Ding Dong The Dutton Witch Is Dead
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“Once there was a wicked witch in the lovely land of Oz
And a wickeder, wickeder, wickeder witch there never, never was.”
Voldemort has fallen in the seat of Dickson and the divisive Peter Dutton is politically dead. Now, Jim Chalmers decently said he was not one to dance on the grave of a political opponent. However, if you live by the sword you die by the sword and Mr Dutton was an aggressive and polarising figure on the Australian political stage. The Liberal Party has lost the 2025 federal election in a landslide to Labor. Ding dong the Dutton witch is dead. Long live Australia.
Dutton’s Damaging Populism Rejected By Australians
Australians have overwhelmingly voted against Peter Dutton and his LNP Coalition vision for Australia. The Trump aligned conservatives were soundly rejected by the nation. I don’t think the mainstream media picked up on the extent of the rejection of Coalition policies because it is unduly influenced by right wing norms. The Australian media is controlled by the Murdoch press – News Corp newspapers, TV and radio networks. Even the timid ABC follows the tone of the Murdoch press. This media is no longer representative of our population, as younger demographics have moved on and there is no mainstream progressive media in this country.
Strongman Politics Of Peter Dutton Dies Downunder
The Dutton campaign has been roundly condemned as one of the poorest on record. The Trump 2.0 regime in the US attacking friends and allies with economic tariffs and extremist policies was particularly bad timing for the Dutton campaign. Australians do not like extremists of whatever persuasion and the chaos and uncertainty unleashed by Donald Trump sent shockwaves downunder. Combine this with crazy notions of nuclear power and unfunded policies, more generally, right up to the last minute by the Coalition and it spelt decimation. The biased right wing media in Australia maintained norms that have been shown not to be shared by a majority of the voting population. Peter Dutton was divisive and borderline racist throughout his time as opposition leader. The multicultural reality of a modern Australia crushed his political aspirations when push came to shove in the shadow of Trump.
“The Trump campaign chief was in Australia advising Peter Dutton’s Liberal Party in the run up to the federal election. This answers that question about the ties between Peter Dutton and Donald Trump’s Republican Party in the US. If, as the Trump campaign chief claims, he was downunder advising the Liberal Party campaign we can observe the close links between the two organisations. “
“Australia has fired Peter Dutton into the Sun, taking much of the Liberal Party and its future with him.
Standing in the vapour wake stood a euphoric and unimpeded Anthony Albanese, whose campaign was as devastating, driven and determined as Dutton’s was dreadful, deluded and doomed.”
Australian Media Landscape Needs Shake Up
Perhaps, it is time to have a realignment of the media landscape in Australia, which accurately represents the makeup of the nation? Ding dong the Dutton witch is dead. Perhaps, the real witch is Murdoch and my cry for the dead witch is premature? I know that many Australians are heartily sick of right wing editorials and op-eds filling the airwaves and tabloids when these are only supported by a minority of the population. The ALP embraced social media influencers and gave generous access to this new generation of media. This has proved to be a smart strategy.
Dutton Went Trump Inspired Further Right
Many politically astute Aussies were surprised after the 2022 defeat of Morrison by Albanese that Peter Dutton was elected to the leadership of the Liberals. Dutton was further Right and the party had just been decimated by the Teals in metropolitan seats. Peter Dutton embraced the Donald Trump led Republican Party strategy of going hard on divisive gender based anti-woke culture war campaigning. This approach was never going to recover those lost metro Liberal seats now in the hands of Teals. In the cold hard light of the morning after this election it has proved to be a losing strategy in Australia. The Liberal Party is fast becoming an irrelevant political force in a modern Australia as a major party. If its message is not embraced by Australians, where to now for the Libs? Turning the clock back to a time when women and diverse members of the nation were treated like second class citizens has not proven to be popular in Oz. Young Australians seem to be much smarter than their American counterparts on this score. The ideological stance of the LNP against renewables and their extreme take up of nuclear power was another serious problem for the Coalition with the electorate. I don’t think Australia wanted to risk another spate of lost years in the climate change challenge. 10 years under Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison were enough to rue in this regard.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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