How far will Australia’s conservative politicians go in apeing Donald Trump?
Yesterday Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer snaffled the “only two genders” issue, taking advertisements in several newspapers. “There are only two genders — male and female,” the ads declare. And then: “We must stop confusing children in schools” and give them a “normal, safe” environment to grow up in.
Palmer likes to cause a public ruckus. His Trumpet of Patriots party will never wield power. For him it’s all about the free publicity which flows from being outrageous. He may want to be an Australian Trump but he doesn’t have Trump’s psychotic ability to fabricate extravagant claims and sell them as true. This is how Trump explained it to a MAGA rally:
“Can you imagine you’re a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day in school,’ and your son comes back with a brutal operation? Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?”
Others though have more serious intent than Palmer. Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, also a fan of the “two genders” edict, was captivated by the idea of cutting government via a Musk-style DOGE. LNP leader Peter Dutton parroted the idea, naming Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as Australia’s slasher-in-chief. Musk wants to eradicate working from home. Hey presto, so does Dutton.
Opus DEI
Dutton has run with Trump’s attack on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring policies. At the start of the year he vowed to cull “culture, diversity and inclusion advisers, change managers and internal communications specialists” from the federal public service. But how much further would he go?
DEI is Trump’s version of the 1950s communist threat. Along with his fringe-dwelling, wild-eyed ideologues, his administration has launched a McCarthy-style assault on anyone or anything that has dabbled with DEI at any time. DEI was blamed for the California fires getting out of control. DEI supporters have been culled from the military. The administration has ordered colleges and universities to abandon DEI or lose their funding. It goes on and on.
War of words
Trump is a morality-free zone so it is impossible to know what if any of this he actually believes. But the extremists behind the all-encompassing change manifesto known as Project 2025 claim they are on a mission to save America from a Marxist takeover, which they assert is at an advanced stage. From that vantage point, any progressive or dissenter is an enemy of the state and must be dealt with accordingly. In favour of DEI? A transgender supporter? Protesting against Israel’s actions in Gaza? Picketing a Tesla showroom? A believer in science? Believe in the rule of law? All these dots are joined up as the MAGA war proceeds apace.
It’s extraordinary that Dutton and the Liberal Party would want to copy any of this. Yet they do.
Battle cries
Dutton burst into the new year apparently fuelled by the dawning of a new morning in America. The pronouncements came fast and big. In Dutton’s fever dream a caravan of explosives found on the outskirts of Sydney became — without any proof — a mass casualty terrorist event in the making, wilfully ignored by PM Anthony Albanese. That fed into a useful, MAGA-style narrative that Labor was somehow the party of anti-Semitism.
The question is how far will the Liberal Party move in its embrace of Trump republicanism? And as it does so, how much of its relationship with its traditional base be destroyed to do the bidding of Australia’s billionaire class.
More importantly for Dutton, the signs are that Australians are thoroughly sick of Trump and his antics. Albanese’s response today is to float the idea of a Buy Australia campaign, mimicking the Canadians. It may be a smart political move to capitalise on local anger while ducking the big decisions on AUKUS and the future of the US alliance. It may also leave Trump-lite Dutton stranded.
It is truly wondrous how much can change in the space of six weeks.
So if the DEI advisors are all sacked and there is no one around to explain the requirements of the Shabbat, what are we to do with a boss who asks a jewish worker to do overtime on a Friday night?
Refer hir/her to Google.
I have NEVER been a conspiracy theorist but lately I cannot shake off the feeling that Trump has actually been turned by the Russians. His treatment of Ukraine against his almost pleasant comments about Russia are simply astounding. Combine this with the astonishing treatment of Canada under the pretext of stopping the Fentanyl supply chain is gob smacking.
His constant belief in the use of tariffs continues unabated. Arthur Sinodinis stated a short time back that Trump does NOT understand the principle of tariffs. He seems to believe that the government of the country of origin of the goods has to pay the tariff to the USA. The markets are reflecting the total confusion.
I am now starting to believe that Trump has been caught with his pants down (!! ) in Russia and the evidence is helld by the Kremlin. Please tell me it’s not possible.
Unfortunately, I think it’s the only logical explanation
There are people who believe that Trump is a Russian asset. That is always a possibility. But he would always support anyone with a fistful of money (Putin) or the power to get him money.
There are ranks of billionaires in the US besides the front men (Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg) who are further back in the shadows and who support the coup. The aim of the coup taking place is to wrest the government functions from the government into their own hands. This would result in a copy of the kleptocracy in Russia for the American people.
The real Russian attraction for Trump may not be Putin, but the system he controls and the billions Trump could syphon from the American copy of it.
The Western billionaires are playing with fire because if the coup is completed, they will end up being vulnerable to Trump, just as the Russian oligarchs are in their dives from high altitude windows.
Unfortunately if you follow the money trail of Trumps being bailed out pf bankruptcy several times by Russian money – Putins backers – it’s not only possible but also very likely.
I don’t think he or anyone else will be bothered by anything anyone has on him. He’s a useful idiot and like the gang he joined decades ago, deeply lacking any humanity.
