The NDIS and who gets bold reform and who gets incrementalism; Pulping fiction and the privatisation of censorship; And our own Pastor Niemöller moment

It’s Friday, a good day for a couple of shorter pieces, part of a little experiment in what is possible with this newsletter form. Mostly I find it is the longer pieces that get the best readership and response, but sometimes you just want to cut to the chase, so here’s three quick(er) reads.

Hell Broke Loose, or, The murder of Louis, vide, the Account of that Unfortunate Monarch’s Execution, engraving by William Denton, London, January 25, 1793 — Source

What we do in the shadows of incrementalism

Since being elected in 2022, the Albanese government has leant heavily into the concept of the incremental, overtly avoiding anything that fundamentally redistributes power or resources.

Yet with the NDIS they have suddenly come out of the shadows and announced they are willing to legislate a hard 5% growth cap, shift thousands of people off the scheme and narrow eligibility to those with “permanent and significant” disability. That’s a phrase that sounds clinical but in practice is vague and de…