Economist Leith van Onselen has warned that Australia risks following the trajectory of Argentina, which fell from being one of the world's richest nations to a poorer one, unless it addresses weak productivity, excessive government spending and high migration levels. Speaking on 2GB radio, he described Australia as trapped in a "stagflationary mess" of high inflation and near-zero per-capita growth, arguing this decline in living standards is fuelling voter frustration and driving support towards parties such as One Nation, as many households feel the economy is no longer working for them.

Van Onselen challenged Treasurer Jim Chalmers' claim that Australia's 2.1 per cent annual GDP growth made it "stronger than every major advanced economy", calling this "highly misleading" once rapid population growth is accounted for. He noted real wages remain around six per cent below their mid-2020 peak, roughly level with 2011, while pointing to Argentina's own experience under President Javier Milei as a cautionary example, where inflation fell from 211 per cent in 2023 to 31.5 per cent by late 2025, but at the cost of over 2,000 business closures, 73,000 lost jobs and crushed real wages, according to researcher Can Cinar.