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Notes -
I mean, a lot of them in the west basically are. Government spending as a percentage of GDP being between 1/3 and 2/3 is pretty common in the west.
Australia, specifically, isn't actually that high for government spending as a percentage of GDP. But, according to the IMF in 2023, approximately 37% of their GDP was government spending. That's more than both China (33%), a country that calls itself communist, and Russia (36%), a country actively at war for that entire year.
So, yeah, they probably can't force their businesses to do it, but with 37% of the GDP to play with, there's no reason to think that a combination of subsidies and direct buying can't actually do this thing.
Of course it isn't as simple as that. A lot of that is social programs. But the question really is, what percentage of GDP outlay would be required to meet Trump's demands?
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