Trumpet of Patriots
https://trumpetofpatriots.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trumpet_of_Patriots
* Their name and compaigning hint not-so-subtly at trying to
reflect the policies of Donald Trump in the USA, but the actual
history goes back a lot further. This in the new incarnation of
the Australian Federation Party from the last election, itself
a reincarnation of the Country Alliance party dating back to
2004. At the last election their new identity turned me off,
having imported lots of socially conservative policies from
Family First (who are also back again now). Now they've coupled
with Clive Palmer from the United Australia Party which isn't
running this year apparantly for administrative reasons, and seem
to have swung over to Trump/Palmer's more economically right-wing
policies.
* They want a DOGE (Department Of Government Efficiency) for
Australia, mirroring Trump, including in vagueness about how it's
going to achieve that "Efficiency". They do show past examples of
government expenses which they disagree with, and I do agree
they're stupid wastes of funds. But the biggest two are one-off
expenses that they can't change now anyway!
* They want to "cut immigration to sustainable levels" and limit
foreign ownership of houses and prime agricultural land. Within
their vagueness I'm with them there, but "prioritise migration
from nations with compatible values" takes that thought in a
different direction to where I want to go.
* Their housing solution is a 3% cap on interest rates, which
doesn't sound economically viable to me, set beside a possibly
more sensible copy of the Liberal party's plan to allow people
to use some of their superannuation funds to pay for a deposit on
a home loan. Then they talk about high-speed rail to reduce
commute times to distant suburbs. Oh boy.
* Want to scrap renewables, burn lots of coal instead, maybe nuclear
power as well but without the Net Zero emissions goal.
* Big on freedom of speach. But they're specifically opposing things
that don't exist in this country anyway, nor proposed by the major
paries so far as I'm aware, so pretty away with the fairies.
* Very isolationist, probably like Trump but with more capacity
since we don't do much in the first place except help facilitate
the USA fighting its wars. I'm not sure if the pro-Trump party
therefore means to break military ties with the USA. Would they
not want to fight a war that Trump wants to fight? Pulling out of
the WHO, UN and WEF is probably all they'd really do, and I don't
think that would be helpful.
* Interestingly they're doing a reverse-Trump on tariffs. Trump uses
that term for what's also known as import duty, while this party
proposes introducing export duty on iron ore, called
a "licence fee": "To reduce debt, the Trumpet of Patriots will
place 15% licence fee on all iron ore exports from Australia".
It's nice to see they're not just copy/pasting from Trump's play
book, but is our iron ore really so cheap that a 15% tax wouldn't
make China buy elsewhere? Even if their trade war with the USA
increases China's cost buying iron ore from there, they've still
got many alternatives. The idea might be that the Chinese would
buy steel made in Australia instead, but that's not really
practical. I can see the sense in Trump's tariffs, whether they
work or not, but this is just detached from any economic reality.
* They propose lower taxes for business, and to reduce regulations,
so manufacturing industries will return. Too vague to mean much.
I don't know what Trump's official election policies were like, but
these seem even more off the wall than what he's been doing in the
USA. I agree with some of their aspirations, but little of their
policy has any detail, and when they do come up with some sort of
plan it's complete nonsense. At least they seem to have squashed
down the christian conservative and anti-vaxxer stuff from the
Australian Federation Party last election, but media coverage
elsewhere suggests that's still under the surface and really
Trump-style bluster is all they're offering on their website.
--------------------------
