Article by Angela Priestley, courtesy of Women’s Agenda.
Should Opposition leader Peter Dutton aim to be more like incoming president Donald Trump?
He may not have the bold personality nor the celebrity nous to pull it off in the lead-up to the next Federal election.
But there are calls from Coalition party members and elsewhere for Dutton to give it a cracking go in the wake of Trump’s election victory, and as Dutton’s own personal approval ratings have been rising.
The argument is that Dutton could tap into the disenchanted voters who’ll swing to the right, especially given the cost of living and housing crises. But particularly, some argue he should exploit the so-called “culture wars”.
The Australian reports that the Liberal party have already been courting Republican strategists for advice.
And Gina Rinehart, fresh from her appearance at Trump’s election victory party where she sat with British MP Nigel Farage, told the Sydney Morning Herald she wants Australia to “watch and learn” from the Trump example, particularly his “full throttle repudiation of all things left”. She admires Trump’s “conviction, huge courage, incredible untiring effort” and his love for America.
Rinehart also happens to be friends with Dutton, and is Australia’s richest person. In the days following the victory, she met with Elon Musk.
“I do hope Australia watches and learns as they see that cutting government tape, cutting taxes, and cutting government waste lifts people up and lifts living standards,” Rinehart told Nine papers.
Dutton’s hardly shying away from the so-called culture wars himself. He said last week: “I think when I see a government that is more interested in pronouns than they are people, it starts to become a real problem,” Dutton said late last week.
And Dutton’s not the only one in the Coalition making such comments.
We can, and have already seen, the usual suspects spurred on by Trump’s US election, talking up how it’ll help mobilise the “anti-woke” brigade of Australia, especially young men.
Former Liberal party vice president Teena McQueen joined Rinehart and Nigel Farage for the Trump celebrations. She described it as the “best night of my life.”
Nationals Senator for Queensland Matt Canavan told the ABC’s QandA program that he “has a few sons” and shared a story about one of them describing Trump as his “hero”. “Upon discussion, he is a young teenage boy and doesn’t think there is anyone speaking for him,” Canavan said.
“My boys have all been told through school about the evils of masculinity and how terrible men are. They do stories about that … Obviously, that creates a lot of resentment.”
He said young men feel ignored and that no one is speaking to them at the moment, which led to another panellist, Peter Lewis, to come back asking, “Male heroes are ignored by Hollywood? That’s a new one. Have you seen Marvel?”
Canavan said that the Hollywood stories of today are not the same as they were in the past, like Rocky and Star Wars.
Meanwhile, Senator Ralph Babet said he has no intention of apologising for a series of social media posts he made sharing racist, misogynistic, ableist and homophobic language. One taking on “woke ass clowns” and celebrating Andrew Tate has been viewed millions of times and already received more than 3000 reposts. Senator Babet was Clive Palmer’s only election victory in 2022, when the billionaires spent more than $100 million campaigning for the United Australia Party.
This desire to see more Trump-like tactics in Australia go beyond the so-called culture wars and concerns about insufficient action heroes for young men.
Some in the Coalition are already eyeing off some of Trump’s bigger international ambitions.
One is Trump’s plan to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement to commence his policy of ‘drill baby drill”. Some in the Coalition want Dutton to follow the lead, prioritising such an ambition in the lead-up to the next election.
Coalition Senator Michelle Landry is “dead against these wind towers and solar fields” that she says are “wreaking havoc on Australia and causing us a lot of grief”. She says there must be a total review of what’s happening.
On Monday, Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie told a conference that migration is “actually making real people’s daily lives worse, increasing traffic congestion and hospital waiting lists. That is the reality in our suburbs.” She says there is, to some degree, a bipartisan approach to the economics of migration – and we agree that immigration is important to the economic growth of our nation. “But in the last couple of years, that compact with the Australian people has snapped.”
Last week a poll by Resolve found that 29 per cent of Australians believe Trum’s victory will be good for Australia.
And from the existing rhetoric on social media, the support seems to mostly be in his approach to rejecting some of the standards of leadership and behaviour that many had come to accept.
However, should Trump go ahead with his planned tariffs globally, including up to 60 per cent on Australia’s biggest trading partner, China, it would be hard to see Australia’s economic wins in a global trade war.
Australia’s Federal election is due by May 2025.
One such Saturday in the new year – far enough from the Summer holidays while still not getting too uncomfortably close to the Easter break – happens to be Saturday, the 8th of March.
Saturday, the 8th of March, also happens to be International Women’s Day.
