I'd suggest you're being a little myopic with respect to your view on who is accountable. Labor haven't managed to engineer what it is you assert without their being a catalyst prior to their arrival. That is not to say they are not accountable for a portion but how do we apportion what to who without some element of existing prejudice.
10 years of ambiguous energy policy by the previous government created a poor capital investment environment and is a significant root cause of the current energy cost challenges and subsequent impact to household budgets. Obviously not a issue that is readily fixed in a single term and clearly the oppositions attempt to generate a feasible solution, potentially decades away and at significant cost, wasn't bought by the electorate. The thumping indicates a significant lack of trust in that leadership team and for essentially the same reasons that existed prior to the first Labor stint - a disproportionate focus on business profit and not on household and social concerns.
That aside, capital allocation is cyclic and a function of a relatively healthy democracy which for the most part panders to the whims of competing business or public needs and all spectral variations in between. With all emerging technology, there always a proportional descent in those who are the incumbent. Nothing new there - simple market forces! Industry modifies their value proposition or slowly becomes irrelevant.
I agree, we shouldn't aim to become like the US but its all part of a historical political cycle that both sides eventually participate in. But that headline sort of misses the the less obvious questions, what is the cause of the increase in the debt/gdp ratio and where it being spent? It easy to say that it has increased, as it does historically from time to time, and fashion a narrative that doesn't answer straightforward economic questions.
Relatively speaking, Australia's position is significantly better than most developed countries. Germany's is approximately 50% higher and they are considered to have a strict fiscal policy. Dig deeper to understand the why of the increase and the allocation. What is investment, what is obligation, what is macro-economic, what is mis-allocated.
Its not time to start shouting 'Chicken Little the Sky is Falling' from the tallest building. That is borderline hysteria.
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