🇦🇺 Australia 2.0
What could Australia look like if rebuilt on ordered liberty under law? This blueprint compares the status quo with a proposed system where government is limited, the person is prior to the state, and policy remembers the civilisational habits that made freedom durable - constitutional liberty, equal dignity under one law, and the ordered virtues without which rights collapse into slogans.
Start here
- Read the philosophy Foundational Values - the ordered-liberty frame the rest of the site argues from.
- See the reform roadmap A dependency graph of which proposals must land before others - referendum-heavy vs legislation-heavy at a glance.
- Browse all 21 topics Jump straight to any policy area, clustered the same way as the sidebar.
Snapshot - quick national context. Numbers are rounded; use each card's ⓘ for scope.
People - who we are and how the population is changing
Population
ⓘ
Total resident people in Australia, including long-term visitors. ABS ERP quarterly (2025-Q3); rounded. ~27.7M
Fertility
ⓘ
Average babies per woman over her lifetime at current age-specific rates. ABS Births, Australia 2024 (TFR 1.481) - below replacement (~2.1). ~1.48
Concern
Replacement ~2.1
ⓘ
The rate at which a population replaces itself without migration. AU has been below replacement since ~1976.
Overseas migration
ⓘ
Net migration: long-term arrivals minus long-term departures over a year. ABS overseas migration, calendar year 2024; rounded. ~330k
Watch
Born overseas
ⓘ
Share of Australian residents born in another country. ABS ERP by country of birth, Jun 2024; overseas-born share. ~32%
Canada / NZ / USA ~23 / 28 / 14%
ⓘ
Overseas-born share of population in peer settler societies. AU has the highest foreign-born share among large OECD countries.
Economy - output, debt, tax, and what it costs to live here
GDP per capita
ⓘ
Total economic output divided by population - a rough per-person average income measure. ABS National Accounts; nominal, current prices, quarterly ×4 (2025-Q4). ~A$109k
Strength
Govt gross debt
ⓘ
Total Commonwealth and state government borrowings as a share of the economy. IMF WEO general government gross debt (2026); rounded to 5-pt band. ~50-55% GDP
Watch
Advanced-economy avg ~110% GDP
ⓘ
IMF WEO average general government gross debt for advanced economies (~2026). AU well below the peer average; concern is trajectory, not level.
House price-to-income
ⓘ
How many years of median household income it takes to buy a median home - a common housing affordability gauge. CoreLogic; national median dwelling price ÷ median household income. ~8-9×
Concern
1990s AU norm ~4×
ⓘ
Roughly the long-run AU ratio through the early 1990s. Ratios above ~6× are categorised 'severely unaffordable' by Demographia; most major AU capitals now sit above 8×.
State capacity - what the government can afford to do
Tax-to-GDP
ⓘ
Total tax take (federal, state, and local combined) as a share of the economy. ABS Taxation Revenue; all levels of government, year definition varies. ~28-30%
OECD avg ~34% GDP
ⓘ
OECD average total-tax-to-GDP (Revenue Statistics). AU has a below-average tax burden by OECD standards but above Anglo-sphere peers like the US (~27%).
Defence spending
ⓘ
Federal defence budget as a share of GDP. Defence Portfolio Budget Statements 2024-25; rising toward 2.4% by 2033-34. ~2.1% GDP
Watch
NATO target 2% GDP
ⓘ
The NATO member-state commitment floor. US spends ~3.4% GDP; Poland ~4%; most of Europe has been below the floor until recently.
NDIS spending
ⓘ
Federal spending on the National Disability Insurance Scheme. 2024-25 estimate ~$48-52B, ~1.8% of GDP - already larger than the defence budget and on track to double by the mid-2030s without reform. ~$52B
Concern
2034-35 projection ~$97B
ⓘ
NDIA Annual Financial Sustainability Report projection. Scheme growth is the fastest-growing line item in the Commonwealth budget.
State revenue from Canberra
ⓘ
Share of state and territory revenue that comes from Commonwealth grants (GST plus tied grants), rather than taxes states raise themselves. A measure of vertical fiscal imbalance - the Commonwealth collects ~80% of tax but states deliver most frontline services. ~45%
Watch
Canada / Germany ~20 / 15%
ⓘ
Share of sub-national revenue coming from federal transfers in comparable federations. Australia sits at the extreme end of fiscal centralisation among OECD federations.
Services & outcomes - work, energy, and what schools deliver
Labour force
ⓘ
Share of working-age Australians who are either employed or actively looking for work (participation rate). ABS Labour Force; seasonally adjusted (2026-02). ~67%
Strength
Res electricity
ⓘ
Typical residential electricity usage charge per kilowatt-hour. Varies by state and distributor; AEMC / AER. ~26-32c/kWh
Concern
PISA maths
ⓘ
Standardised international mathematics score for 15-year-olds; higher is better. OECD PISA 2022; OECD average ~472. Latest available cycle. 487
Concern
AU 2003 score 524
ⓘ
AU PISA maths has fallen ~37 points (roughly a year of schooling) since the 2003 cycle. OECD avg has drifted down ~22 points over the same period.
