By Andrew Klein & Sera Elizabeth Klein

The New Parasites

In the Australia of 2026, a new class has emerged. They are not politicians, though they move through Parliament House with ease. They are not public servants, though they draw their salaries from the public purse. They are not businesspeople, though they sit on corporate boards and collect lucrative consulting fees.

They are the connected class—a network of insiders who have mastered the art of turning public service into private enrichment. They occupy positions created for them, funded by taxpayers, producing outputs that serve the interests of their networks rather than the public good.

This is not corruption in the traditional sense. It is institutional capture—a system where the boundaries between government, industry, and personal enrichment have been deliberately blurred.

Case Study One: The Antisemitism Envoy

Jillian Segal is Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism. She is paid $1,070 a day** by taxpayers. She has a team of six staffers. The total cost to taxpayers is **well over $1 million a year. The Prime Minister approved an additional $12.9 million in funding for her office.

The Conflicts of Interest: Her family trust is “one of the biggest funders of far-right lobby group ‘Advance'”. It gave $50,000 to Advance in 2023-24. Advance has been described by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke as “an appalling organisation”. Segal is a “top executive of a pro-Israel lobby group”—the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. She sits on the board of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce.

The Selection Process: Freedom of Information documents reveal that Home Affairs officials described an intention to provide the Prime Minister with “up to 6 candidates”. But every document detailing assessments or the rationale for selection was either heavily redacted or withheld in full. The Department could not locate a copy of Segal’s CV.

She is paid to combat antisemitism while her family funds a far-right group and she leads a pro-Israel lobby.

Case Study Two: The Cyber Security CRC

In September 2017, the federal government announced a $50 million investment over seven years in the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC). The CEO was Rachael Falk.

She led the independent review into the Optus and Medibank cyber breaches. She was appointed by the Minister for Home Affairs to the Expert Advisory Board for Australia’s 2023-2030 Cyber Security Strategy.

In February 2025, Falk left the CSCRC to become a partner at Ashurst Risk Advisory—a return to the firm where she had worked as a lawyer in 1998.

The CSCRC was not just a research centre. It was a revolving door—a place where a connected insider could build a network, then cash in.

Case Study Three: Palantir and the NDIS

The Albanese government has “secretly embedded Palantir Technologies into the automated decision-making systems of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)”. If the NDIS Amendment Bill passes, a computer program will have the authority to cut a disabled person’s funding.

No Appeal: If the program gets it wrong, section 59E(3) provides that the decision stands anyway. There is no appeal.

The Financial Footprint: Palantir has secured $60 million** in Australian government contracts. State and federal contracts have reached nearly $80 million. The Future Fund has ballooned its stake in Palantir from $1.6 million in February 2023 to $165.3 million. The fund’s chief corporate affairs officer admitted in Senate estimates that no ethical review of Palantir’s human rights record had been conducted before the investments were made.

This is Australian taxpayers’ money—bet on a company whose CEO describes the company’s purpose as helping the West “kill enemies”.

Case Study Four: Cellebrite — From Gaza to the Streets of Sydney

Cellebrite is an Israeli digital forensics company. NSW police have used Cellebrite over 30,000 times since 2022. The Minns government is set to introduce new laws “so that the power NSW police has to require people to provide access to their digital devices” is available during “routine arrests, roadside stops and other lawful detentions”. Failure to comply carries up to 5 years prison time.

The Same Technology: The same Cellebrite technology that helps generate kill lists in Gaza is now being used to extract data from Australian citizens.

The Pattern

Element Antisemitism Envoy CSCRC Palantir Cellebrite

Public funding $1M+/year + $12.9M extra $50M over seven years $60M+ contracts Undisclosed

Connected insider Jillian Segal Rachael Falk Mike Kelly Israeli company

Conflicts of interest Family funds far-right group Moves to corporate partner Labor associates lobby for Palantir No ethical review

Minimal scrutiny FOI heavily redacted Little public oversight NDIA exempt from procurement rules No reporting requirements

The Logic

1. Create a position or contract — often in response to a crisis

2. Fill it with a connected insider — no open process required

3. Fund it generously — with taxpayer money

4. Demand minimal accountability — redact the documents, exempt from rules

5. Let the insider profit — from the connections and the platform

6. Repeat — because the system rewards it

The Cost

The cost is not just financial. It is the cost of trust. When citizens see their tax dollars going to connected insiders while public services are cut, they lose faith in the system. When they see conflicts of interest ignored and appointments made without scrutiny, they conclude that democracy is a sham.

And they are right.

The Historical Parallel

The Australia of 2026 bears a striking resemblance to the England that Charles Dickens observed in the mid-nineteenth century. Then, as now, a new class of parasites had emerged—people who extracted wealth from the productive economy without contributing to it.

The antisemitism envoy who funds a far-right group? A Pecksniff. The cyber security CEO who moves from a taxpayer-funded research centre to a corporate partnership? A Pecksniff. The politicians who appoint their friends to cushy positions while claiming to serve the public? Pecksniffs, all.

The system of “money for jam” cannot last. It consumes its own legitimacy. It erodes public trust. It creates the conditions for resistance.

What Must Be Done

1. Name the system — The “Access Class” is the logical endpoint of neoliberalism.

2. Demand accountability — Open appointments, transparent contracts, enforceable ethics codes.

3. Close the revolving door — Mandatory cooling-off periods, enforceable penalties.

4. Protect the vulnerable — The disabled, the elderly, the poor are not training data.

5. Rebuild trust — Democracy cannot survive when citizens believe the game is rigged.

The system is not broken. It is working exactly as designed. It is designed to extract wealth from the many and deliver it to the few.

It is time to dismantle it.