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BONUS: Will's take on the Australian election, with Nick Dixon
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Transcript
Introduction & Australian Elections Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to The Current The Thing with me, Nick Dixon, and today we have returning to the show, a friend of the show really, at this point, to tell us all about the Australian elections and explain what the heck is going on. Who better to ask than actual Australian and generally insightful person, Mr. Will Kingston. are you doing, Will?
00:00:16
Speaker
Generally being the operative word. I'm good, mate. How are you? meaning not just because you're an Australian. And also, of course, host of the Fire at Will podcast, I should say that, and contribute it to GB News. Get the that at the start.
00:00:29
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And I'm on nickdixon.net because you never know which bits I'm going to pay all, so we have to get that in. And no Will, I thought it brilliant to talk to you because I'm trying to understand what the heck happened in this Australian election. I know that much like Canada...
00:00:41
Speaker
the the lib the lib suddenly won or the lefties and against expectation perhaps so i've been trying to understand it i actually watched your piece on the spectator and it was the most australian thing like we have such stereotypes of australia and you confirm them all the guy who won is literally called elbow it's like yeah elbow mate it's like how can the leader of your country be called elbow and someone actually said he'd be a good bloke to have a beer with and at one point one of your guests said but you know ah he's a number seven best man they put him into open i was like that's the most australian thing i've ever heard If you now mention kangaroos, everything we thought was true.
00:01:14
Speaker
So I'm sorry to like you know it hit you with the stereotypes as well, but that was that was insane. I mean, number seven batsman. Is that right? Was he a number seven batsman put into open? Yeah, so the guy who said that is a former president of the Victorian Liberal Party and a liberal power broker.
00:01:31
Speaker
The liberals are the... equivalent of the Conservative Party in Australia. And the way he referred to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is called Albo by everyone, is a number seven batsman, but not a wicket-keeper number seven batsman, just a pretty useless batsman that somehow has found himself elevated to the top of the order, but he's managed to do a job.
00:01:53
Speaker
And that really was the case. He managed to do a job, but... ah it He is an uninspiring figure, not unlike actually. He's a different personality, but in terms of just being a pretty underwhelming person to run a great country, there are similarities with Keir Starmer.
Albanese Government & Labor Party's Success
00:02:11
Speaker
Right, right. Yeah, that makes sense. I'm trying to think, who was it? John Stewart, Jack Stewart? We had a wicketkeeper who was also a decent batsman back in the day. Jack Russell? There was Jack Russell. He was the wicketkeeper.
00:02:23
Speaker
But I'm thinking of another one. Who's the other one? that Wasn't Stewart who doubled as a wicketkeeper? Alex Stewart. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. Because Russell was the actual wicketkeeper, but Alex Stewart was like solid batsman and could do some wicketkeeping. Yeah, that's not Albo.
00:02:38
Speaker
Right, right, right. Exactly. So it's not that. um ah so like I'll give you the overview just so people know what the hell talking about. ah Australia went to the polls on Saturday.
00:02:49
Speaker
ah It was a contest between, I'll be generous, the centre-left Albanese government. I know a few people would say they're Marxist, but let's that they're the centre-left Albanese government that was voted in in 2022.
00:03:03
Speaker
ah they The Albanese government came in after, I think, just under 10 years of coalition rule, coalition being the Liberal Party and the National Party together, but for all intents and purposes, just think the Conservatives.
00:03:17
Speaker
ah That period was pretty underwhelming. Again, real parallels with that 14 years of conservative rule in the UK where nothing really ever got done and it was just everyone was just disappointed.
00:03:29
Speaker
Same thing in Australia, basically, where the conservatives were in for eight or maybe nine years, and it was just a period of of stasis. So Albanese comes in and for the last three years, even i think supporters of Anthony Albanese would go, it's been an underwhelming period.
00:03:47
Speaker
So cost of living has been super high. There's been interest rate rise after interest rate rise. Half of his term was taken up by a failed push for a referendum for an Indigenous voice to parliament.
00:03:59
Speaker
And as a result of just this feeling of malaise in the country combined with high cost of living and inflation, the coalition was looking really good.
