After looking largely immune to populist nationalism, like Ireland and Portugal, Australia is suddenly experiencing a political earthquake. Unherd, reporting:
December’s Isis-inspired Bondi Beach terrorist attack has rapidly turned Australia into the global populist vibe shift. Until then, the country had been in a slow-motion version of the Western political realignment, its political duopoly bleeding support from a few scratches rather than an open vein. Now, however, the Right-populist One Nation party has climbed to 26% in some polls, up from just 6% support at last May’s election. The centre-right Liberal Party, which was last part of a government in 2022, has a vote share as low as 14% in some polls. In decades of polling, never has a member of the two-party duopoly polled third.
This is an astonishing development in part because Australia used to be looked at as an inspiration among immigration restrictionists. Australia advertised and enforced harsh penalties on illegal entrants. But Australia’s political zoo, like those of France and the U.K., is filled with endangered parties that may be going extinct.