Since the US election result confirmed Donald Trump would re-enter the White House in triumph, Australian commentators and politicians have been falling over themselves to identify the "lessons for Australia".

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The truth is that many of the decisive factors in Trump's win don't apply in Australia. The two biggest differences are compulsory voting and our Westminster system.

Voluntary voting, combined with a national primary system, means a significant amount of effort and energy need to be devoted to getting out the US vote. In practice, this has caused candidates to adopt policy positions that would be too extreme for the general public.

While the candidates then try and walk these positions back to an extent during the general election, the best path to victory is to fire up the base and get them to show up to the polls, particularly in the swing states.

By contrast, Australian politicians must appeal to the average voter, who - unlike the politically aligned base - is typically completely uninterested in ideology and opposed to anything more radical than incremental policy change.

As a result, the Democrats are further left than Labor and the Republicans are further right than the Coalition.

This difference is enhanced by our Westminster system. Australian politics tends to be hyper-local, even as the media focus has shifted towards a presidential-style focus on the leaders. Local politics is by its very nature much more practical, and less philosophical; especially in key battleground areas like western Sydney.

Australians have an almost aggressive indifference to ideology, tending to judge all policy proposals on the basis of whether they will work and what they will deliver for them and their family personally.

An important corollary of these differences is that Australians retain far more faith in our institutions than the Americans have in theirs.

As a result, while........

© Canberra Times