Australia’s Labor ‘landslide’: the last gasp of the status quo

We are living through a difficult period for traditional, establishment politicians. In country after country, renegade gangs of populists, demagogues and mavericks are challenging the old liberal elite for power, with increasing success. As the masses’ confidence in the liberals rightly crumbles, across the world the vacuum has been filled by the likes of Farage, Le Pen, Meloni and, of course, Donald Trump.

Elections are not like they used to be! Upsets are the new norm. All the sacred traditions, parties and institutions of the postwar liberal order are now cowering before the populist axe… or at least they are in most countries.

Readers would be forgiven for thinking that Australia has yet to receive the memo. The 2025 federal election has been framed as a decisive ‘landslide’ for the discredited status quo led by the ruling Labor Party. But this illusion of sweeping support hides more than it reveals.

Labor’s ‘landslide’ victory

Labor did not surge on a wave of working-class enthusiasm. It limped across the line with just 34.8 percent of the primary vote – a meagre increase of barely 2 percent on its 2022 result and almost identical to the result that led to its defeat in 2016.

While much has been made of erstwhile cop and vile Opposition leader Peter Dutton losing his parliamentary seat, the right-wing Coalition’s primary vote nationally fell by roughly 3.5 percent – not a particularly dramatic swing, even by Australian standards.

What the superficial results of the election conceal, however, is that the two major parties won their lowest combined result in over a century at just 67 percent. Increasingly, workers and youth are abandoning the major parties, searching for a political expression of their discontent, even if no such genuine alternative currently presents itself.

Beneath the surface of Labor’s much-vaunted success lies an electorate that is more fragmented and disillusioned than ever. The so-called landslide was not a popular mandate, but the result of Australia’s byzantine electoral system rigged in the interest of the bosses, as well as the absence of a genuine alternative. These are not signs of a healthy system, but of one in terminal crisis.

More of the same

The capitalist press were quick to hail Labor’s victory as a triumph of ‘stability’ and ‘moderation’. They cheered Labor’s supposed ability to ‘bring the nation together’ and ‘restore confidence‘ in government. Cloaked in the language of unity and responsibility, the continuation of Labor’s programme of austerity, militarism, and corporate handouts was heartily welcomed by the capitalists. Indeed, Albanese will continue to be a loyal servant of their interests.

Over the past three years of government, Albanese’s Labor has carried out a programme of brutal attacks on the working class / Image: MattH093, Twitter

Over the past three years of government, Albanese’s Labor has carried out a programme of brutal attacks on the working class. While claiming to represent ‘working families’, Labor presided over real wage stagnation, rising living costs, and an unprecedented housing crisis. 

They upheld tax concessions for landlords, rejected rent caps, and punished the unemployed with poverty-level welfare and punitive obligations. The government has targeted unions like the CFMEU, cut and privatised public services, and poured billions into militarisation through AUKUS, while social needs were neglected.

The 2025 federal election campaign saw this rotten Labor Party leadership generously offer the tired and exploited masses a hearty dose of more of the same, whilst the programme of Dutton’s Coalition offered little else, but called for the thrilling prospect of a government that would “manage the budget in a prudent and responsible way”!

In an epoch of political upset and surging populism, the victory of the status quo in this year’s Australian election is an exception that demands an explanation. In reality, while the current period of political turmoil is yet to manifest in Australia, the forces that have for decades driven the country’s political consensus are threatened by developments in the world situation that will ultimately see it unravel.

Why no Aussie Trump?

Aside from the farcical decision by one Western Australian MP to change his name to Austin “Aussie” Trump, no one has yet been able to successfully emulate Trump’s brand of populism, although there has been no lack of candidates.

Dutton has consistently denied any desire to be Australia’s Trump, and the Coalition has been notably hesitant to adopt the more populist rhetoric of the US Trump Republicans / Image: Australian Embassy Jakarta, Wikimedia Commons

Dutton has attempted to draw on Trumpian demagogic rhetoric, initially proposing a massacre of 41,000 government jobs in the name of ‘efficiency’, declaring war on the ‘woke curriculum’ ‘indoctrinating’ schoolchildren, and scapegoating migrants.

