Steve Price: Peter Dutton should adopt Donald Trump’s slogan ‘Revolution of common sense’

Donald Trump is the king of cut-through political slogans and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton should grab the best four-word catchcry the US President has delivered yet.

Peter Dutton should grab a brilliant slogan from Donald Trump this week and make it his own.

The two-time President is the slogan king but Trump outdid himself even during the inauguration this week.

He pledged a “revolution of common sense”.

Brilliant and simple and so needed right now.

Dutton has chosen as his election slogan the line ‘Get Australia back on track’ which is not bad, but what we all desperately need is a great dose of common sense.

The Coalition needs to use this new slogan to highlight just how out of touch with average Australians our federal government is – think The Voice referendum, blind adoption of the climate change cult and adoption of woke sexual politics around gender.

State Labor governments – especially in Victoria – are worse and wouldn’t know common sense if they fell over it.

Donald Trump give the thumbs up during his inaugural parade. Picture: Jim Watson

Trump, immediately upon being sworn in, declared there were two sexes, male and female. Common sense.

He dumped US support for the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement and took his country out of the World Health Authority. Common sense.

And with Joe Biden, the outgoing President, sitting behind him, Trump used his speech to repeat his energy mantra of “drill, baby, drill”. Common sense.

Peter Dutton, I think, is a commonsense political leader and what’s not to like about ditching dangerous legal definitions of gender identity.

What’s not to like about ripping up a global climate promise that we can’t do anything about, and maximising our boundless reserves of gas, coal and uranium. Common sense.

Watching the US endorsement of Donald Trump as President for the second time – and the pageantry that went with it – what struck me was how the American system allows their political leaders to surround themselves with the best minds in their country.

Australia does the opposite and forces our political leaders to surround themselves with second-rate political hacks with zero business experience.

The US system also allows the recruiting of the best minds in the country to form an executive all-star team, far above the Australian system.

Peter Dutton should drop ‘Get Australia back on track’ and adopt speaking at a Liberal Party rally held in the seat of Bennelong.

Reading the CVs of our political leaders makes for a depressing exercise and proves my point.

Anthony Albanese has been an elected politician for 29 years and before that he worked as a Labor Party research officer straight out of university after a couple of years in a bank, then doing an economics degree.

No business experience and only two years of his life not being paid by taxpayers.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, the bloke in charge of the economic levers, did a Bachelor of Arts and Communication at Griffith University then did a PhD thesis on Paul Keating before working as a research officer for a Queensland Labor Premier ,then as a Labor adviser to people like Wayne Swan and Kim Beazley – enough said.

Premier Jacinta Allan has a Bachelor of Arts from Latrobe University and bagged groceries at Coles before joining the ALP, aged 19, and has been a paid politician since 1999 – enough said.

Compare that lack of life experience with President Donald Trump – a billionaire property tycoon, who has Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, on his team attacking government waste.

This week near the front row at the inauguration were billionaires Jeff Bezos from Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg from Meta, Apple boss Tim Cook and Google chief Sundar Pichai.

In Australia for some bizarre reason, if you associate with wealthy, successful businesspeople like Gina Rhinehart or Anthony Pratt you are criticised for being too close to billionaires. Crazy.

Those two independently took out full page newspaper ads in the New York Times congratulating Trump on being elected and are ploughing hundreds of millions of dollars into the US economy – their win, our loss.

Trump holds up an executive order he just signed in the Oval Office. Picture: Roberto Schmidt

If Dutton or newly-minted Victorian Opposition leader Brad Battin need any encouragement to take up the common sense slogan, here are a few off the top examples of what that slogan could deliver, and the sort of promises you could make under the common sense banner.

• Re-set immigration targets and install a two-year freeze to decide where that migration pool comes from and where they live.

• Lower business taxes and keep government hands off your superannuation.

• Cut the size of the public service, both state and federal, put a freeze on new hirings and don’t replace retirees.

• Ban masked demonstrators from our city streets and the carrying of terror group symbols.

• Shut down the drug injecting room in the same street as a Melbourne school.

• Get rid of all-gender toilets.

• Fix bail laws and build, if needed, new prisons to house repeat offenders, including teenagers.

• Spend whatever is needed to fix pot-holed regional roads.

• Increase penalties for graffiti vandals.

• Rip out little-used CBD bike lanes.

This could just be the start of the revolution of common sense here and we can only hope and pray it takes hold.

Like the USA, Australia needs its own golden age of opportunity.

Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump depart Emancipation Hall after the President spoke during inauguration ceremonies. Picture: Greg Nash

Likes

— US Ambassador Kevin Rudd virtually invisible as Donald Trump takes over.

— The Australian Open on Sunday night what a magnificent global event it has become.

— Lobster rolls with crunchy chilli at Smithburg burger joint in South Melbourne market.

— Joe Biden and Kamala Harris forced to sit through the Trump acceptance speech – priceless

Dislikes

— Horrifying statistics showing Victoria leads the nation in business collapses.

— Lifeguards at suburban swimming centres being bashed for doing their job by disgraceful cowards.

— Reserve Bank figures reveal 87 per cent of jobs growth in Australia since March 2023 is in the government sector.

— Anti-Semitic arson and hate crimes out of control this time a Sydney childcare centre.

Originally published as Steve Price: Peter Dutton should adopt Donald Trump’s slogan ‘Revolution of common sense’