00:04:10
Speaker
They were two months out, leading in the polls, and everyone was expecting a coalition victory. Similar to Canada, about six weeks out, there was a remarkable shift in the polls and people started to turn away from the coalition.
00:04:26
Speaker
And we can get to that and why that was the case. But the end outcome was a majority Labor government. You need 76 seats to form a government in Australia.
00:04:37
Speaker
Some people were expecting them to squeak through in a minority government. That hasn't happened. So whilst people were expecting by the end that Labor would get up They weren't expecting that they would end up winning 86 seats.
00:04:50
Speaker
At the moment, I think there's still at a few being counted, but it will be around 86 to 87, that sort of area, which is a stunning result. And to give you an idea of the magnitude of it, It is the first time since the Federation of Australia in 1901 that a first-term government has had a swing towards it
Political Preferences & Comparisons with UK
00:05:08
Speaker
in its first term. So a really stunning result ah and a pretty searing indictment on the coalition right-wing parties, given that the the government over the last three years has not been good.
00:05:24
Speaker
Very interesting. Yeah. So we had an unprecedented thing with reform doing better than someone's done in 100 years in a way, like breaking the two-party system perhaps. But you've had a swing to the ruling party unexpectedly.
00:05:38
Speaker
And it is difficult because all names are different and and now, aren't they? Like our Labour Party hates the working class and our Conservatives are more cleftly like... It's very hard to pick up politics in another country. It's something you gain by ah osmosis. So when I look at other countries, they've all got these weird names that go against what they are and which we now have as well.
00:05:56
Speaker
It is very hard to get. so yeah But as you say, the liberals are sort of the conservatives. so And labor is still kind of labor. but Labor is labor, yeah. Yeah. But do you do you want to say who you tend to vote for? I know you're a kind of libertarian type guy.
00:06:10
Speaker
There is a Libertarian Party in Australia. ah It's at the moment, depressingly small. I think they would have got about 1% of the vote, but that is that is who I voted for. ah what In the past, I voted for the Liberal Party.
00:06:22
Speaker
But again, this is an interesting story to tell because there are so many echoes with the UK. um The Liberal Party, I think fundamentally in Australia, have forgotten how to be conservative. They've forgotten be both conservative in terms of social conservative, that sort of stuff,
00:06:39
Speaker
but they've forgotten how to be liberal as well in terms of supporting individual freedoms, supporting economic liberalism. And that I think is one of the reasons for that from like extraordinary change in fortunes over that six week period.
00:06:53
Speaker
So basically what happens is um number one, ah The Trump effect was very real in Australia. People looked at what was happening, particularly Trump tariffs and the general uncertainty that that delivered and went, we don't want a Trump brand of politics in Australia.
00:07:14
Speaker
I think the coalition then got spooked and tried everything they could to disassociate with Trump and general like conservative politics. So ah they ran away from the culture wars.
00:07:24
Speaker
ah Dutton, when asked what is a woman, shied away from the question in the last week's the campaign. ah He refused to ditch net zero and basically just provided a slightly softer version of whatever Labor was presenting on environmental policy.
00:07:40
Speaker
And on economics, which is the traditional brand equity of of the Liberal Party, you know they're the ones that you generally vote for you believe in lower taxes, fiscal responsibility, all that sort of stuff.
00:07:50
Speaker
At least for the two years after this election, they were forecast to increase the size of the national debt more than Labor, to the extent that if you actually hadn't put a title on the two proposed spending ah ah the proposed spending for both parties, you would have assumed what the Liberal Party was was presenting was a Labor budget or was the Labor Party's policies.
00:08:15
Speaker
So there's this, again, story which the Conservatives need to take heed of, which is if you just try and be Labor-light, you're not going to win because people are going to go for the real thing.
00:08:27
Speaker
Now and a in and the Conservatives, I guess, are particularly screwed because they now have a strong challenger to the right of them, which people can just naturally turn to. ah but But I think that was the story of the campaign and that that really people were going, I don't really see the point of voting for for the Liberal
Compulsory Voting & Demographic Shifts
00:08:44
Speaker
Party. like what What do they stand for anymore?
