Election 2025: Liberals back Clive Palmer as Donald Trump magnet

Liberals are banking on mining magnate Clive Palmer taking the heat off Peter Dutton over the importation of Donald Trump policies to Australia.

Peter Dutton hitches a ride on a petrol tanker ahead of his appearance at a petrol station in Adelaide on Monday. Picture: Thomas Lisson / NewsWire

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Liberals are banking on mining magnate Clive Palmer absorbing some voter concerns over the importation of Donald Trump policies to Australia, taking the heat off Peter Dutton in the face of Labor seeking to link the Coalition leader and the US Republican President.

As the Opposition Leader was forced to ditch his proposal to crack down on working from home in the public service – a policy enacted by the Trump administration in January – Coalition MPs said they were “very aware” of the danger posed by their leader being seen as Australia’s version of Mr Trump. “I don’t think the links can be justified, but we’re very aware of those links being drawn,” one ­Coalition MP said.

“(Mr) Trump is President of the US, and we’ve got to work with whoever is president of the US. But the fact is, his political style is not what Australia is looking for.”

Liberal MPs confirmed there had been significant backlash from constituents over the party’s intention to limit WFH arrangements and reduce the size of the public service, as the US had done.

“It really was hurting us. It wasn’t going down well at all,” one MP said.

Another said it was important the Coalition “lanced the boil early” before voters turned their minds properly to polling day.

Mr Dutton admitted in Adelaide on Monday he had “made a mistake” in announcing a policy to see government employees in the nation’s capital return to working in the office full-time.

“I have apologised for the decision we took in relation to work from home,” he said.

“Labor’s run this scare campaign and I think we bring an end to that today. We strongly support flexible workplace arrangements.”

Mr Dutton also clarified the reduction to the public service of 41,000 employees would not be done through forced redundancies but through natural attrition and a hiring freeze.

Labor has weaponised the ­Coalition’s intention to shrink the public service by pointing out similarities to cuts being made by Mr Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DoGE.

Coalition MPs said they were hopeful Mr Palmer and his openly pro-Trump policy agenda could serve as a way to defuse the threat of those attacks on Mr Dutton.

“(Mr Palmer) can be that, the Donald Trump figure. That works for us,” one MP said.

The Queensland billionaire has been vocal about his desire to replicate Mr Trump’s ideas when it comes to reining in government waste, limiting immigration and abolishing diversity and inclusion programs, declaring his new Trumpet of Patriots party would “make Australia great again”.

“As Dutton has said, he’s no Donald Trump,” Mr Palmer told the National Press Club last month. “We agree with him.”

Former Labor strategist and pollster Kos Samaras said Mr Palmer’s multimillion-dollar pro-Trump campaign would “help” the Coalition differentiate itself.

“Clive running that campaign does help, because people can think of (Mr Dutton) that (he’s) ‘a bit Trumpy, but then there’s this other guy’,” Mr Samaras said.

He said the Coalition needed to “work on” shaping the narrative in this way, while balancing the risks of further fragmenting the conservative vote. “The reason why Dutton’s primary (vote) is down is he’s losing it to Clive… and the ­Coalition needs to get those voters back,” he said.

While most MPs expressed their relief over Mr Dutton rolling back the WFH policy, one said the leader’s flip-flopping “looks ridiculous … Your average person would look at it and say ‘This is just confusing, what do they want?’ I think it just looks silly.”

Anthony Albanese continued his attack on Mr Dutton and the WFH policy, saying the Coalition leader was just “pretending” to ditch the idea. “Peter Dutton is now pretending to try and get through an election,” he said.

“But guess what? Before the last time the Coalition were elected, they said there would be no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no cuts to infrastructure, no cuts to the ABC – and they ripped the guts out of them.”