The MAGA movement that swept U.S. President Donald Trump to power could already be finding roots Down Under.
The leaders of the Freedom Party, and the more well-known One Nation in Victoria, think the shift in middle class Australia is already underway, but how political parties can capitalise on this is another matter.
“What we’re seeing, I think, is a turning tide globally. We’re seeing a shift away from globalism to patriotism,” said Morgan C. Jonas, president of the Freedom Party, in an interview with The Epoch Times during a “counter” Australia Day event in Melbourne in response to “Invasion Day” protests.
“I think the trend of the radical left is coming to an end, and it will be corrected with patriotism and national pride.”
Trump’s policy focus on border security, pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, and restrictions on transgender procedures, are policies Jonas says already resonates with much of regional and suburban Australia.
In fact, the centre-right Coalition is already promoting its credentials on domestic security, and announced it would implement it’s own Trump-like “government efficiency” role.
Further, the LNP state government in Queensland just announced a halt to issuing puberty blocking drugs to young Australians.
Australia Day is another flashpoint with critics often citing the country’s colonial past as a reason to change the date or scrap the event altogether.
Greens leader Adam Bandt has said before it should be “a day of mourning.”
“On this day, we recommit to truth-telling and justice for First Nations peoples, many of whom are hurting today,” he wrote on X.
In response, One Nation’s Warren Pickering says Australians are growing tired of “wokeness” being taught in schools, and promoted across small and large businesses.
“‘Go woke, go broke,’ and have a look at what that’s done for the corporate entities that have tried to embrace that concept like Woolworths,” he told The Epoch Times, in reference to the supermarket giants attempt to stop selling Australia Day products last year.
“I served 10 years in the Australian Defence Force, and I was disgusted when they wouldn’t even put Anzac biscuits on the shelf anymore.
“The same year they wouldn’t supply Australian flags. They claimed to have changed their position now, but I still haven’t seen any photos of Australian flags or merchandise available.”
Pickering said everyone just wanted to be an Australian.
“Nobody gives a damn about your sexuality, gender or your race anymore. If you think it’s a problem, that’s a problem you need to reconcile with yourself.
The Left Struggling to Connect
RedBridge Group’s Director Kos Samaras has continually warned centre-left parties risk alienating their traditional voter bases—the working class.“In 2023, progressive forces in Australia succumbed to a common affliction: the Icarus syndrome, flying too close to the sun with overconfidence, only to face a sharp and humbling fall,” said the former Labor Party advisor on X.
“If you want positive social change on important issues like this one. Never ignore the material needs of the masses. You either extend your solidarity to working people or you get this.”
Samaras believes the Victorian state government has failed to adequately address its two major crises in recent years—prolonged COVID lockdowns, and an inflationary shock that prevented those hardest hit from the lockdowns to recover.
“The Victorian Labor government failed to pivot its focus towards supporting these vulnerable groups, who have borne the brunt of both the lockdowns and the 12 successive interest rate rises that followed,” Samaras wrote on X.
“Labor’s only hope lies in a radical realignment of its priorities toward its traditional (middle class) base, which is steadily eroding.”
In response, the Coalition under Peter Dutton has worked to capitalise on this erosion, hoping it can capture several outer suburban seats in Australia’s major cities that are feeling the pinch from issues like cost of living and crime.