00:08:47
Speaker
Yeah, it does seem hard to see the point. Was it something like the price of petrol or something and some slight tax rebate or something? so that they they were basically the so so cost of living, big issue, um and housing affordability.
00:09:02
Speaker
Big issue. Now, the way that they were trying to address both was cutting the fuel excise, so the tax on fuel, but they were only going to do it for, think it was a year, and then they said we'd reassess.
00:09:13
Speaker
Hardly a groundbreaking economic reform, and I think for housing affordability, um they were offering, what was it, and ah you can dip into your superannuation or your pension.
00:09:24
Speaker
um So Australia has a compulsory pension scheme called superannuation, and you can dip into that to pay for a house. And there were some little tweaks around tax, which they were were implementing. But again, it was all just this sort of marginal stuff.
00:09:37
Speaker
And Australia, which is in desperate need of economic reform, I think Australians looked at it and went, you know what? I don't, you know, like that particularly when the world is so uncertain, I'll pick the lesser of two evils when I'm not being offered a compelling alternative.
00:09:51
Speaker
And the thing is, they needed to take a punt, the coalition. So a first-term government in Australia hasn't been booted out in about 100 years. It's very, very hard to remove a first-term government in Australia. or Australians, for whatever reason,
00:10:07
Speaker
generally like to give governments a second chance. And so if the Liberal Party was going to have any chance, they needed to be bold. And in the end, they just weren't. And I might sound stupid but if I get this wrong, but isn't voting compulsory in Australia as well? So Tories here, certainly pre in the pre-reform days, famously just stay home if they're not happy.
00:10:27
Speaker
But I guess is that another reason that Labour did so well? Because
Impact of Trump & Campaign Tactics
00:10:30
Speaker
people have to vote for someone. Yes, I think that does favour the incumbent. ah There are a couple of other interesting implications, which I was just listening to on a podcast and I hadn't considered.
00:10:40
Speaker
ah Number one, the share of the vote had the highest percentage of female voters in Australia's history ah in terms of just demographics. So I think, and don't quote me, but something like I think there was an extra 500,000 women female voters than male voters, ah and female voters in Australia have traditionally voted for the Labour Party, um and that, I think, was a factor.
00:11:06
Speaker
um And the demographics skewed a bit younger are relative to past elections and and and older people generally vote Conservative. So there were a few demographics shifts at play as well, which again is something that the Liberal Party will have to think about because those demographic trends are only going further and further in that that direction and that potentially potentially hurt them well.
00:11:31
Speaker
but them as well Yeah, very interesting. And this Trump factor, which I was going to mention, obviously in Canada, a massive thing. Sounds like it was a pretty big thing that in Australia as well, even though comically Trump has no idea who Dutton is.
00:11:45
Speaker
He claims to like Albanese and me and Alba, we're best mates. but umm But this was pinned on very much like it was pinned on probably ever. And and then the tariffs come out and it's a massive problem. Yeah, I'm not sure whether the Trump would be able to pick Albanese out of a lineup. I think he just says this sort of stuff. But yeah, yeah it was ironic, actually, that that um he had no idea who Dutton was.
00:12:08
Speaker
ah Yeah, the Trump thing was a factor. If you look at opinion polling, most Australians are not supportive of Donald Trump. But... Most people, therefore, have said there is a lesson in that for the Liberal Party and they need to basically move further to the left. They need to to become more more, you know, ah that they need to become less conservative.
00:12:29
Speaker
I think the lesson is is the opposite. Maybe not in the Trump type of, I think not in the kind of particularly the the Trump style of politics, but I think it would be a big mistake for the Liberal Party to just try and move further to the left as opposed to actually standing for something on the right in politics. I think as soon as they did that, people just went, there's no point to you guys.
00:12:54
Speaker
One other thing which I'd add in, which I forgot to mention earlier, if we're just looking at reasons for why there was this incredible turn in the polling in such a short space of time, there was a very effective scare campaign that was run by Labor.
00:13:07
Speaker
ah Every 10 years in politics, and it's been the case for about 30 years in Australian politics, Labor comes out with a scare campaign that basically says the Liberal Party are going to end or reduce funding for Medicare, which is the, it's not quite the NHS, but it's our public healthcare care system.
