The Court of Public Opinion with Jeremy Cordeaux AMLeith van Onselen: Australia Is Drowning In Bureaucrats, And Here’s The Fix | Court of Public Opinion
Leith van Onselen, chief economist and founder of MacroBusiness, joins Jeremy Cordeaux and makes a blunt case: Australia’s state and federal budgets are drowning in debt, and the fastest-growing part of the public service is the back-office bureaucracy, not the nurses and teachers who actually serve the public. He takes Victoria as the warning, where core bureaucrat numbers have jumped roughly two-thirds since 2014 while the population grew a fraction of that, and argues we need a prolonged period of budget austerity and a genuine razor gang. He explains why the Reserve Bank is left fighting governments that keep spending, how a burnout economy took hold, and what real central-bank independence would look like. This interview aired live on The Court of Public Opinion on Friday 30 October 2026. The Court of Public Opinion with Jeremy Cordeaux AM streams live every Friday from the dining room table at jeremycordeaux.com and via Auscast Radio at auscastnetwork.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app.
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