Superficially, Australia’s central bank should be congratulated. After lifting its target cash rate from a record low of 0.1 per cent in May 2022 all the way up to 4.35 per cent in late 2023, the Reserve Bank of Australia has managed to push inflation back into its target 2-3 per cent band while crucially avoiding a painful recession.

A gigantic government cash splash has helped. In fact, a remarkable 63 per cent of all Australia’s economic growth since December 2019 has been driven by the public, rather than private, sector.