In humans, delusional thinking is a mental health issue. In politics, believing in things despite clear evidence to the contrary now seems to be a prerequisite, along with the accompanying feelings of persecution and grandiosity.
Consider the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), brought to Brisbane by the Murdochs, Gina Rinehart, and the ghosts of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. There were several representatives from the political afterlife as well, notably Tony Abbott and Liz Truss, but the star of the show was recently demoted Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who came out wrapped in an Australian flag but talking about an American, Charlie Kirk.
The assassinated MAGA rabble-rouser was also name-checked by Nationals senators Bridget McKenzie and Matt Canavan, drawing cheers from the crowd, including Pauline Hanson, who must have been pleased to hear CPAC director Andrew Cooper calling for a formal coalition between the LNP and One Nation.
Bridget McKenzie said conservative parties needed to stop fighting amongst themselves, apparently forgetting she was one of the chief architects of the post-election split between the Nationals and Sussan Ley’s Liberals. Abbott said the LNP lost the last election because Peter Dutton didn’t talk enough about nuclear energy. Price said ‘a profound cultural shift’ was required against issues including migration.
All agreed that an absolute emissions target of any kind had to be dropped, science be damned.
Reality check
Nowhere was there any evidence at CPAC that those on stage or off understood that Australia is not America, that this is an intensely multicultural nation in which most adults vote, that no one wants a nuclear reactor in their backyard, or that we are in the midst of a climate catastrophe.
While CPAC’s brand of delusional thinking is great news for a Labor government which will face no real opposition for the foreseeable future, and looks relatively sane by comparison, it’s not remotely useful for a real country with real problems needing real solutions.
Delusion of a different kind was on display in the federal government’s carefully massaged 62-70 per cent emissions reduction target for 2035, delivered under the shadow of a United States government which has declared the climate crisis non-existent, at the stroke of a Sharpie.
Clearly no number or degree of ambition was capable of pleasing everyone, but most climate experts agree that this target falls far short of what is required for Australia to do its part to reduce climate heating, or to address the terrifying challenges illustrated by the government’s own Climate Risk Assessment – released just days earlier – either in terms of farmers and food production, commercial and personal transport, dealing with fugitive emissions, reducing forest destruction, transforming power production, creating more efficient homes and applicances, or decarbonising major industries without destroying the economic benefits and other services they provide.
Is something better than nothing? With Anthony Albanese, that usually seems to be the question, and the answer is always yes.
An audience with the emperor?
Speaking of Albo, Australia’s prime minister is now in New York, where Australia has promised to recognise Palestine, what’s left of it, as the genocide there continues.
Our democratically elected leader has already been publicly pressured to renege on this symbolic step by a group of American Republican politicians, who will possibly be joined by their delusional orange leader in another excruciating session of public humiliation while the PM is in the US.
We can only hope that Albo escapes with more dignity from such an encounter than King Charles and Sir Keir Starmer did last week, but Trump tends to pull everyone down to his level, sooner or later. Will he demand the bespectacled deputy sheriff of the Pacific bring Four Corners to heel for the crime of doing its job, unlike his own faux news sycophants?
Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, two courageous, brilliant television comedians who couldn’t get that low if they tried, have already paid the price of being cancelled by this morally bankrupt presidential administration, which cannot bear to hear the truth in any shape or form.
Who will be next?
From Pyongyang to Moscow, Beijing to Berlin, those who have had to live under history’s great dictatorships know that when the jesters are silenced, no one is safe.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
You can find more of his writing at Patreon and Gumroad.
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