No - it's just meant to say the first option ("sinking ship") is bad; frying pan to fire means you went from one bad option to another. So in this case it's a

No - it's just meant to say the first option ("sinking ship") is bad; frying pan to fire means you went from one bad option to another. So in this case it's a dig at the US I assume, but not meant to be saying anything positive or negative about Australia. Good question though, I can see how those idioms sound like the same thing