In the years since the pandemic first arrived on Australia’s shores in early 2020, the government has taken on a greater and greater role as a driver of economic activity.
In the past five and a half years, day-to-day government spending as a proportion of GDP has risen by 4.2 percentage points above the pre-Covid average.
Meanwhile, in the three years since the impact of pandemic-driven stimulus and so called “revenge spending” from households stuck in lockdown began to significantly fade, jobs in generally taxpayer-funded industries such as public administration, education, healthcare, and social assistance have taken on the role of the primary driver of overall employment growth.
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