00:13:24
Speaker
ah And actually, again, some parallels in the way that Labor are going after Farage saying that he's going to privatise the NHS, whereas Labor just says they're going to strip funding out.
00:13:35
Speaker
And from what I've seen, that scare campaign was very successful in this election and the Liberal Party wasn't able to so ah to be able to confront it. And that partially
Liberal Party's Leadership Challenges
00:13:47
Speaker
maybe as a result of the leaders. So both of these leaders, Anthony Albanese, who is now Prime Minister, and Peter Dutton, who was the opposition leader. He's lost his seat, as it turns out.
00:13:58
Speaker
ah He's the first opposition leader in Australian history to to lose their seat in an election. ah They're both mediocrities. you know're They're both political operators. you know If you put them in a back room trying to to ah whip numbers, I'm sure they'd do it successfully.
00:14:13
Speaker
But Dutton had incredibly low favourability ratings. I think the lowest in modern Australian history. He's got very bad optics. like He just comes across as a harsh looking bloke. I was going say, does it matter that he looks a bit like a Bond villain? Is that a fact? Yeah, it doesn't help.
00:14:27
Speaker
It certainly doesn't help. He's not a likeable looking guy. i don't think he's a bad guy, but he's just he's got really bad objects and he's got no charisma and he wasn't able to to bring people with him if it perhaps he was a slightly more likeable political figure. But unfortunately, he's an old cop from Queensland.
00:14:43
Speaker
And he looks like an old cop from Queensland. And just ah that wasn't a charismatic figure that people felt like they could get behind. Whereas Albanese, you know, again, also not particularly popular, which is why a lot of people are saying this was like the Starmer win, a loveless landslide, but he probably wasn't quite as unlikable as Dutton was.
00:15:02
Speaker
Right. And maybe not quite as unlikable as Starmer was. i thought that's what you going to say. um No, well, I agree with that as well. Yeah. So actually, very interesting. So it may be somewhat like here in that our Labour landslide has proved loveless now with the local elections. So maybe it's temporary, this this jubilation for but Labour in Australia.
00:15:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. um this this is not a This is not a strong base of support for Labor. ah If there was a compelling alternative and if they ran a good campaign, and make no mistake, the Liberal campaign was diabolically bad.
00:15:41
Speaker
um I don't think – I spoke to michael ah to Stephen Conroy, former RUD communications minister in the Labor-RUD government, and he basically says – We talk about who won the final week in campaigning as ah as a key factor.
00:15:55
Speaker
He said the Liberal Party didn't win a single day of the campaign, and that's probably right. It was a really bad campaign. um But all that being said, Labor is not widely liked in the electorate.
00:16:05
Speaker
They still didn't do a good job in that first term, so there isn't that that base of support. So the question um is if there was a solid alternative, would they have lost? i think the answer is yes.
00:16:17
Speaker
The questions that are now being asked by many people are, what is the future of the Liberal Party in Australia? And particularly, could we be seeing, similar to what we may be seeing with the Conservatives, the end of one of the once great world Conservative parties? And that that is now very much an open question in Australia.
Right-Wing Parties & Potential Third-Party
00:16:38
Speaker
Yeah, and it does sound something Sunak-esque about their campaign, and and now they're being they've been obliterated. who Who would replace them then? Because you said there isn't really a strong alternative in the same way we have reformed.
00:16:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's the thing, and so that's why I think it's unlikely to happen, at least in the short term, because there isn't a reform alternative at the moment. There are a series of minor parties on the right in Australia. You have one which is led by a really interesting figure called Pauline Hanson, um who's been ah in and around Australian politics for about 30 years.
00:17:07
Speaker
She's as close as we get to and a Nigel Farage or a Trump, big on reducing the size of immigration, you know big on attacking the impact of Islamic immigration, and then pretty protectionist in terms of her economics and pro-tariffs that sort of thing.
00:17:24
Speaker
I think they got somewhere between 6% to 8% of the vote there. haven't seen the exact numbers. And then there's a mishmash of these smaller right-wing parties, the Libertarians. There's one which was funded by a billionaire called Clive Palmer called the Trumpet of Patriots, which was not-so-subtle way to basically say, if you like Trump in Australia, vote for us.
