Jacinta Nampijinpa Price may have let the mask slip this weekend when she declared we need to “make Australia great again” while on the campaign trail in Perth. She was quick to dismiss the overt homage to Donald Trump, but it’s hardly a surprise what can fall from loose lips when opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has been stitching his own red MAGA cap for months.
Of course, Dutton prefers a more tactical approach in his emulation of America’s twice-impeached president. But the ideological parallels between Dutton’s campaign and Donald Trump’s playbook are becoming impossible to ignore. From weaponising fear and division to dismantling climate progress and scapegoating immigration, Dutton has positioned himself as Australia’s answer to far-right populism. But with three weeks before the election, and the gaps in polls widening, Dutton is only cementing a broad belief that Australians share: he’s got nothing of substance to show us.
Let’s start with climate. Dutton’s pledge to slash the fuel excise is a cynical move that’s less about saving families money as it is about slowing down any miniscule progress we’re making on climate change.
At face value, it sounds like a cost-of-living reprieve. But dig a little deeper and the subtext is that clean energy isn’t worth the investment. Dutton’s enduring preference is to subsidise pollution, delay the necessary transition to cleaner transport, and throw a spanner in Australia’s already shaky climate targets.
He then doubled down, proposing to axe fines for companies that breach vehicle efficiency standards– a move that rewards corporate irresponsibility while punishing the public with higher emissions and future costs. Albanese called it “nonsensical”, highlighting that the only real winners here are the polluters.
But these decisions are also shortsighted in terms of what will win Dutton favour before May 3. He is gunning hard on a segment of the population that won’t carry the sway he needs.
In truth, the path to victory for Dutton is already riddled with potholes. For the first time in history, young people will make up the biggest voting bloc in Australia. And it’s fair to say that Gen Z and Millennials share a distinctly different vision for a successful society.
In fact, according to a new study from Monash University, Australia’s youngest voters are most concerned about policy areas completely missing from Dutton’s strategy. Housing affordability, employment, inequality and climate change so far have barely rated a mention by the coalition.
And it’s not just climate where Dutton comes out resembling Temu Trump. His rhetoric on immigration has grown darker and more pointed. Suggesting a link between migration and rising violence is a textbook case of dog-whistle politics—an ugly nod to the worst kind of latent xenophobia.
During an hour-long address to the Liberals’ official campaign launch over the weekend, Dutton went off script to talk about a female factory worker who had allegedly stopped him during a campaign visit.
“She said, ‘I just want to say thank you and give you a hug’” he told the audience. “And I said, ‘Well, why?’ And as she hugged me, she broke into tears and she said, ‘Because you saved my daughter’s life’”.
The rest of the story unfolded that during Dutton’s time as home affairs minister, his office had cancelled the partner of the woman’s daughter’s visa. The daughter had been a repeat victim of domestic violence.
“That loving mother was fearful that her daughter would lose her life,” Dutton said. “To me, that was the human face of the decisions that we have to make.”
There are obviously a few intentions in his sharing of this story. First, is to try and strengthen his “strong man” persona. Like Trump, Dutton wants to be seen as the protector of women and girls. But his other MO is to stoke community fear by suggesting those with temporary visas here are somehow unsafe and unsavoury.
This is leadership by division, not vision. It’s also deeply un-Australian.
What Dutton fails to grasp is that Australia is not the United States. We are not culturally primed for the kind of combative, grievance-fuelled politics that has come to define the American right. Australians, for all our flaws, still broadly believe in social equity. We value the institutions that bind us—like public healthcare, public education, and gun laws that actually save lives.
And perhaps most crucially, we’re not as broken. America’s political and social fabric is deeply torn by decades of inequality, gun violence, and institutional failure. That’s what gave rise to Trump. But in Australia, the cultural ruptures aren’t wide enough for Dutton’s brand of fearmongering to truly take hold.
Dutton may hope that by feeding the electorate a dose of daily division he can win power. But Australians are more cluey than that. Because Australia is not America. And we’re all collectively grateful for that.
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