Nearly seventeen thousand kilometers separate London from both Sydney and Melbourne, but the political distance is much shorter. Not only because the parliamentary models of both countries are very similar (the Australian one is known as Washminster, a mixture of Washington and Westminster with much more of the latter), but mainly because both Labor and British Conservatives look at the country of the Antipodes in the search for trends, ideas and inspiration.
When the Tories were in opposition darkness at the beginning of the millennium, they put themselves in the hands of Australian strategist Lynton Crosby, known as the Wizard of Oz, to regain power. He was the man who had overseen the successful federal election campaigns of 1996, 1998, 2001 and 2004, making John Howard’s government the second longest in the nation’s history. Well connected to the Republicans of the United States, he imported a style of very negative campaigns, predecessors of today’s culture wars, exploiting nationalistic and tribal attitudes such as the frontal rejection of immigration, and seeing outsiders as a threat to jobs , well-being, access to services and identity. The principle was to seek the support of socially conservative voters, even if economically they are more progressive.
His record in Britain was not as successful as in Australia, losing the 2005 election to the Tories. But he orchestrated Boris Johnson’s London mayoralty victories in 2008 and 2012, and of the Conservative Party in the 2015 and 2017 general elections, without being able to prevent Labor’s Sadiq Khan from winning the municipal elections in the English capital. The baton was taken by his pupil and compatriot Isaac Levido, architect of the absolute majority in 2019 under the banner of “let’s make Brexit a reality”. He remains a key adviser to current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in his difficult bid to hang on to Downing Street on promises to cut illegal immigration, inflation, queues for public health operations and the public debt, and restore economic growth. almost nothing
Australia is the model on which the Conservatives have been inspired for their migration policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda and potentially other countries, and interning them in barges in the meantime. An imitation of what the Canberra government did for a long time, sending immigrants to Papua New Guinea and the island of Nauru in Micronesia, with serious physical and psychological consequences for those affected.
“Settlement in Australia will never be an option for anyone trying to arrive illegally by boat,” was the country’s official policy. “Settlement in the United Kingdom cannot be an option for those who arrive on foot through illegal routes”, says Prime Minister Rishi Sunak now in his attempt to reduce the number of asylum seekers who cross in small boats the English Channel, and who have completely collapsed the system, living in hotels while their cases are processed (a process that can take years). London even declares that it is ready to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and ignore the judgments of the European courts.
Labor is fixated on the result of the last Australian election, in which Anthony Albanese defeated the conservative Scott Morrison. His profile is not far from that of Keir Starmer, the aspirant to occupy Downing Street, that of a leader without particular charisma who won by not scaring voters with radical ideas, not taking risks and not making big promises in economic and fiscal matters. Support from women, young people and concern about climate change were decisive factors, and UK Labor is confident the same will happen here. Even so, his victory was not overwhelming, and right-wing populism remains as fresh as a rose.
Morrison’s defeat in Australia was a blow to Rupert Murdoch’s media group, which controls the big newspapers in major cities and ran a fierce campaign against Labour. The communications tycoon’s hand also reaches into Britain, where he owns the influential The Sun, The Times and The Sun dayTimes and makes no secret of his sympathy for Brexit, although his papers never favored a break with Europe in such a visceral way as the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph.
But before David Cameron, the first British political leader to take out the telescope and focus it on Australia was Tony Blair, who took inspiration from Prime Ministers Paul Keating and Bob Hawke for his third way. In politics, seventeen thousand kilometers are nothing.
