Australia seems to be arguably overenthusiastic about light rail in general
I have no idea where you get that sense. The Gold Coast light rail has so far been a massive success, proving that it was the right decision. It seems to have been very successful in Newcastle despite the route it takes being utterly ludicrous (incredibly short, only in areas that you’d probably have to drive to to begin with, parallel to a fantastic easy walking path), at least for now until the extensions are built. Sydney’s light rail has been an absolute blowout success.
And yet despite every time it’s been done it being enormously successful, we are still hesitant to do more. The Sunshine Coast has just made the myopic decision to not build light rail. Despite the enormous success of stages 1 and 2, stage 3 won’t be finished until nearly a decade after the completion of the previous stage. Brisbane decided it would go for short team ease rather than the long term superior option. And Newcastle doesn’t seem to have any serious plans for its stage 2 over 5 years since it first opened.
We have some good light rail systems in this country, but we are nowhere near “overenthusiastic”. Quite the opposite.