This is a sensational story that the likes of the Daily Telegraph would love, especially when it can generate a headline like this: “Revealed: How Labor-led super funds cashed in on disability scheme!”

You don’t have to be John Rolfe, the Telegraph reporter who broke this exclusive story to know that there are question marks over the waste of money that goes on in this great idea called the NDIS or National Disability Insurance Scheme.

In case you need reminding, the ABC tells us that the NDIS is projected to cost us $48.5 billion this year. And if no one gets serious about making sure only the deserving people get looked after, it will be $63.4 billion by 2028-29.

Some changes have been implemented. Now it looks like it will grow by 8% a year in outlays but before it was expected to surge by 20% a year. And economists say for every dollar spent on the NDIS; there is $2.25 of value created by the services and products it relies upon to do what mentally and physically challenged Australians need.

Of course, that’s not to say that the economic value could be bigger and better if the excessive resources used by the NDIS were reallocated to different parts of the economy, such as education, exports and infrastructure.

OK, so what is Rolfe’s story in a nutshell?

1. Industry super funds have an overarching business called IFM, which is an investment management firm that helps our super funds find good investments.
2. On behalf of its super funds, IFM bought a SA business started by a special ed teacher, Claire Wittwer-Smith, who started My Plan Manager (MPM) to operate in the NDIS.
3. In 2019, IFM paid $26.8 million for the business.
4. IFM sold it for over $400 million in 2023 to US insurance business, Arthur J Gallagher & Co, which clearly saw the NDIS as a worthwhile business to get involved in.
5. The super funds via IFM pocketed $360 million out of that.
6. The juicy part of this story is that former senior Labor politicians have held significant roles in heading up the super funds that employ IFM and have seen their funds make great returns from the NDIS over a time when clearly, money was being wasted.

The politicians Rolfe mentions include Greg Combet, Lindsay Tanner, Nicola Roxon and Wayne Swan, who have been chairs or directors of industry super funds that have made a spectacular return from investing in a business that did well out of the NDIS.

This story has value in underlining how valuable MPM became probably because of the overspending on the NDIS. But 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.

Turning a $28 million investment into $360 million or so also shows how smart IFM is an investment manager.

The only problem I see is that the politicians named were a part of the team of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who introduced the NDIS. So, in hindsight, their government created a good idea initiative that proved to be a poor use of public money. And then a venture that they had indirect control of made a lot of money out of this mismanaged system.

At least it went to a good cause, namely, improving the funding of members’ super balances and the returns they received.

Of course, they could easily blame the Coalition governments that followed the Gillard/Rudd teams for mismanaging the NDIS, but any way you look at it, objectively, none of these politicians have personally done anything wrong.

John Rolfe has come up with a great yarn that should remind current politicians that a lot more effort is needed to make sure the NDIS looks after the needy but at the same time stops giving access to its valuable services to the greedy, which includes clients and some of the businesses cashing in on the problematic delivery system.