Trump is not only a Canadian campaign issue. Australia fights U.S. relations in elections

In the final weeks of the Australian election, U.S. President Donald Trump was imminent, causing trouble for conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton, just as a new poll shows Australians’ belief in the United States at historic lows.

Analysts and scholars have begun to shock Australian voters by Trump’s style and often destructive policies, including “mutual tariffs” on long-term allies and attacks on U.S. government agencies.

The dynamics are similar, but with a series of polls in Canada showing that the Liberal Party’s fate has recovered sharply ahead of the April 28 vote.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party surged in various polls relative to Dutton’s conservative coalition until the May 3 general election, which was only three and a half weeks.

“Trump has become the third candidate for this campaign,” said Mark Kenny, a political professor at the Australian National University in Canberra.

“He made it difficult for Peter Dutton to convey his message and made it difficult for Dutton to be regarded as a completely independent figure in this campaign.”

A survey released Wednesday by the Lowy Institute, a research foundation, found that only 36% of Australians have expressed any trust in the United States since the last survey in June 2024, with the following 20 points, the lowest since the annual poll launched 20 years ago.

The poll was conducted in March, including 10% of all Australian imported blankets before Trump announced the tariff rate.

“It is no wonder that Australians trust in the United States given President Donald Trump’s normative attitude toward his second term,” said Ryan Neelam, director of public opinion and foreign policy at Lowy College.

Incumbents try to connect Dutton with Trump, Musk

Dutton from the Liberal Party ran for several policies established by Elon Musk, widely emulated Trump and his administration’s Department of Efficiency (DOGE) group. In January, Dutton appointed Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as shadow minister for government efficiency, a position inspired by Musk’s role, analysts said.

“As Australians get tired of out-of-control wasteful spending… Jacinta will keep an eye on how we can achieve more efficient use of taxpayers’ money,” Dutton said at the time.

Labor has taken advantage of the shift in public sentiment, with finance director Jim Chalmers repeatedly referring to opposition leaders as “Dor Dutton.”

Albanes said Tuesday that if Dutton is elected, he will issue a “threshold cut” to the public sector.

“[Australians] “It has been enjoying the turmoil and capricious attitude of the White House, and Dutton’s early enthusiasm has been leading in his saddle bag with other conservatives in celebrating Trump’s victory.”

“As Trump becomes more popular, this weight is getting heavier.”

A large number of military, intelligence tie

The new U.S. government’s belligerent stance is also an election theme related to military cooperation between the two countries.

Australia has pledged to purchase three nuclear-powered Virginia submarines from the United States in the 2030s under the Aukus Trilateral Security Partnership, which also includes the United Kingdom, which contains a variety of plans and unexpected events over decades. These three countries are also part of the Five Eye Sharing Alliance, along with Canada and New Zealand.

The Australian submarine agency said the acquisition of nuclear submarines was a key part of Australia’s rejection of its defense strategy and “will be equipped with intelligence, surveillance, under-face war and strike missions.”

Despite Aukus’ strong support from major Australian political parties, disappointingly, defense ties did not win Australia’s exemption from Trump’s tariffs, which put the plan under unprecedented public scrutiny.

Independent lawmakers are skeptical of Trump and call for a review of submarine transactions, although the influence of independents may be limited unless the May 3 vote is pending.

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who captured the Treaty of Aucus in 2021, said in an interview with Reuters that the threat posed by China and Australian deterrents operating nuclear-powered submarines in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean drive the agreement.

“China is a threat – of course it’s them, and that’s what needs to be stopped,” Morrison said.

He added: “The idea of ​​us and more British ships in and around Australia and on stations at the Australian Theatre, we always knew that this would bring an earlier deterrent.”

Australia’s plan to buy Virginia submarines is added to Australia by Labor in 2023.

Albanese, elected in 2022, is less willing to publicly criticize China, even as Australia’s air force and navy continue to conduct freedom of navigation patrols in the South China Sea. This has become a political attack point in the campaign of Morrison’s Defense Secretary Dutton.