Australia’s politicians are living in a fiscal fantasyland
As debt surges and strategic threats mount, Australia’s political class clings to reckless spending, magical thinking and short-term populism over real solutions.
Early last century, journalist H.L. Mencken wryly observed that “Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.” A century later, the 2025 Australian election proves Mencken’s cynicism well placed.
Australia is travelling a well-worn road to ruin, marked by falling living standards, declining disposable incomes, stagnant productivity and defence impotence.
With debt hurtling towards $1 trillion and Australia facing its most dangerous strategic landscape since World War II, both Labor and the Coalition offer little beyond empty oratory. Each new policy announcement seems more fiscally irresponsible than the last — a competition to outspend, outpromise and outpander each other regardless of the consequences. Responsibility has been cast aside in favour of a reckless auction of political promises.
The disconnect between rhetoric and reality is not just revealing but dangerous. The 2025 Commonwealth budget forecasts nearly $300 billion in spending on social security and housing — five times more than the amount allocated to defence. NDIS spending is expected to grow at 8% per annum, faster than both GDP and tax revenue, consuming an ever-increasing proportion of the budget and national income.