00:17:43
Speaker
ah and I think there one or two others, collectively all of those minor right-wing parties gained I think about 13% of the vote. Now, if you pulled all those guys together, again, it's not a winning tally, but it's enough to perhaps control a balance of power, and yet you just have all of this fracture on the the right amongst the smaller parties.
00:18:02
Speaker
So... That is why the Liberal Party will still probably creak on in a way where the Conservatives may not now. but But there is definitely a lane, i think, for a third party to be a genuine force in Australian politics in the same way that reform is in the UK.
00:18:20
Speaker
But at the moment, no one is really jumping into that lane and and running running ahead. Interesting.
Comparing Australian & UK Politics
00:18:29
Speaker
All right. Well, I find it fascinating, the the the comparisons.
00:18:32
Speaker
Of course, it can be a dangerous game. that But one thing I noticed, just listening to you interview people on this, it seemed to me Australian politics was sort of more tame or a bit more dull than the UK, which obviously could be a good thing because we're in a sort of pre-Civil War state, some people think.
00:18:47
Speaker
we're in a big We're in a mess. And I wondered if that was because i had some theories. I'll try them out on you. One, you just have a better immigration system, this famous points-based system we hear a lot about. And maybe that hasn't become such a ah tense issue as it has in our country, Britain. And then maybe...
00:19:05
Speaker
Is it also you just haven't had that moment? Actually, you're before us. You haven't had that moment which that where the two-party system breaks. That was another thing I thought. And actually, they're just pretending that nothing's going wrong. there's you know and And kind of carrying on as and as as as if business is usual. Maybe business isn't usual.
00:19:19
Speaker
There was some stuff about anti-Semitism you mentioned. So maybe Australia is sort of secretly on fire and they're pretending it isn't. These were just two guesses I had which was sort of opposite. what what what What's the situation there?
00:19:31
Speaker
On the second one, ah i think that certainly is is the case. um The first one, the immigration one, is more debatable. But you're right in that from an outsider's perspective, if it have felt to you like this was a bit of a nothing boring election, it was a nothing boring election.
00:19:46
Speaker
I was speaking to a campaign strategist and he basically said, I think quite quite memorably, this was the Seinfeld election campaign. It was the election about nothing. And you know when you you look at what the arguments are about, and if if people are listening to this going, well, Will, what were the big policy debates? Why are you not telling me what this election was four and one on? It's like there weren't really many. you know it was it was It really was an election about nothing. Yeah.
00:20:12
Speaker
And in the end, the lesser of two evils ended up winning, or the lesser of two nothings won. ah The immigration question is interesting. If you look at immigration on a per capita basis, there has actually been more net migration into Australia than there has been in the UK in the last five years. the So there is a huge um change in the overall um Australian population, which is coming from from migration.
00:20:41
Speaker
but I don't think the cultural fraying is quite as bad. I think it's noticeable, particularly in parts of Western Sydney and and regional areas in Victoria. but And I've been wondering about this. Why is it that this is becoming such fractious issue in the UK and it's slightly less so in Australia? And I think it is because the Migrant populations are a bit more spread out in Australia, whereas if you go into London or if you go into Birmingham, you see this very viscerally because it is quite concentrated in quite a few of the cities.
00:21:16
Speaker
Whereas I think in Australia, and I don't have any data to back this up, but I think that the migrant intake is probably more spread out over a bigger area. And so you probably don't feel the impact quite as much.
00:21:30
Speaker
But make no mistake, there is a huge number of of immigrants that have come
Cultural & Economic Concerns
00:21:35
Speaker
in. think it's of gross immigration has been about a million in the last couple of years, and it's a population of 27 million people.
00:21:42
Speaker
ah One third of the Australian electorate the voting age Australian electorate was not born in Australia, which is pretty extraordinary ah ah data point.
00:21:54
Speaker
So there has been a huge change, but I think it is a bit more dispersed. That makes sense. um I don't know if there are particular issues around it as well. I mean, here, obviously, Islam, particularly controversial issue in America, tends to be different issues, um which tend to be more to to to black and white issues, historically, but obvious reasons.
