A global political expert and former British cabinet minister has waxed lyrical about why he believes Australia is one of the best countries in the world.
Rory Stewart, a former diplomat, politician and Harvard University professor, has outlined the reasons why Australia should, in his view, be considered one of the best-run economies in the modern world.
‘I think Australia in a world of pessimism and gloom is a shining exception,’ he said on his Rest is Politics podcast recently.
‘It is the only wealthy mature democracy, Western country in the world, which is in good shape.
‘It’s running – astonishingly – a budget surplus when France is dealing with a 6 per cent deficit, Britain is buried under nearly 100 per cent of GDP debt.
‘Italy is struggling to deal with its debt. America’s achieved debt of such eye-watering trillions that nobody can even calculate in.’
Mr Stewart is correct that Anthony Albanese’s government returned two consecutive budget surpluses in 2022-23 and 2023-24 of $22.1 billion and $15.8 billion respectively.
However, the budget is expected to slide into a sea of red for the foreseeable future as the nation’s coffers struggle under the weight of high inflation, interest rates and ‘unavoidable’ public spending.
Rory Stewart (pictured), a former diplomat, politician and Harvard University professor, has outlined the reasons why Australia should, in his view, be considered one of the best-run economies in the modern world
‘I think Australia in a world of pessimism and gloom is a shining exception,’ he said on his Rest is Politics podcast recently (pictured: a queue for Centrelink in Melbourne)
The projected deficit for the three years to 2027/28 now stands at a gobsmacking $117billion.
‘The slippage in subsequent years is largely because of urgent, unavoidable or automatic increases in spending in areas like pensions, Medicare and medicines,’ the Treasury said in its grim December forecast.
Despite this bleak outlook for the country’s finances, Mr Stewart was still dazzled by Australia’s apparent success.
‘They’ve got a budget surplus, they’ve got compulsory voting, they’ve got the single transferable vote system, they’ve got a good federal system… they’ve got great politicians like Peter Malinauskas,’ he gushed.
In a previous episode, Mr Stewart and his co-host, Tony Blair’s former director of communication, Alastair Campbell, praised the South Australian Premier.
They were particularly keen on Mr Malinauskas’ ‘world-leading’ bids to ban all political donations, which passed the SA Parliament in November, and his drive to ban social media for teenagers under the age of 16.
The latter made global headlines after it was adopted and passed by the Federal Parliament in November.
This is despite critics calling into question the practicality of such a ban and the impact it will have on children’s social connection.
‘They’ve got a budget surplus, they’ve got compulsory voting, they’ve got the single transferable vote system, they’ve got a good federal system… they’ve got great politicians like Peter Malinauskas,’ Mr Stewart gushed (pictured: the SA Premier with Anthony Albanese)
Pictured: Rory Stewart outside the Sydney Opera House on his recent speaking tour to Australia
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, formerly Twitter, suggested the ban was a pathway to government-sponsored censorship.
‘Seems like a backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians,’ he wrote in response to Mr Albanese’s post announcing the introduction of the bill.
Mr Stewart’s love song to Australia also fails to acknowledge the country’s conjoined crises of high immigration and housing affordability.
Over the past 20 years, governments from both sides of the political aisle have presided over high immigration, with the annual overseas intake tripling in the 2000s to 315,700.
Last year, it climbed to a high of 548,800 – the highest since the early 1950s.
This influx of immigrants has put downward pressure on the already ultra-tight rental vacancy rate.
Mr Stewart mentioned Brisbane River as one of the many things he appreciated about Australia
Meanwhile, the Australian dream of owning your own home has become a bitter joke to many young people as the median house price nationwide is over $800,000 – and now well over $1million in a major capital like Sydney.
Ignoring these pressing problems facing Aussie battlers, Mr Stewart went on to praise the country’s fusion of old and new worlds in its manners and culture.
‘They’ve got an amazing combination of some ways in which they’re more old-fashioned than Britain: lovely manners, lovely straightforwardness,’ he said.
‘And in many ways, incredibly more contemporary, incredible waterfronts in Brisbane, incredible waterfronts in Melbourne, astonishing food.’
Mr Stewart said the ‘best thing of all about Australia’ is that ‘you can still eat dim sum on trolleys all over Sydney’.
The prolific author and his co-host joked about how he was planning to pen a book entitled ‘Why the World Needs to Be More Like Australia’.
And he headed off the inevitable criticism, claiming his view from afar offered more insight than those Aussies on the ground.
‘You go to this place, you’re just like “objectively, this is amazing”,’ he said.
‘And yet everybody’s like, “no, it’s not. It’s rubbish”.’
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk