In 2007, one of the things that brought Rudd to power was his claim to be a "financial conservative" and his criticism of the big spending government. At the time, government gross debt to GDP was 9.7%.

Now, that debt is 45.1%.

In 2020, the now leader of the Opposition thinks that spending is "reform". He would spend more, starting with increased handouts to parents wanting to farm out their kids and responsibilities to child care centres. Not much chance that Albo will ever be PM. Unlike Rudd, awful person that he was and is, the current leader of the Opposition won't hold the Coalition to account.

Crap government, crap opposition. What hope is there for Australia?

Very much hope, actually.
Our government is a sovereign currency issuer.
It only borrows in Australian dollars, so creditworthiness considerations do not apply.
The size of the debt does not matter, but the deficit does.
Before the GFC, running surpluses was a sensible policy because it reduced inflation, so interest rates could be kept low.
Now interest rates and inflation are both below 1% so there would be no benefit from running a surplus, and trying to do so would just shrink the economy.

The government's failure to understand this has done us immense damage, as (particularly under Abbott) they resorted to absurd false economies in an attempt to reach a surplus figure. It's good to know both sides of politics have finally started to wake up to the truth!

Two-thirds of Australian government debt is held by non-resident investors – a share that has risen since 2009 and remains historically high. But it's difficult to say precisely who these investors are, though the largest bondholders often include central banks and commercial banks. (University of NSW).

This might be a good time to look back to the past.
Many may be surprised to learn that our federal
politicians used to boast about the size of their
budget deficits during periods of economic growth.

The following link reminds us:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-30/liberal-party-of-robert-menzies-proudly-declared-large-deficits/12609876

Of course there's hope for Australia. We need to remember:

"There's nothing like a crisis to turn conventional wisdom
on its head, and that is precisely what coronavirus is doing
to economics".

Foxy,

The economic problems Australia has at the moment are the direct result of externalities that were beyond governmental control eg. the WuFlu pandemic, Chinese aggression towards Australia.

If you are going to look to the past all you will uncover is a long list of wrong decisions by dishonest and untrustworthy politicians, bureaucrats and business people that coupled Australia to a future of adverse externalities.

The old conservative having a whinge about Australians again. The Morrison government has become super socialist with its economic reaction to the pandemic. By and large there has been little criticism of the measures taken. Although some waste is evident, stuffing cash into already bloated Aged Pensioner bank accounts is one example of economic stupidity.

One thing I'll agree with is the Labor leader Albanese is ineffectual, and next to useless. As I predicted on the Forum to Comrade Belly many years back Shorten would never be PM, the same goes for Albo. I can see the WA Premier Mark McGowan making a run for the Federal leadership sometime after the next election.