The NDIS is the Ticking Economic Timebomb we Should be Discussing
Australia is barreling towards the 2025 federal election, and the big-ticket topics are sucking up all the oxygen in the conversation. Medicare, cost of living, national security and a housing shortage. But there's an economic elephant in the room that no one in Canberra wants to name for fear of uttering a four-letter word.
NDIS.
It's ballooning into one of the biggest threats to Australia's economic stability. If we don't tackle it head-on, we risk a major productivity crisis and a potentially nasty recession.
The NDIS is on track to cost $125 billion annually within a decade, and the growth is outpacing just about every other major government expense. It accounts for 30% of all new job growth in Australia.
The care sector, which includes disability services, aged care, childcare, health, and medical services, has doubled in size in under a decade. It now makes up 15% of the entire workforce and is the main engine of government job growth, accounting for 9 out of 10 new jobs in Australia in late 2024.
All this private sector job growth is causing an optics problem. It makes the economy look strong, with an unemployment rate of 4.3%.
AI Could Kill Our Vocabulary
AI could be the best thing to happen to language—or its undoing. Ever noticed how AI-generated content feels… samey? That’s not your imagination.
Language isn't just how we communicate.
It's how we think!
If we’re not careful, AI might just steal your brain.
The Mechanics of AI-Generated Language
AI language models like ChatGPT, Copilot, Bard, are trained on mountains of human text. They mimic patterns, predict words, and optimise for engagement.
But AI doesn’t just borrow from the internet. It feeds it.
Very quickly, online content is becoming a cesspool of regurgitated AI generated mediocrity with limited editing an zero original thought. The more AI churns out, the more it reinforces the same phrases and ideas. A linguistic echo chamber.
Sweet.
AI sticks to safe zones. Common phrases. Predictable idioms.
Quirky, regional, creative language? Left behind. And that’s tragic. Language should be alive. Messy. Full of surprises.
It doesn’t stop there. Professional and academic writing isn’t immune. As industries lean on AI for reports and proposals, originality erodes. Slowly. A world of documents sounding like the same polite robot. Bland and homogenized.
No loss for legal contracts, but it will make many jobs much more boring.