(Bloomberg) -- From afar, Australia's seen as a miracle economy with its 26 years of unbroken growth, abundant resources and enviable lifestyle. Look a little closer, and the picture is less rosy.
A decade of political dysfunction is dragging down the nation's prospects as successive governments have failed to enact much-needed reform. In a series of stories this week, Bloomberg explored the impact across key areas such as energy and housing policies, innovation and equity markets.
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A revolving door of leadership shoulders much of the blame. The nation has switched prime minister five times in the past decade, leaving weakened leaders with one eye on their fractious party colleagues and another on their standing in opinion polls. Hyper-partisanship has stifled substantive debate and made reform increasingly difficult.
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Nowhere is that starker than in the botched rollout of a A$49 billion ($38 billion) broadband network. Envisaged to spearhead a digital revolution, the nation's biggest-ever infrastructure project has turned into a political football, plagued by cost overruns and construction delays.
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Meantime, tax policies that have turned the housing market into a speculative financial asset have seen home ownership among young Australians fall to the lowest on record, as a 15-year property boom squeezes out all but the wealthiest buyers.
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Political squabbling over the transition from coal to clean energy has created an unhappy paradox: a country with huge coal and gas reserves and ideal conditions for clean energy such as solar and wind is faced with crippling power bills and the threat of blackouts this summer.
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While Australia's economy has grown faster than its developed world peers over the past decade, the stock market is actually smaller than it was on the eve of the global financial crisis, and fallen behind South Korea and India. The lack of innovation can be seen as well: The five biggest Australian companies by market value in 2017 are the same as 10 years ago, whereas in the U.S., only Microsoft Corp. remains from 2007.
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To that sorry parade, Australia may one day be able to add vital infrastructure such as roads and ports, as their new owners jack up prices to justify the rich valuations paid in recent privatization deals, according to Gadfly columnist David Fickling.
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Right now, academic Donald Horne's 1964 book that concluded “Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second-rate people” has arguably never been truer.
--With assistance from Michael Heath Jason Scott Angus Whitley Emily Cadman Adam Haigh Perry Williams David Fickling and Hannah Dormido
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Edward Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Edward Johnson at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net, Peter Vercoe, Chris Bourke
With assistance from Edward Johnson
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