Australian election shows that in a Maga world, very few want a homegrown version – Editorial

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (centre) celebrates with his partner Jodie Haydon (right) and son Nathan Albanese. Photo / AFP

Editorial

THREE KEY FACTS

• Australians voted for incumbent Anthony Albanese over Peter Dutton in the country’s election.
• Dutton’s praise of Donald Trump negatively impacted polls for him.
• Albanese has promised to address Australia’s housing crisis and healthcare system.

Australians have voted for the political status quo in an election shaped by US President Donald Trump.

Millions of people had a choice between incumbent and Labor leader Anthony Albanese or conservative Liberal leader Peter Dutton to be the next leader.

With Trump casting a long shadow over Dutton’s view of the world, Australians rejected the idea of changing the Government in an increasingly volatile global political climate.

After a similar result in Canada last month, there was a keen interest to see what impact Trump, his tariffs and chaotic style of politics would have for one of America’s most important allies.

Albanese promised to tackle problems in Australia that will be familiar to us here – a worsening housing crisis and under-stress healthcare system.

Like our Government, he will need to deliver or face being shafted next time.

Dutton, meanwhile, wanted to cut immigration, be tougher on crime and embrace nuclear power.

He is a traditional politician, a former minister in high-profile portfolios, and has been a familiar name in Australian politics for more than 20 years.

He is by no means a policy-on-a-whim (or tweet) leader like Trump. But some polls had shown Dutton losing support after he praised the man occupying the White House as a “big thinker” with “gravitas”.

A global market of open trade and diplomacy, as it has operated for decades, has been kind to them, as it has for us.

Australians simply don’t want to risk more upheaval.

Before the result across the ditch, Herald columnist and former Finance Minister Steven Joyce said there is a rapid and significant shift occurring in world politics.

There had been a trend towards the right, as seen in Europe last year, but Trump tipping sharemarkets into the red and creating economic uncertainty has spooked people.

Joyce described Mark Carney winning the Canadian election as a “Lazarus-like resurrection” for his party.

Again, Trump, seemingly unintentionally, was a large factor.

Conservative Canadian candidate Pierre Poilievre had tried to model himself as the Trump north of the border. It was working, until Trump became President again.

Trump’s trade war and threats to annex Canada sealed the deal.

“Donald Trump is as mad as a cut snake and we all know that,” one Australian voter said on polling day. “And we’ve got to tiptoe around that.”

While we might be living in a Maga world, right now, very few people want a homegrown version of it.

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