Australia’s rising right-wing populism reflects real economic and social grievances, but it is increasingly drawing on imported MAGA-style strategies that turn public anger into culture war rather than Australian solutions.
Alex Fein of RedBridge has argued that it is time to call a growing political problem by its proper name: foreign interference. Alex’s focus is not on traditional espionage or state-backed operations, but on the increasingly visible role of overseas political consultants, campaign strategists and ideological networks in shaping right-wing populist movements across democratic societies.
The influence of the American MAGA movement has become particularly significant. What began as a domestic political movement in the United States has evolved into an international political brand, complete with campaign techniques, messaging strategies, social media tactics and a worldview that is now being exported to allied democracies.
Pauline Hanson’s address to the National Press Club provides a useful case study. While Hanson’s political appeal remains rooted in distinctly Australian concerns – cost-of-living pressures, regional discontent, housing affordability, immigration and dissatisfaction with the major parties – the language and framing increasingly resemble themes familiar from American right-wing authoritarianism. We live in post factual age, where appeals to evidence are replaced by a sense of outrage by modernity.
The emphasis on ‘ left wing’ elites betraying ordinary citizens, claims that established institutions have become disconnected from the public, hostility towards traditional media, and appeals to a supposedly silenced majority are all now standard features of the international far-right populist playbook. These themes resonate because they tap into genuine grievances, but they are also amplified by political operatives who have developed and refined such approaches in overseas campaigns.
This far right’s response to the failure of neoliberalism matters. The scapegoating of minorities and the appeal to romanticised golden past is drawn from a playbook we have read before. The explicit assault on civil, social and economic rights being pushed cannot be ignored.
Australia undoubtedly faces serious economic and social challenges. Voters are entitled to be angry about declining living standards, insecure employment, housing stress and a perceived lack of responsiveness from political institutions. These concerns deserve serious political attention by political progressives. Rebuilding trust in the capacity of the political system to deal with this challenge will require more than just incremental political management of societal decline.
However, there is a difference between addressing legitimate public concerns and importing political strategies designed in another country for another political system. The United States’ culture wars, constitutional arrangements and social divisions are not Australia’s. Yet increasingly Australian political debate is being framed through imported narratives that may deepen division while offering few practical solutions.
The rise of One Nation and similar movements should therefore be understood through two lenses. First, they reflect genuine dissatisfaction with the economic and political consequences of decades of neoliberal policy settings and institutional decline. Second, they are increasingly connected to transnational political networks that seek to channel that dissatisfaction into a particular form of populist politics.
Fein’s warning deserves attention because foreign interference does not always arrive through covert state actors. Sometimes it comes through political consultants, digital campaigns and ideological entrepreneurs seeking to reshape democratic politics across borders.
The formal opposition – the Liberal National Coalition – is incapable of fending off One Nation. The traditional electoral coalition that has sustained conservative politics has disintegrated. Only the Labor Party has capacity to head off the insurgents.
The challenge for the Labor party is not simply to be outraged, or to just condemn right wing extremism. The Labor movement’s challenge is to address the underlying causes of public discontent while defending an independent social democratic culture that develops Australian solutions to Australian problems. If they fail to do so, far-right political movements will continue to find fertile ground among voters who feel ignored, unheard and left behind.
The Honourable Kim Carr FAHA FTSE is a former Minister for Higher Education, Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, and served as Senator for Victoria for over 29 years. He made a significant national contribution in these policy areas. He was an active interlocutor at Senate Estimates and a key member of many Senate Inquiries into Australia’s Innovation system. He is widely regarded as a staunch champion of Australia’s universities and publicly funded research agencies. Most recently he was Vice Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow at Monash University (2022-2025). He was awarded the Academy of Science Medal in 2022 – only the second politician, following Bob Hawke in 1990, to be so honoured.