Can you believe it? Our major parties suddenly find their beliefs |
Can you believe it? Our major parties suddenly find their beliefs
May 17, 2026 — 5:00am
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.
Remove items from your saved list to add more.
Believe. It was Angus Taylor’s key word in his budget reply speech, but it sums up the budget week that has just been. After many years of sameness, the week marked a regeneration of Australia’s two-party system, with both main parties declaring what they believe in. But it’s not just conviction that drove the bold moves. Everyone in politics right now has one eye overseas.
The weekend before the budget, British Labour had a catastrophic result in council elections, in which the populist Reform UK party made big gains. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s leadership has been under pressure ever since. Aware of the developing issue, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told The Australian Financial Review at the start of May that “ensuring people have a stake in the economy” is “how we hold off those surging, right-wing populists you see elsewhere in the world”.
Exposed on his left flank as well as on the populist right, Albanese prefers to frame the populist tide as purely a result of economic disenfranchisement. But Reform UK’s full message is not lost on the Coalition, which has already been overtaken in the polls by One Nation. Voters in developed countries around the world aren’t just worried about economics, they’re linking it to immigration.
Specifically, welfare immigration. In Britain, data on Universal Credit recipients has been made available for the first time, showing 1.5 million non-citizens receiving the payment. Germany is talking about the fact that migrants who have arrived since 2015 now make up nearly half of all welfare recipients. These debates are driving the rise of Reform and the Alternative für Deutschland alongside economic discontent.
On Tuesday,........