On the swivel-eyed fringes of parliament, outside the two main parties, we find a plethora of wannabe populists who have long occupied the Australian House of Representatives and the Senate. From infamous islamophobe Pauline Hanson to mineral magnate Clive Palmer, on paper, the list of candidates to lead a demagogic surge to the populist right is long.

Yet Dutton has consistently denied any desire to be Australia’s Trump, and the Coalition has been notably hesitant to adopt the more populist rhetoric of the US Trump Republicans, attacking the establishment and making broad appeals to the working class, which formed the bedrock of their electoral success. Similarly, there has been no significant change in support for outsider right-wing candidates in Australia for years, as this election likewise confirmed.

Playing with fire

The Australian ruling class’ main party are unwilling to play with fire and risk burning their fingers on a right-wing populist candidate that would upend the decades of received economic wisdom that capitalists in Australia depend upon.

Australia’s economy – and with it the eye-watering profits of its bosses and bankers – is inextricably tied to precisely the liberal economic order that the drive towards protectionism threatens to overthrow. Whereas Trump can plausibly claim he will bring back industry and jobs through measures like tariffs, it is not so easy for right-wing populists to make such arguments in the case of Australia.

After the 2008 crisis, which sent a shockwave through the global economy, the deepening of Australia’s trade ties to China allowed it to remain relatively unscathed as one of only three OECD countries to not enter a recession in that period. The economy’s focus on raw materials – especially agriculture and mining – fit neatly into a globalised capitalist system that demanded resources for manufacture abroad. 

While raw materials do not make up the bulk of Australia’s GDP, they dominate the country’s exports, with mining alone responsible for 62 percent of exports in 2020. With manufacturing jobs increasingly relegated to Australia’s near abroad, the ruling class has been able to focus on developing the more lucrative service sector. 

While raw materials do not make up the bulk of Australia’s GDP, they dominate the country’s exports / Image: Harry and Rowena Kennedy, Flickr

Thus, over the last 20 years, the Australian Securities Exchange has grown to become the largest stock exchange in the southern hemisphere, trading over AU$5 billion every day. Why risk having industry – and the pesky industrial workers that come with it – when the ruling class can make more money on services, whilst speculating wildly on international markets?

Calm, stable world trade – with minimal tariffs! – has for years been the lifeblood of the Australian ruling class. For a political party in Australia to challenge this would be suicide for the bosses and bankers. 

Under capitalism, the state and the government serve as a tool for the ruling class to preserve and maintain their class interests. Political parties – in the absence of a mass revolutionary party – represent nothing more than different approaches to subduing the class struggle and maximising profits for the rich. 

In the present period, the Australian capitalist class has little room for manoeuver. They have grown fat off the profits of the globalised world economy and dare not pose a challenge to it, even when they see it crumbling in front of their eyes. Despite the superficial differences between Albanese’s Labor and the Coalition – and likewise the Greens and other smaller parties – they all ultimately represent the needs of the bosses to expand their profits. This leaves them organically incapable of shifting Australia from the narrow, but lucrative, course it has charted over the past decades.

Slavish shortsightedness

The desperate desire to maintain the status quo is not simply a product of the profit-driven narrowmindedness of the capitalists – Australia is, after all, not the only country where the ruling class has economically benefited from globalisation. In addition, the obsequious mentality with which Australia’s servile ruling class approaches the liberal world order is ingrained in their very psychology.

Ever since the development of capitalism in Australia, the ruling class has desperately clung to one imperialist power or another for its survival. For decades this role was fulfilled by British imperialism, until the Empire became decrepit and senile enough for US imperialism to take over the role of militarily and politically dominating Australia. On top of this, as explained, for almost two decades the Australian capitalists have been economically dependent on Chinese imperialism as a market for their exports.

Ever since the development of capitalism in Australia, the ruling class has desperately clung to one imperialist power or another for its survival / Image: U.S. Secretary of Defense, Flickr

The Australian ruling class has developed precisely no traditions of independence or agency. Every government for decades, regardless of party, has slavishly parroted US imperialism’s interests in the Asia-Pacific region. Likewise, since the Second World War, Australia has increasingly become an outpost of US military operations in the Pacific, with numerous ‘joint’ military bases and thousands of US military personnel now stationed in the country. Australian governments have also been among the most consistent internationally in supporting the US’ imperialist wars and invasions around the world, including wars in Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan to name a few.

