As Australia’s choice approaches, Peter Dutton has an ‘Trump Lite’ approach

Trump’s play book, the Trump card, the Trumpist approach, campaigning as “Donald Trump Lite” and even “even” going to Trump “has been called.

The electoral season is heating in Australia, where the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has looked a lot like President Trump. He has lashed out for a “awake brigade” of banks, groceries and a chain of pubs to address environmental and indigenous problems. You have lamented that young men are “Underwater and ostracism” on diversity initiatives. And has established a shadow minister for government efficiency.

Mr. Dutton, the head of the main central political party of Australia, hopes to expel Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in an election that he must have on May 17. Mr. Albanese has been under pressure to control post-pandemic inflation, and MR. inacordable housing.

But last week, a widely followed survey had the approval index of Mr. Albanese in its lowest point Since he came to power in 2022. Fifty -seven percent of respondents in the newspaper survey said they disapproved of their performance. A face -to -face comparison showed Mr. Dutton to Mr. Albanese, a sign that his political messages were receiving at least some traction.

“What I like about Dutton is that he does not sit in the fence,” said Louise Pridham, 57, a retired nurse who lives in the suburb of Cronulla in Sydney. She and her husband, Nigel Pridham, a 57 -year -old builder, said they were not Trump fans, but felt validated by some of Mr. Dutton’s messages, which Pridham acknowledged that he had a Trump quality.

Mrs. Pridham said that more people she knew seemed to appreciate the frankness of Mr. Dutton. “He says how it is. There are no wokeness in him. “

The parallels between Trump and Mr. Dutton, a former 57 -year -old policeman known for his difficult positions in immigration and Asylum seekersThey are drawn by both followers and critics. Mr. Dutton has not moved away from allusion; On Friday, he criticized the efforts of diversity and inclusion of the government, hours after Trump, without offering evidence, blamed Dei’s policies for a mortal collision of helicopter aircraft outside Washington.

“The announced positions have included advisors to culture, diversity and inclusion, change managers and specialists in internal communication,” Mr. Dutton sayingreferring to work openings in government. “Such positions, as I say, do nothing to improve the lives of everyday Australians.”

Mr. Dutton’s office did not respond to comments requests.

The return to Trump has emboldened a variety of right -wing politicians throughout Europe to harden their rhetoric, solidify its bases and expand its ambitions.

But in Australia, influences are more confusing. In 2019, A survey found That the conservative base in Australia was much more ideologically aligned with Hillary Clinton sponsors in the United States than with Trump’s supporters. Last year, just a fifth of Australian voters saying In a survey that would have chosen Mr. Trump about the then vice president Kamala Harris if the US elections were them.

Mr. Dutton made clear his disgust for “Wokeness” already in 2021, when as a defense minister prohibited events Where staff members wore rainbow clothes to support LGBTQ consciousness.

Two years later, conservatives were energized for a decisive moment in the cultural wars of Australia. In 2023, voters in a referendum rejected a proposal to give indigenous Australians in the form of an advisory agency in a referendum. It had been a historical effort for Mr. Albanese, and his defeat, argued their opponents, meant that most Australians felt that putting too much emphasis on the country’s colonial sins was divisive.

One of Mr. Dutton’s screams has been his defense of Australia Day, the annual vacation of January 26 that marks the day when British settlers landed for the first time in the Sydney area. In recent years, people who see it as a celebration of the brutal colonial oppression of the aboriginal population have asked to abolish holidays or transfer it to a different date.

But a survey conducted last month by Sydney Morning Herald discovered that 61 percent of Australians supported to maintain Australia’s day as it is, compared to 47 percent of the previous year.

Mark Kenny, director of the Institute of Australian Studies of the National University of Australia, said that the rhetoric of Mr. Dutton appealed to a working class base that, as his American counterpart, looks at himself as abandoned by economic changes, including The manufacturing decline. Those voters felt disappointed for their traditional political leadership to the left, he said.

“What you have there is a kind of long -lasting dissatisfaction feeling, of being ignored, not listening to, staying behind,” he said. “When Dutton says ‘awakening’, it’s lazy and inaccurate, but that doesn’t matter. People can attach what they think.”

It is unlikely that Mr. Dutton can simply mobilize the voters of a single subject. This is because the vote is mandatory in Australia, with the threat of a fine for non -compliance, and participation generally exceeds 90 percent.

As easily as part of the language and priorities of Mr. Trump has adopted, Dutton has drawn the line in others, pressure resistance From a coalition partner to campaign on transgender issues. He has also indicated that he would not consider withdrawing Australia from the Paris Agreement, the International Climate Agreement.

For Graeme Turner, Professor Emeritus of Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland, the use of Mr. Dutton of the words and the rhetoric of Mr. Trump seems much more opportunistic than substantive.

“I doubt you can find a politician who can define the word ‘Awakening’,” Turner said. “It has become a really useful slogan as a way of staining any idea they don’t like, as a way to avoid it of serious analysis.”

The Australian Day sniper continued last week. Susan Law, the attached leader of Mr. Dutton’s party, marked the holidays when comparing the arrival of the British colonizers to Elon Musk’s ambitions to establish Mars. “They didn’t come to destroy or loot” She saidin comments that were criticized and ridiculed quickly.

The previous day, in the place where Captain James Cook landed for the first time in Australia in 1770, now a national park, a handful of extended families on Knolls covered with grass and enjoyed a quiet and sunny afternoon.

“I would not mind if you change the date because it is not so important,” said John Gallop about the holidays that was causing so much fuss among politicians. He said it was his first visit to the site in more than 50 years of living in Sydney, and that he had only reached the instances of his wife, who is of the Philippines.

“There is much more that we need to change in Australia,” he said.