When I first heard that there was to be a shadow cabinet reshuffle from the leader of the Liberal Party, Peter Dutton, I was not particularly interested given that most of the shadow cabinet are inept or corrupt. However, when I heard that Gina Rinehart had said on January 22, 2025, that “if we are sensible, we should set up a DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] immediately, reduce government waste, government [red] tape and regulations, I was unsurprised, being as she is a big Trump supporter, and even travelled to the US to kiss his ring at his inauguration1.
The morning after Trump’s election win in November 2024, Rinehart held a meeting with Elon Musk, and has made several speeches and public comments calling for Australia to adopt Trumpesque policies to cut red tape2.
What did surprise me was that three days later in the shadow cabinet reshuffle, Peter Dutton appointed Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as the ‘shadow minister for government efficiency’ at the same time stating that she would cut wasteful spending3. This is what Musk has been doing, chaotically, in the US. As Gina pays the piper, she gets to call the tune, I suppose.
From there it only got worse. Next Dutton announced that the “wasteful spending … is out of control” with “36,000 additional Canberra public servants employed under this government” He said he plans to “restructure federal agencies” and that this would be part of DOGE’s remit3.
That 36,000 has now grown to 41,000 and he initially stated that they would all be obtained by natural attrition rather than sackings and that not all would be in Canberra. He later reversed that assertion and stated that all the jobs lost would be from Canberra and that ‘some of the jobs could be accounted for by leaving current vacancies unfilled’4. This means that many will be sacked.
Part of this attack on the public service is probably punishment for the ACT not electing a single Member or Senator from the Liberal Party to the federal parliament in 2022 for the first time since the formation of the Liberal Party during the Second World War. I suspect it is also punishment for the ACT not electing the local branch of the Liberal Party to govern the ACT since November 2001. Punishing a whole jurisdiction for not voting for your party is very much Trumpesque, and dare I say, antidemocratic. I suspect it is designed to depress the ACT economy so that the Labor-Greens ACT government will receive some opprobrium because of it.
On top of this, is more Trumpesque idiocy in Dutton’s plan to have a referendum to change the Australian constitution to give ministers ‘discretionary power to extinguish the citizenship of dual nationals who’ve been convicted of a crime, in order to deport them5. You just know this would end up like the Gestapo (sorry ICE) in the United States apprehending people in the street and in their homes for expressing opinions that disagree with government policies of actions, or demonstrating or otherwise protesting.
This is all part of the Liberal Party-Murdoch Media dog-whistling to vilify those of different skin colour, different religion (or none!), or different language or those who have come here as asylum-seekers which are, at the same time, stealing our jobs or bludging off the public purse. This is simply a method to pick up the racist vote, which would normally vote for someone like Pauline Hanson’s One Notion Party. The dog-whistle has been used as an electoral tool effectively by Liberal Party ‘luminaries’ like John Howard, Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton6.
While these idiocies are just the tip of the Trumpesque Dutton iceberg, it seems that mimicking Trump policies may be acting as a turnoff for voters this Saturday, May 3rd, when the federal election takes place.
Sources
- 1.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/20/gina-rinehart-anthony-pratty-donald-trump-us-newspaper-ads-inauguration
- https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/rinehart-met-must-musk-after-trump-win-20241108-p5kp1y
- https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/27/from-doge-to-smoge-peter-duttons-coalition-is-an-eerie-echo-of-trump-and-musks-america-ntwnfb
- https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/27/how-many-public-service-jobs-peter-dutton-and-coalition-plan-to-cut
- https://www.amnesty.org.au/duttons-deportation-referendum-would-cruelly-target-former-refugees/
- https://blotreport.com/2024/08/02/ingrained-racism/
I have to admit to not paying much attention to what either Dutton or Albanese have been saying but the referendum was a Dutton “thought” bubble which apparently caught his more intelligent conservative mates by surprise. I gather it has basically been dropped – albeit wthout a commitment either way. Given their numerous about faces it’s hard to know what is and isn’t on their agenda. The PS redundancies has also been massively watered down since being given scrutiny. Certain unspecified “service” areas and vet/army/navy/air force groups are exempt, with all staff losses to be achieved by natural attrition – ie no forced redundancies and the vast majority from Canberra offices.
Won’t matter one iota because despite lacklustre tick-box Albo’s many flaws he still isn’t Dutton. The fact that the parliamentary Liberal Partry has done sfa about policy development in three years hasn’t been lost on commentators or thinking voters (who admittedly only make up a small percentage of the voting public and are unlikely to determine the final outcome). Laughably, Dutton’s comments when asked about some policies has been to use the patently obvious smoke screen of “we’ll take advice on that when we form govt”, ie nothing is ruled in or out, so he can’t be held accountable post-election. A new low in Australian politics, unsurprisingly from a mob who plumbed the depths of incompetence and corruption when in power.
Jon,
A new low indeed! I have read analyses by some commentators, who are of the opinion that the Liberal Party is on the way out; the same way as its predecessor the UAP. Maybe this Trump-like bastardry will signal their demise.