There were stories to that effect some years ago.
Its hilarious that MAGA express concerns about a Marxist takeover while simultaneously their leader, the Mad King Donald Trump openly cosies up to Vladimir Putin.
This bromance between them and Trump’s behaviour in particular, has got to the point where serious commentators worldwide are describing Trump as a Russian advocate, and sometimes a Russian operative.
Its a strange world we are living in.
And I wait to see the boatloads of yankee refugees on our shores in a year or two 🤓
And if the horrific prospect of Dutton as PM comes into effect, will he will send them to islands and treat them the way he treated hapless refugees in his time as Minister for Torture Camps?
They’re already coming. Many are already here. Not by boat but by air. And not quite by the “load” but in small, but slowly increasing, numbers. Been happening for years and accelerating recently.
Too precise. I understand your timidity. It is a common failing.
With all due respect, I really do not understand your comment, Putin and Marxism in the same sentence…where did you get that ?
It never ceases to amaze me that individual billionaires have one vote, like me. And companies don’t have one at at. So why does anyone give to them more credibility or credence than anyone else.
As far Palmer! And Rinehart! Totally irrelevant.
True Palmer and Rinehart do have only one vote each but they can buy your vote and many others too. Remember the Olympic swimming team (whom she financially supports) publicly requesting her portrait be removed from the art gallery as Rinehart found it too ugly?
Why did they care? Because she pays them thousands a year! She and Palmer also buy editorials in the Murdoch press to influence as many others as they can to. effectively influence readers votes. And don’t forget all the business owners who benefit financially from doing business with them! And then there’s the self interested Mining Lobby! Ugh.
So they’re hardly irrelevant!!
The amearikkkan supreme changed the Law to bestow personhood and its concomitant rights on a corporation…Under U.S. law, some essential rights of the 14th amendment belong not only to American citizens, but also corporations—thanks to a few key Supreme Court cases and a controversial legal concept known as corporate personhood.
G’day David, you are being disingenuous pointing the finger only at Cyclone Dodger Pete. Who passed the chilling anti free speech laws in a flash after the staged, choreographed fake anti Semitic attacks and the caravan in Dural? Not the coalition, who is offering to repeal the unnecessary legislation now that the truth has emerged or was always known but did not fit the prefabricated agenda necessary to get the laws passed. NO ONE!!!!!! OF COURSE.
Dutton wants to be PM no matter the cost to the nation or its nstitutions, remember him and the au pairs whilst he was tough on boats etc.
Albanese has been an insouciant sycophant for particular interests as has been Marles and our own 360deg Penny a la Baerbock are all of similar mould designed and created by USAID etc.
So you’re saying…. hang on, what are you saying?
Yeah, I just read that comment and I’m just as baffled as you.
Trump is a meglomaniac who should be incarcerated in a psychiatric prison. Instead, he is the President of the USA. Watch this space for the next installment of looney tunes!
He should be held in custody while investigations are conducted into the extent of Russian influence upon him and whether treasonous acts have been committed.
An article in The Saturday Paper re Julie Bishop’s consultancy for a Melbourne-based exploration company, currently suing Greenland for the right to mine a large deposit of rare earth minerals there helps explain Trump’s interest in Greenland. I am concerned that while we here in Australia are caught up in our own affairs, Trump is intent on being President beyond 2028 and is setting the scene for a US oligarchy – the tariffs are a good way to cause chaos in the world’s economic system and rationalise the need to take over. Sounds incredible but perhaps Trump is the clown, providing a distraction, while the super wealthy pull the strings.
very insightful comment and maybe Julie is back into asbestos
I have long agreed with the idea that Trump (since his first term) has been turned by the Russians and yes at some stage, been caught with his pants down.
We will see more of his toadying to Putin in the not distant future. Probably when Russia has recovered after the proposed 30 day cease fire and again attacks Ukraine.
Please don’t refer to Dutton, Palmer, et al as ‘conservatives’. They are anything but. It would be more accurate to use terms such as ‘right wing extremists’, or ‘nihilists’. Calling them ‘conservatives’ only gives them credibility they don’t deserve.
Sorry Peter A but the US Supreme Court has already given Trump a “get out of gaol free” card (or perhaps that should be “jail”, given it’s the USA). We have to wait for the Dems to select a candidate for the next election who can actually replace the Donald, not just leave it to J D Vance, or someone of his ilk, to continue Trump’s disgusting legacy.
Sorry, did you just say that Palmer’s new party is call the Trumpet of Parrots?
“DEI supporters have been culled from the military.” is a bit mealy mouthed. They’re actively seeking out and expelling trans servicepeople. Apartheid Clyde and the Mango Mussolini and their coterie of bitter incels are doing everything they can to erase trans people. Not to fall victim to Godwin’s Law, but this is terrifyingly similar to the Nazis’ destruction of Institut für Sexualwissenschaft in 1933.
As a trans person who served this country, it utterly disgusts me. At least they’ll soon learn that the frontline combatants that they so fetishise are only a small part of what comprises an engagement capable unit.