00:22:16
Speaker
I don't specific take ah twist on that in Australia. Islam is becoming more of an issue, and I think particularly after October 7 and a lot of kind of sympathy for Hamas, which again was partially from from members of the Islamic community and then also partially from the liberal intellectual classes as well. It's that always that strange marriage between those groups.
00:22:42
Speaker
um That is certainly there. You always got to remember as well that Australia will take more attention migrants from Southeast Asia and China compared to the UK.
00:22:53
Speaker
So that's still, I believe, where most migrants come from. mr I think it's still India, China, and ah one other, Indonesia. No, no, no. But but that's that's a variation when it comes to the the immigration story compared to the UK. Yeah.
00:23:10
Speaker
So yes, so so so I think that some of those cultural fractures in Australia are emerging, but I think they are still behind where the UK is, where you can feel for many people, it is reaching a tipping point. I don't think Australia is quite there yet.
00:23:26
Speaker
Okay. Interesting. And so- Yeah, one thing I really noticed was that economic concerns took over and that debt seems to be a big thing issue that was on the table. Whereas, of course, we have massive debt in this country. We're spending insane amounts just to service the debt.
00:23:44
Speaker
ah So, you know, basically pay off the interest. It's incredible. If you think about it, you could go mad because the we work just live in an illusory world of debt. But it's not really on the table as an election issue here, but it sounded like it was in Australia.
00:23:55
Speaker
No, I don't think it was. I think that's the problem. oh um yeah so So I think it's a problem for me anyway i in that, yes, debt is a massive problem. So i think like I imagine the UK and I definitely know like the US, debt repaying or just paying interest on the nation's debt is the fastest growing line item in the federal budget.
00:24:16
Speaker
And the debt numbers are you know reaching those sorts of scary levels that we're seeing in the US and the UK, again, proportionate to the size of the economy. So it is a massive issue. But again, like the UK, like the US, no politicians really are doing anything serious to to touch it.
00:24:34
Speaker
And this is a problem for Western politics, right? Because all of these politicians go, you know what? It's really hard to take money away from people. Most people in our day and age think me, me, me, as opposed to what is best for the country, particularly in an age when, when patriotism and it is as low as its ever been.
00:24:54
Speaker
So they go you know what? They're three year terms in Australia, not five. When the shit hits the fan, when it comes to debt, I'm going to be long out of office, so why should I bother?
00:25:05
Speaker
And that's that's the problem. like The incentives for politicians to sort this problem just don't align, and it will probably take a debt crisis in these countries for something to be done because there's no there's no appetite really to address it at the moment.
00:25:22
Speaker
The other thing I'll just add on on the economic issues in the campaign to the extent that there were any, think Australia over the course of the Albanese first term had 12 interest rate rises. And in a country like Australia where where most people are mortgaged to the tits, that was really hurting Albanese.
00:25:40
Speaker
And again, that was one of the main reasons for until six weeks before the election, the Dutton opposition was looking pretty good because people were going, it's costing so much for me to service my mortgage, we need to change this useless government.
00:25:53
Speaker
There was one interest rate drop ah in the lead up to the election. I can't remember. I think it was in that six-week period. I think that was just enough for some people to go, oh, okay, Maybe the worst is behind us.
00:26:05
Speaker
Maybe things are on on the up. And given that the Liberal Party has not offered really much of an alternative, particularly in economic policy, let's just stick with the devil we know.
00:26:16
Speaker
So that was also, I think, an important little turning point in the the campaign. All right. This is very interesting. Just overall, i just wanted to get your take on the UK elections as well. But overall, who is doing worse, yeah Britain or Australia, sort of politically and, you know, socially, culturally?
00:26:37
Speaker
Britain is the answer, so i yeah i would suggest. I think both, like the the interesting thing about these sorts of conversations is that so many of the same themes are popping up across Australia, across the UK.
00:26:50
Speaker
ah It really is fascinating, actually, ah darkly fascinating. ah But I don't think for a couple of reasons um Australia is in quite as bad a place. Number one, I don't think the cultural...
00:27:04
Speaker
or the social fraying as a result of mass migration is as bad in Australia.
