Trump’s Chaos, Dutton’s Copycat Disaster

In just over two weeks, Australians will vote for what could be the most important election in Australia’s history – it will be a time if choosing unwisely, voting in Australia’s own version of Donald Trump could become reality.

But as Australia inches closer to the 2025 federal election, is one thing is becoming painfully clear: Peter Dutton's Coalition isn’t a credible alternative government. With global markets rattled by Trump's erratic economic policies, Australians are also becoming increasingly concerned about their financial security. And what’s more alarming is that the Dutton-led opposition is more aligned with Trumpism than with any serious, forward-looking vision for Australia. And that should set off alarm bells in every household and boardroom across the country.

Trump’s re-election as US President has ushered in a new phase of geopolitical instability. His “Liberation Day” tariffs—announced with his characteristic bravado and zero forethought—have triggered global market chaos, including a staggering $350bn hit to the Australian stock market. While some of the ASX losses were clawed back this week, the long-term damage to superannuation, business confidence, and household wealth is real and ongoing.

In such a climate of global volatility, Australians deserve leadership that’s steady, rational, and rooted in evidence-based policy. Instead, Dutton has chosen to hitch his wagon to the same populist rhetoric and policy shallowness that defines Trump’s America. And that’s the problem: Dutton’s pitch to the electorate isn’t a plan—it’s a vibe. And it’s the wrong one for these times and for Australians.

Trumpism isn’t just about tariffs and trade wars—it’s about division, fear, and performative politics. Dutton has mirrored Trump’s playbook with alarming precision: scapegoating migrants, vilifying unions, and launching culture war offensives rather than focusing on economic substance. While Australians endure the fallout from Trump's trade tantrums, Dutton has chosen to fan anxiety rather than offer solutions.

His recent statements, paints an apocalyptic picture under Labor—warning of recession, rising interest rates, and economic doom. Yet the Coalition offers no serious economic plan of its own. Instead of preparing Australians for global shocks, Dutton is exploiting them to sow panic and distract from his policy vacuum.

Australia needs bold, targeted policies to navigate this period of international turbulence. What it gets from the Coalition, however, is an incoherent mess. Their work-from-home policy was a public embarrassment—withdrawn within days after widespread backlash. Their gas policy? Released far too late and riddled with inconsistencies. On tax reform, Dutton offers nothing more than the repeal of Labor’s modest cuts, effectively raising income taxes on working Australians during a cost-of-living crisis.

Today’s Coalition has no industrial relations strategy, no plan for a clean energy transition, no clarity on defence spending, and no credible fiscal pathway. The so-called alternative government is simply unprepared.

The one major policy the Coalition has spruiked—nuclear energy—remains decades away from viability, with enormous cost, environmental, and infrastructure hurdles. It may serve as a talking point, but it’s not a solution to the immediate crises Australians face.

The electorate is disillusioned with Anthony Albanese, but they’re not sold on Dutton either—and for good reason. The Coalition’s primary vote has slumped, not surged, as voters recognise Dutton’s approach is more about tearing Labor down than building Australia up. Newspoll shows Labor ahead 52-48 in the two-party preferred vote, not because of love for Labor, but due to growing doubts about Dutton’s readiness to govern.

The perception Dutton is ideologically closer to Trump than Albanese isn’t only fair—it’s fact-based. From his climate scepticism to his inflammatory rhetoric on race and national security, Dutton embodies the politics of grievance, not growth.

In a globalised economy already suffering under Trump’s chaos, grievance politics offers no answers—only more problems.

While Jim Chalmers and the Labor government have acknowledged the global risks and released Treasury modelling on the limited direct GDP impact from Trump’s tariffs, the Coalition is stuck in a doom loop. Dutton continues to shout “recession” without offering credible alternatives, undermining confidence at the very moment calm leadership is needed.

Trump has destabilised the global economy. That much is clear. But it’s Dutton’s imitation of Trump’s style—aggressive, insular, anti-intellectual—that threatens to compound that damage here at home.

Rather than investing in skills, innovation, clean industry and jobs of the future, Dutton prefers political stunts and nostalgia. Rather than defending Australian prosperity in an uncertain world, he’s busy copying a political blueprint that has turned America into a case study in dysfunction, disaster and decline.

Australia’s May 3 2025, election isn’t just a choice between Labor and the Coalition, it’s a choice between pragmatic, steady leadership in the face of global uncertainty—or a reckless turn toward Trumpian chaos. Australians don’t need slogans. They need security. They don’t need fear. They need a future.

Peter Dutton may have dragged the Liberals from the electoral abyss to something resembling competitiveness—but that’s a testament to Labor’s shortcomings, not his own strength. When it comes to governing, he has no policies, no plan, and no principles beyond power for its own sake.

The Coalition under Dutton isn’t ready. It’s not credible. And it surely isn’t the alternative government Australia needs—especially not in a world reeling from Trump’s dangerous experiments.

Australians deserve better than a Dutton coalition that want to give Australia a Trumpian government.

The choice should be clear.