Tom Minear: Sussan Ley’s Trump talk not such a bright idea

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley channelled ex-president Donald Trump on migrant crime last week, but Tom Minear doubts that will work in Australia as well as in the US.

Australian and American politics have followed a revealingly similar script lately.

Here in the US, nursing student Laken Riley was abducted and murdered while she was out running. Authorities arrested and charged a Venezuelan migrant who had entered the country illegally in 2022, only to be released into the community.

Donald Trump blamed Joe Biden for the 22-year-old’s death, posting on social media that the President’s “border INVASION is destroying our country and killing our citizens”.

Laken Riley was allegedly murdered while out running in Georgia. Picture: Facebook

Meanwhile in Australia, on the eve of the Dunkley by-election, a convicted rapist who had been released from immigration detention last year was arrested and charged with sexual assault.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley similarly held her political opponents responsible, saying on social media: “If you live in Frankston and you’ve got a problem with Victorian women being assaulted by foreign criminals, vote against Labor.”

Of course, it soon emerged that police embarrassingly arrested the wrong man. But Ley did not bother deleting her post – she must have still thought it was a winner. Was she right?

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley attacks the Albanese government in Question Time. Picture: Martin Ollman (NCA NewsWire)

Regardless of the Dunkley result, it’s a question the Liberal Party should think deeply about.

The Albanese government badly mishandled the High Court-ordered release of more than 140 people from immigration detention. An opposition led by Peter Dutton – whose identity is founded on protecting Australia’s borders – was rightly going to hit back hard. But with a full election probably a year away, it seems unlikely to be the issue that wins it for the Coalition.

Former president Donald Trump visits the US-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas. Picture: Go Nakamura (Reuters)

Two million people a year have illegally crossed the US border under Biden, sparking a crisis that feels real not just in border towns but in cities as far away as New York, where more than 150,000 migrants have arrived. Even before Riley’s death, a Gallup poll confirmed voters now believe immigration is the most important problem facing the country.

Border security does not resonate the same way for Australians, certainly not compared to the cost of living crisis, and at least as long as last month’s arrival of a boat north of Broome does not foreshadow more to come.

That is especially true in inner-city teal seats which Ley is spearheading her party’s effort to reclaim, a task surely essential to defeating Labor. She says they can win these voters back by talking about housing, the cost of living, and supporting working women.

But they can still hear her talking like Trump. And I can’t imagine they’ll like it.

Originally published as Tom Minear: Sussan Ley’s Trump talk not such a bright idea