He was called the Trump game book, the Trump Card, the Trumpist approach, campaigning like “Donald Trump Lite” and even “Go Trump”.
The election season heats up in Australia, where the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, looked very much like President Trump. He was unleashed in an “awakened brigade” of banks, grocery stores and a chain of pubs to solve environmental and native problems. He deplored that young men are “Deprived of their rights and ostracized” by diversity initiatives. And he created a ghost minister for the effectiveness of the government.
Mr. Dutton, head of the main Australian political party in the center-right, hopes to oust Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during an election which is to be held by May 17. Mr. Albanese was under pressure to slow down post-payic inflation, and M.. unaffordable accommodation.
But last week, a largely followed survey had the approval rating of Mr. Albanese to Its lowest point Since coming to power in 2022. Fifty-seven percent of respondents of the newspaper survey have declared that they disapproved of his performance. A head to head comparison has shown that Mr. Dutton approaching Mr. Albanese, a sign that his political messaging obtained at least a certain traction.
“What I like about Dutton is that he does not stay on the closure,” said Louise Pridham, 57, a retired nurse who lives in the suburbs of Sydney in Cronulla. She and her husband, Nigel Pridham, a 57 -year -old manufacturer, said they were not Trump fans, but felt validated by some of Mr. Dutton’s messages, that Mr. Pridham recognized a quality of Trump type.
Ms. Pridham said that more people she knew seemed to appreciate Mr. Dutton’s franchise. “He says as is. There is no unlocking.
The parallels between Mr. Trump and Mr. Dutton, a former 57 -year -old policeman known for his difficult positions immigration And asylum seekersare drawn by both supporters And criticism. Mr. Dutton did not move away from the allusion; On Friday, he was the subject of the government’s diversity and inclusion efforts, hours after Mr. Trump, without proposing evidence, blamed Dei’s policies for a mortal-helicopter collision outside of Washington.
“The announced positions have included culture, diversity and inclusion advisers, change managers and internal communication specialists”, Mr. Dutton saidreferring to job offers in the government. “Such positions, as I say, do nothing to improve the lives of Australians every day.”
Mr. Dutton’s office did not respond to requests for comments.
Trump’s return to office has enthusiast A range of right -wing politicians through Europe to tighten their rhetoric, solidify their bases and expand their ambitions.
But in Australia, influences are more confined. In 2019, An investigation revealed That the conservative base in Australia was much more ideologically aligned with the donors Hillary Clinton in the United States than with Trump supporters. Last year, barely a fifth of Australian voters said In an investigation, they would have chosen Mr. Trump on the president of the time, Kamala Harris, if the American elections were their own.
Mr. Dutton clearly indicated his disgust for the “Bordess” in 2021, while as Minister of Defense, he Prohibited events Where staff members wore rainbow-colored clothes to support awareness of LGBTQ.
Two years later, the conservatives were under tension by a moment of the watershed in the cultural wars of Australia. In 2023, a proposal to give Australians Aboriginal a voice in Parliament in the form of an advisory body was rejected deeply by voters in a referendum. This had been a historical effort for Mr. Albanese, and his defeat, argued his opponents, meant that a majority of Australians thought that putting the accent too much about the country’s colonial sins was divisor.
One of Mr. Dutton’s cries of rally was his defense of Australia day on January 26, on the day of the day, the British settlers landed for the first time in the Sydney region. In recent years, people who have seen it as a celebration of the brutal colonial oppression of the indigenous population have called to abolish the holidays or to move it to a different date.
But a survey conducted last month by Sydney Morning Herald found that 61% of Australians supported Australia’s driving, compared to 47% a year earlier.
Mark Kenny, director of Australian Studies Institute of the Australian National University, said that Mr. Dutton’s rhetoric called for a workers’ base which, like his American counterpart, considers himself to have been abandoned by economic changes , including the decline in the decline in the decline in the decline in the decline of the manufacturing decline. These voters felt disappointed by their traditional political leadership on the left, he said.
“What you have there is a kind of feeling of long-standing dissatisfaction, to be ignored, not heard, left behind,” he said. “When Dutton says” woke up “, it’s lazy and imprecise, but that doesn’t matter. People can tie him what they think. »»
It is unlikely that Mr. Dutton can simply win by mobilizing voters on the unique program. Indeed, the vote is compulsory in Australia, with the threat of a fine for non-compliance, and the participation rate generally exceeds 90%.
As easily as he adopted some of Mr. Trump’s languages and priorities, Mr. Dutton has drawn the line to others, Resist pressure of a coalition partner to campaign on transgender issues. He also indicated that he will not plan to withdraw Australia from the Paris Agreement, the International Climate Agreement.
To Graeme Turner, professor emeritus of cultural studies at the University of Queensland, the use by Mr. Dutton of the words and the rhetoric of Mr. Trump seem much more opportunistic than substantive.
“I doubt that you can find a politician who could define the word” awake “,” said Turner. “It has become a really practical slogan as a way to dirty any idea that they do not like, as a way to pre -wrote it from a serious analysis.”
The day of shooters of shooting on Australia continued last week. Sussan Ley, deputy leader of Mr. Dutton’s party, marked the holidays by comparing the arrival of British colonizers with Elon Musk’s ambitions to settle Mars. “They did not come to destroy or loot”, ” She saidIn comments that were quickly criticized and supported.
The day before, at the place where Captain James Cook landed in Australia for the first time in 1770 – now a national park – a handful of families extended over the grassy walls and enjoyed a sunny afternoon.
“It would not be important to me if you change the date because it is not a big problem,” said John Gallop about the holidays that caused so much noise among politicians. He said that it was his first visit to the site in more than 50 years of life in Sydney, and that he had only came at the request of his wife, who is from the Philippines.
“There is so much more that we have to change in Australia,” he said.