A wealthy, high-participation country whose economy still grows per head - but whose housing, education, and family-formation numbers have drifted the wrong way for a generation, while debt, the defence bill, and the NDIS all trend up.
Reform profile - what it would take to actually do this.
21 policy areas · 105 reform sections · 105 detailed justifications.
See the Reform Roadmap for the full dependency graph.
Foundations & Rights
- Foundational Values The foundational commitments of New Australia-ordered liberty, equal dignity under one law, reason-governed deliberation, and a civil order that neither establishes a church nor treats rights as state inventions-and the institutional safeguards that keep them from being eroded by any ideology.
- Individual Rights What freedoms and protections the individual citizen holds against the power of the state-entrenched as inherent, pre-political obligations consistent with Foundational Values, not as revocable privileges of the majority.
- Digital Rights & Media How speech is protected, privacy secured, and information flows freely online-extending the same free inquiry and limits on arbitrary state power defended in Foundational Values to the digital sphere.
- Indigenous Affairs & Equality How the nation addresses historical Indigenous disadvantage without creating permanent race-based legal categories-applying the same one-law-for-all, equal-dignity, and need-based principles defended in Foundational Values to the question of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy.
- Rule of Law How laws are made, how they are enforced, and what constrains the power of those who make them-implementing constitutional supremacy, due process, and deliberative safeguards assumed by Foundational Values.
State & Governance
- Government Structure How the nation is governed-the shape of power, who holds it, and the checks that constrain it-within the ordered-liberty frame and Bill of Rights supremacy described in Foundational Values.
- Public Integrity How the nation ensures that elected officials and senior appointees serve the people rather than themselves-through enforceable ethics rules, transparency, anti-corruption enforcement, and structural incentives that attract genuine public servants and repel careerists.
- Government Efficiency How the nation ensures that every dollar of public money is spent honestly, efficiently, and transparently-through zero-based budgeting, accountable procurement, real-time fraud prevention, and citizen-powered whistleblower bounties.
- Justice & Law Enforcement How crimes are judged, victims protected, and communities kept safe-balancing due process with moral realism about guilt, harm, and restitution in line with Foundational Values.
Economy & Infrastructure
- Economics & Taxation How wealth is created, kept, and distributed within the nation-through secure property, sound money, and predictable rules that respect the same inherent dignity and limited-government logic as Foundational Values.
- Productivity & Housing Why Australia produces so little, relies on others for so much, and pours its wealth into housing instead of building a self-reliant, productive nation-realigning capital with constitutional property rights and economic liberty under Foundational Values.
- Workplace Relations How employers and employees relate to each other in law-freedom of contract, freedom of association, the right to bargain and to withdraw labour, and the limits the state may place on any of these-within the constitutional ordered liberty and economic freedom described in Foundational Values.
- Infrastructure & Transport How the nation moves people, goods, energy, and information-through sovereign networks, competitive delivery, and accountable governance that serves productivity and national resilience rather than electoral pork-barrelling.
Society, Family & Care
- Demographics & Family Why birth rates matter, why the stable two-parent family is the indispensable nucleus for the propagation and flourishing of humanity, and how policy can remove barriers, restore incentives, and protect the institution without mandating private choices-all within the same respect for pre-political life and inherent dignity assumed in Foundational Values.
- Education & Family How the next generation is shaped, taught, and raised by parents and communities-consistent with ordered liberty, subsidiarity, and the civic and historical literacy required under Foundational Values.
- Healthcare & Welfare How the nation heals the sick, cares for the vulnerable, and promotes personal responsibility-pairing compassion with agency, subsidiarity, and bodily integrity consistent with Foundational Values.
- Welfare & Social Security How the nation supports the vulnerable without creating dependency-subsidiarity, dignity in work, and family-centred renewal consistent with Foundational Values.
Security & Environment
- Immigration & Sovereignty Who may enter the nation, who may stay, and who decides-all subject to the same constitutional principles of sovereignty, one law for all, and ordered liberty set out in Foundational Values.
- Defence & Foreign Policy How the nation defends itself, projects power, and engages with the world-sovereignty and citizen protection first, consistent with the ordered-liberty order defended in Foundational Values.
- Energy & Environment How the nation powers its homes, industries, and future with reliable, affordable energy-using reason-governed standards and respect for property and prosperity compatible with Foundational Values.
- Environment & Conservation How the nation stewards its natural heritage, resources, and ecosystems-through property-backed incentives and accountable stewardship, not bypassing the rule of law or equal protection assumed in Foundational Values.