Donald Trump’s victory has important lessons for Australian leaders | Paul Starick

Donald Trump might be crude and bombastic but his victory has delivered some important lessons for Australian leaders, writes Paul Starick.

Donald Trump might well be a crude and bombastic billionaire but he was propelled back into power by an extraordinary ability to connect with everyday voters’ concerns.

Rampant inflation wreaked havoc across the United States, sending living costs soaring beyond wage increases for millions of Americans.

Mr Trump might have made a stunning political comeback but he won by repurposing Bill Clinton’s 1992 mantra: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

The Trump mantra was rhetorically asking voters if they were better off now than they were four years ago.

A similar question posed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s opponents now, and at an election early next year, could well prove equally devastating.

Asking voters in southwestern Adelaide if they are better off now than when Premier Peter Malinauskas came to power in March, 2022, might yet help the Liberals to victory at the November 16 by-election in David Speirs’ former seat of Black.

Undoubtedly, millions of Australian households are much worse off now than they were in May, 2022, when federal Labor came to power. Inflation, interest rates and energy costs have surged since then. This has widened economic gaps, particularly between those who own their homes or have mortgages under control – and everyone else.

Donald Trump gestures at supporters during election nigh. Picture: Jim WATSON / AFP

Too many young people are forlorn about their prospects of achieving the great Australian dream of home ownership.

A record 47 per cent of Australian households are struggling to pay their home loan amid pressure from interest rates, according to a Finder survey released on November 1.

The same survey found one in seven, or 462,000 borrowers, said they would have to sell or apply for hardship if interest rates remained the same until February.

Federal governments have fewer economic levers to pull than President-elect Trump – states have even less influence.

There are many differences between the US and Australia but Mr Trump’s victory strongly suggests voters across the board are disillusioned with the political system, tired of political correctness and distrustful of conventional politicians.

With this in mind, Australia could do with a dose of Mr Trump’s decisiveness and pragmatism.

His energy policy is unencumbered by ideology, unlike Labor’s convoluted opposition to nuclear power and its role in the economic transition to net zero. Renewable energy needs firming – now coming from coal and gas. Like Americans, Australians want affordable and reliable energy supplies.

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is speculated to want to make $US2 trillion in cuts, mostly in the federal bureaucracy.

In South Australia, there are 95,027 public servants – or full-time equivalent general government sector employees in the 2025 state budget. This is estimated to be 98,541 in 2028. Public sector workers comprise almost 15 per cent of SA’s total workforce.

This makes them a powerful voting group, as various political leaders have discovered to their benefit and peril.

Liberal Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond was pilloried in 2012 for declaring the public service should be cut by about 20,000 full-time jobs, a statement she later retracted. The Malinauskas government won power in 2022 by vowing to fix the ramping crisis, backed by ambulance employees embroiled in a pay dispute.

The public sector overwhelms private enterprise in SA – Santos is the state’s only firm in ASX’s top 100.

Clearly, there is an imbalance – even if Musk-scale cuts are extreme. Politicians should not be scared of debating this issue.

Love him or loathe him, Mr Trump has revolutionised politics. This will change discourse and policy across the free world. Most immediately, leaders have been given a huge wake-up call on the critical need to act pragmatically and decisively to bring down people’s cost of living.

Originally published as Donald Trump’s victory has important lessons for Australian leaders | Paul Starick