NICOLA SMITH: Australian and Canadian elections confirm Trump embrace is ‘kiss of death'

West Australian

04-05-2025

After the Australian and Canadian elections, US President Donald Trump's embrace was 'confirmed as the kiss of death', said former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in the hours after Labor's overwhelming victory.
The parallels between Labor and Canada's centre-left Liberals, who were heading for almost certain defeat before an anti-Trump backlash, should not be overstated in Australia's cost-of-living centred campaign.
But Mr Matteo, a friend of newly elected Anthony Albanese, is correct that for any democratic leader contesting an election under the cloud of mounting global crises, the maverick US President is inevitably the third candidate in the room.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who like Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre lost his seat, did not seek to be a copycat Trump and consistently shut down the suggestion.
But he fell into the trap of touting populist Trump-like policies that appealed to the Coalition's base but drew obvious comparisons with the US President that the majority of the public did not want to embrace.
The global outrage in late February over the display of ugly power in the Oval Office to humiliate Ukraine's wartime President Volodymyr Zelensky was a pivotal moment in the Australian election before it officially began.
As Australians joined other nations in dismay and shock, it was the point when even the hint of Trumpian policies became politically toxic.
Mr Dutton called out Mr Trump's suggestion Ukraine was responsible for Russia's invasion as 'just wrong', but it came only weeks after he invoked MAGA-style politics by appointing Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as the shadow minister for government efficiency.
The echoes of the harsh tactics of Elon-Musk's DOGE drive were sealed further by the Coalition's pledge to slash the public service and crack down on officials working from home – a plan so unpopular it prompted a mid-campaign backflip.
In the final days before the poll, Mr Dutton backtracked on the culture wars tone of his campaign launch vow to stamp out 'indoctrination' in the classroom, perhaps sensing the public mood.
But it was already too late to shake off the Trump-shaped shadow hovering over his campaign.
Even before the results rolled in on Saturday night, Coalition spokesman Senator James Paterson had conceded the Trump factor had been a 'significant' factor in the election.
And it was an open goal that Labor played fully to its advantage, consistently accusing Mr Dutton of lazy and borrowed Trump-lite policies, of Americanising healthcare and darkening the Coalition brand.
'Australians have chosen the Australian way…because we are proud of who we are and all that we have done together in this country. We do not need to beg or borrow or copy from anywhere else,' said Mr Albanese in his victory speech, continuing the theme.
The ten per cent tariff slapped on Australian exports to the US could have hurt Labor's chances in the opening days of the campaign, but ultimately fed into its narrative as a steady hand in turbulent times.
Australia's people had voted for 'Australian values' of kindness, courage, 'aspiration and opportunity for all,' Mr Albanese said to a cheering crowd on Saturday night.
'In this time of global uncertainty Australians have chosen optimism and determination … looking out for each other while building for the future.'
When voters around the world are rejecting the anxiety and unpredictability of the Trumpian doctrine, it was a message Mr Dutton failed to deliver, and that Australians needed to hear.