Trade Relations & Geopolitical Risks
00:27:12
Speaker
ah Number two, Australia, at least for the foreseeable future, is in the fortunate position of having unbelievable natural resources.
00:27:23
Speaker
And whilst we can just keep digging stuff out of the ground and then flogging it to China, the economy will always be in okay-ish shape, notwithstanding all the debt and deficit stuff. but But that is what Australia has relied on for the last 30 years, is just digging stuff out of the ground, selling it to China.
00:27:39
Speaker
And that's our economy, effectively. now If, for example, a war was to arise over Taiwan and that trading tap was switched off, Australia is stuffed, absolutely stuffed.
00:27:52
Speaker
um But until that point, the economy is actually, I think, in a structurally better place than the UK. And I think, sorry, I don't think I know it is growing a bit more than the UK is, which at the moment is just anemic.
00:28:04
Speaker
Yeah. So i think for those for I think for the immigration reason, I think for the the um the the the economic kind of fundamentals, slightly better.
00:28:16
Speaker
um i think you're probably in a slightly better place in in in Australia than the UK at the moment. And then the other thing, which is also... Good thing is ah Australia's three-year terms mean that we can probably turf out a bad government more quickly, whereas the yeah so the Albanese government's going to go back for re-election again before the voters in the UK get a chance to turf out Starmer.
00:28:40
Speaker
Right. And so, I mean, we face this to some degree, trying to balance the EU, China and the US as sort of mid-level power. But Australia must face that even more acutely then. If it kicks off with China in a trade war, do your guys have to be kind of like, hey, hear me out, man. that You know, China's all right. I mean, you know, like but they can't get on too well with the, they can't alienate China trying to get on with the US.
00:29:02
Speaker
Yeah, well, look, if it if it turned into a hot war, we would still be aligned with um the US and and the UK. There's no no doubt about that. And the AUKUS agreement, which is Australia, UK and US, s ah was ah signed a few years ago now, involved um increased information sharing, ah buying a lot of submarines from the US,
00:29:23
Speaker
i meant I meant very much the trade war. You know, China, as you said, you know, this there's potential for China to some way block exports of semiconductors from Taiwan the US. That kind of thing puts the US in a recession immediately.
00:29:36
Speaker
And then not Australia is going, oh, you know, hang on, we want to sell to China, you know, those kinds of things. Yeah, and and it is a bit of a complicated one. And China actually did tariff or put a lot of sanctions or tariffs on Australia in the last few years.
00:29:49
Speaker
um So it is a bit of a tricky one. um There have been some efforts to, I guess, further diversify our trading relationships. So relatively, we're doing more with India, more with Indonesia, but China is still the the top trading partner for Australian natural resources.
00:30:06
Speaker
ah so So, yeah, the short answer is China there are to be you know increased geopolitical tensions with China, that is a real risk for Australia. All
Podcast Promotion & Conclusion
00:30:18
Speaker
right. See, I haven't really thought about that. Call me naive. i haven't really thought about Australia's geopolitical risks, but now I will. I mean, what is your take then on our recent local elections? I say, ah it's always a bit confusing because you're Australian, but I mean in Britain.
00:30:31
Speaker
Culturally British. Okay, fair enough, which is nice. But um it sounds like you might want to go back to Australia but if our country is really falling apart worse than you are. That's not a threat. like Let's not send them back. He's starting the deportation campaign a bit early. Let's start with some easy ones like Will.
00:30:48
Speaker
yeah table before Detain, deport, detain, deport. Just start with the the low-hanging fruit. um so But what was your overall take on these ah sort of seismic shifts everyone's talking about in British politics?
00:31:02
Speaker
Yeah, stunning result. Absolutely stunning result. ah A couple of reflections. Number one. All right, that is the end of the free episode. But if you want the full podcast, go to nickdixon.net for all the extra content, all my articles.
00:31:15
Speaker
That is my substat, nickdixon.net. And we need your help to keep this whole thing going. Keep the lights on this amazing production, hiring people, et cetera. nickdixon.net to support us. It's five pounds a month, which is about the cost of some sort of fancy latte in London, or as a slight discount if you get the yearly option, or it's just five quid a month.
00:31:33
Speaker
So we'll see you on nickdixon.net, and thank you very much.