Who wasn’t nauseated at the sight of Scomo cosying up to Trump on New Year’s Eve at Mar-a Largo to celebrate his Second Coming?
Expect to see a repeat of this sickening scene with Peter Dutton, if billionaires succeed in getting their lackey elected.
Australia would be dragged into the horrifying chaos of Trumpworld.
Our number one trading partner China would suddenly become our enemy to be feared and insulted.
Trump’s proposed heavy tariffs on China would weaken their economy further, reducing our exports and putting downward pressure on our dollar. This would contribute to inflation and delay a reduction in our interest rates, making our situation even worse.
Meanwhile, ‘First Buddy’ Elon Musk is trying to remove the recently elected UK Starmer Labour government. He has called on King Charles to dissolve parliament and call a fresh election.
He has also weirdly changed his moniker on X (formerly Twitter) to Kekius Maximus, a cryptocurrency memecoin. His profile photo is now an edited version of ‘Pepe the Frog’, signalling his affinity with far-right hate groups.
Musk has reportedly offered to fund Nigel Farage’s extremist UK Reform group, in an attempt to replace the Conservative Party as the main opposition.
He has also enraged moderates in Germany with his vocal support of the extreme-right Alternative for Germany (AFD), saying ‘only the AFD can save Germany’, perhaps as Hitler ‘saved’ Germany!
Like Trump, the AFD is calling for mass deportation of immigrants.
Fellow Australians, we have a problem. Elon Musk will almost certainly try to interfere with our upcoming election, along with Gina Rinehart, Rupert Murdoch and others. We’re being set up to sleep-walk into voting for a billionaire-controlled right-wing government.
If you think life is hard for battlers now, just wait to see what could happen under a hard-right Trump-supporting Dutton government.
It’s beyond bizarre that the poorest and least-educated Americans united behind MAGA. It’s like turkeys voting for the butcher, but the same could happen here.
The fundamental problem is that we are now at the culmination of the failed capitalist experiment, where greed and selfishness have ruled for decades, distorting our society and creating unprecedented inequality.
For example, the average American CEO now receives around 400 times what the average worker makes. In Australia it’s around 50 times on average. In Japan it’s about 12 to one.
House prices make buying a dwelling almost impossible for a young couple, without parental help. Rents too are sky high.
Largest transfer of wealth in history
It’s reported that we are currently experiencing the largest transfer of wealth in history, as baby boomers die off or transfer funds to their children to enable them to buy homes. This only helps those with wealthy parents. Most young people miss out.
What’s fundamentally wrong has been the mass transfer of wealth to those already rich through tax cuts and concessions, in the guise of the ‘trickle-down’ effect, supposedly enabling the wealthy to employ more workers. It was a giant con.
We will never get desperately needed tax reform from a Dutton government. Billionaires wouldn’t allow it. Anthony Albanese, sadly, appears too afraid to bite the bullet and introduce those vital reforms, as a true Labor government would.
He’s paying a heavy price for his weakness. His disapproval rating in the polls is minus 13, his lowest since the last election. His only consolation is that Peter Dutton is also minus 13.
The depth of disillusionment in the electorate is palpable.
Fortunately, we have compulsory voting, unlike the USA, where so many sat on their hands at the last election. A minority of Americans voted for what may prove to be the worst government in US history.
The Murdoch media and ‘Kekius Maximus’ will do their best to spice up Peter Dutton and make him appear a more interesting choice.
They may actually succeed.
We would undoubtedly all suffer as a result, just as Britons are now suffering. They were so easily conned into voting for Brexit by that other shallow showman, Boris Johnson. Fifty-nine percent of Britons now want to rejoin the EU, having realised their appalling mistake.
If we are duped into voting for a Dutton government, we will pay a high price, including electricity costs. The CSIRO has estimated the cost of electricity from their nuclear plants, if they are built, will be up to $238 per MWh compared to solar at up to $53 and wind at $78. The environmental cost of a Dutton administration would be catastrophic. Climate action would be terminated.
If elections really are about the legendary ‘hip pocket nerve’, Australians should never vote for a Dutton government.
The question is: how many voters will realise this?
What Australia really needs now is a minority Labor government, with the Greens and independents holding the balance in both houses. Then we might get real reforms and avert a descent into Trumpism.
♦ Richard Jones is a former NSW MLC and is now a ceramist.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
