• Populist Coup has begun.
• Will the Coup really have impact beyond Australia?
• How? The Judgment of Solomon

Populist Coup has Begun

Today Australia took a key step in an inevitable seismic shift to the extreme populist right.  With Trump in power in America, ‘Brexit’ in the UK, why does this matter on the world stage? I will get to that, but first some background. The party in government in Australia is called the ‘Liberal Party’. However the party has spanned from the centre-right, though to the extreme-right, and the despite the label ‘liberal party’, there are many that see the party as the true home of the most conservative.

That group of most those extreme populist/right within the party, reveal the inevitability of their takeover and the strength of support today.  Despite being forced into the leadership challenge before they could be ready, they still came sufficiently close at this first contest, that the result ensures a period instability within the party that has foreseeable outcome other than a change to a new leader.

Will This Coup really have Impact beyond Australia?

While it is now basically certain the coup will result in a seismic shift to appeal to the populist right,  there is the some hope that the shift will be moderated by the fact that although a shirt in this direction is now inevitable, there is also some suggesting that a shift this far would see sufficient number of resignations from the party that they would lose government immediately.  But despite the strength of feelings, even in the event of such an outcome, as explained for the reasons outlined in the ‘Judgement of Solomon’ below, this is a group prepared for desperate steps.

So how big is this? Australia has had prominent, extreme populist right politicians in power for some time.  With immigration rates arguable higher than any comparable country, if not quite as relatively high as argued in parliament,  and higher than the US or the UK, the pressure of finite world is even higher than that which produced Brexit, and propelled Trump to power, and the racist and anti-immigration stance as a result is so high that calls for a ‘final solution‘ to immigrant groups was even recently presented in parliament.  Although that speech being widely condemned, and failure by that parliamentarian to distance himself from the Nazi connotations of ‘final solution’,  that had some endorsement, and others in the highly conservative group are not happy with the level of condemnation of that very speech.

The leader proposed by this coup plot has already signalled a significant reduction in immigration as a priority, and ‘finite world’ issues are not part of the discussion. The requirement for increased infrastructure with increased population is raised, but this is accompanied by loud voices against the religion and country of origin of many immigrant, and calls to discriminate on who should be accepted as immigrants.

This is very likely to a far greater step to the populist right by a country seen historically as ‘laid back’.  Not a home of the extreme right or xenophobes.  This could be such as shift to the right that it changes what the world view sees the normal.  Shift a significant part of the world this far, and the world average changes.   The reality is, this shift would not result from a election by the people, but a change in the position of the party that was elected. So the people voted for a party with a far more central position, and the party changes to the far right after the election.  So this shift may not represent the position of the Australian people at all, but a small group of powerbrokers within the government.  So the whole world could see a very noticeable shift to the right, and would logically see that as a shift by the Australian people.

The shift signalled by the new leadership, and policies they promote is far beyond any real shift by the Australian people.  The end result is to promote a highly isolationist country, taking extreme measures to keep foreigner out, with strong signals of racist motivation, and such isolationism from what is  seen as very empty country.

A huge push to appeal to those disillusioned by ‘finite world’, and respond with fear, not a real plan.

How? The Judgement of Solomon.

So how the government of a country make such a move that does not reflect the mood of the people?

In fact the current leader has lost support because he has taken to many steps to appease the extreme right within his own party who threaten his leadership… and while steps to right against the will of the electorate lose votes… the solution is have the extreme right take control?  Previous changes of leader have been because the new leader will boost popularity ….while this is a move to an unpopular leader!

As an example of the gap between the right group in the party and voters, this is the extreme conservative group that 100% spoke against the legalisation of gay marriage,  which, when finally voted on by the people, was supported by over 60%, and as much as 74% in one state.  But this same group is inspired and  encouraged by Trump being in power in America.

The coup frontman holds his seat in parliament by a margin of only 1.8%, in area known to be one of the most supportive of populist ideas in the country.  This is a government looking to be heading for electoral loss, being taken over by a group who may save their own seats by a shift to the right, but with almost certainty of losing government as soon as their is an election.

Basically this is group who will do all they can to ensure the party loses government if they do not get their way.  They just don’t care about the future of the party overall, they want the party to move in this direction even if it results in being a minor party.  A minor party they own is better than a major party that does not share their ideals.

“Give us the party, or we will wreck it”.  In fact they may wreck it to some extent anyway, and have already taken so many steps to derail their own government, just so they can say “look, we are going nowhere the way we are going, things need to change!”  When their own disruption is key to the people losing faith in the government.

Outcome:

Expect a new head of government in Australia by tomorrow: Aug 23 2018.  And a very wild ride with extreme populist right views.  These ideas are contagious, and dangerous.  The UK shifted with Brexit, the US with Trump, and Australia may now make both of those look like caring socialists.  Who is next as the dominos fall?  The worst and misinformed response to finite world.