"Heartbreaking" decline of Australia

"Heartbreaking" is the word used by Peter Costello, who was Federal Government Treasurer 20 years ago:

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/costello-warns-australia-has-lost-our-way-as-debt-nears-1-trillion-20-years-on-from-debt-free-day/news-story/78cb821ba7c0999e08541a4bd621ccb7

Australia has multiple Federal political parties, but the two main ones are Liberal and Labour. The Liberals are kind of like your Republicans in the USA and Labour like the Democrats. The two parties have held office roughly alternating:

Labor (Whitlam): Dec 1972 – Nov 1975
Liberal-National Coalition (Fraser): Nov 1975 – Mar 1983
Labor (Hawke/Keating): Mar 1983 – Mar 1996
Liberal-National Coalition (Howard): Mar 1996 – Dec 2007
Labor (Rudd/Gillard/Rudd): Dec 2007 – Sep 2013
Liberal-National Coalition (Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison): Sep 2013 – May 2022
Labor (Albanese): May 2022 – present

Peter Costello achieved "debt free day" on April 21, 2006. In 2007, the Labour party got into power, and they started spending big time. National debt climbed.

Costello has blamed Labour, but notice the Liberal party was in power 2013 to 2022, and national debt kept climbing. So it is not just the Labour party to blame, though the Liberal party can partly blame the Covid pandemic.

Now approaching AU$1 trillion, a lot less than you guys in the USA, but we are going down the same path. Bear in mind the population of Australia is only 27.7 million.

Another thing that happened is that house prices have gone through the roof, particularly in the last 6 months. This was warned of by some experts, but the Labour government only applied a bandage over the infected wound.

One really fundamental problem, as I see it, is our "Western democracy". I was reading an article recently, the journalist described it as an "adversarial political system", two or more parties pitched against each other, with elections every 3 years. The parties favour short-term policies that appeal to the people, trying to curry favour with lobby groups, all the while taking pot-shots at the policies of the opposition party.

It is actually quite sad, we unfortunately do not have "10 year" and "20 year" plans that some authoritarian governments are able to implement. Or we do, until the other party gets into power.

I should also mention, my opinion, our politicians are thick. I can think of some more words.    

Tags: ethos