthening-the-national-disability-insurance-scheme-html

Australian Government Budget 2026-27, 'Strengthening care and broadening opportunity': https://budget.gov.au/content/05-care-and-opportunity.htm

MacroBusiness, 'Up to 99% of alleged NDIS fraud goes unprosecuted': https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2025/10/up-to-99-of-alleged-ndis-fraud-goes-unprosecuted/

Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW, 'NDIS fraud reports reveal the scheme's weakest points': https://www.humanrights.unsw.edu.au/research/commentary/ndis-fraud-reports-reveal-schemes-weakest-points

Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, media statement, Fraud Fusion Taskforce: https://www.acic.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases-and-statements/media-statement-fraud-fusion-taskforce

NDIS, 'Jail time imposed as Government cracks down on NDIS fraud': https://www.ndis.gov.au/news/11130-jail-time-imposed-government-cracks-down-ndis-fraud