In the past, this servility could be disguised by the so-called post-war consensus, with its deified global institutions of ‘democracy’ and ‘justice’, such as the UN. This served the ruling class well, as Australian politicians could celebrate their ‘mateship’ with the self-proclaimed forces of ‘freedom’ internationally, while profiting from stable economic relationships. Increasingly, however, as the world capitalist system lurches from crisis to crisis, imperialism’s naked interests are more obvious than ever.

The rise of protectionism in various countries reflects the intensification of the clash between different imperialist powers for spheres of influence, as different ruling classes attempt to shore up their own position in the world to the detriment of ‘friends’ and foes alike.

The Australian capitalists are nervously eyeing their protectionist counterparts abroad, and would undoubtedly love to take a bigger slice of the market for themselves. But, in the words of former prime minister John Howard, as they all too well understand, “you can’t fatten a pig on market day”. You cannot invent Australian manufacturing overnight, you cannot threaten other countries when your economy depends on their markets, and you cannot grow a spine for a ruling class that has been craven since birth.

Walking the tightrope

For these central reasons, the Australian election had bucked the global trend towards upsets and demagogy – for now. To the extent that Dutton attempted to posture in a somewhat ‘Trumpist’ way, the ruling class made clear they had no truck with that sort of posturing. Meanwhile, he couldn’t convince anyone that there’s anything anti-establishment about him, given that he has been the establishment’s man par excellence.

The fact is that Australian capitalism has benefited from globalisation and the liberal world order, to the extent of remaining a happy exception for a long time. But those days are coming to an end, and it would be foolish to imagine that Australia is in any way immune to demagogues and populists emerging in the future as anger continues to grow.

Politically dependent on US imperialism and its NATO allies, they have nonetheless cultivated economic ties with western imperialism’s main rival: China / Image: Anthony Albanese, Twitter

The unfortunate truth for the bosses, bankers and politicians is that the global order they so desperately cling to is not long for this world. With protectionism on the rise and the tensions between imperialist powers sharpening, this will inevitably have to find an expression in Australia and in the process will deal a blow to the traditions of the establishment parties.

The Australian ruling class finds itself between a rock and a hard place. Politically dependent on US imperialism and its NATO allies, they have nonetheless cultivated economic ties with western imperialism’s main rival: China. The breaking of either of these links would represent an unthinkable crisis for the capitalist class, either politically or economically – or, most likely, both. 

Yet the world situation is moving in such a direction that Australia’s balancing act will have to become impossible at one point or another, and one or the other imperialism will force the Australian ruling class to end the status quo, if they are not brave enough to do it themselves.

These conditions would lay the basis for all kinds of latter-day free thinkers, demagogues and mavericks to emerge with confused ‘solutions’ for the masses. A genuine Trump-style candidate could even take shape. For now, however, we can only speculate on this.

Build a real alternative

‘Democratic’ elections under capitalism offer us the choice, as Marx explained, to decide “once in three or six years which member of the ruling class was to misrepresent the people in Parliament”. This election has made that clearer than ever. Behind the hollow differences in branding and rhetoric, every party offers the same bankrupt programme: defend profits, manage the crisis, and keep the system intact.

It is entirely understandable that millions breathed a sigh of relief at the defeat of the Coalition in this election. But we must be clear: this Labor government will bring just as little for the working class as it has for the past three years. 

Labor has so far done its job for the capitalist class / Image: UNSOCIAL UNSECURE, Twitter

The central concern for communists is not the shallow rhetoric of the capitalist politicians, it is the mood of the working class. The oppressed and exploited workers and youth of Australia are the force that will ultimately decide the fate of the country. The central battleground for this will not be elections, but the living struggle of the working class in the streets, workplaces, educational institutions, etc. None of the capitalist politicians are worthy of support. We fight for a real alternative, one based on the independent power of the working class.

Labor has so far done its job for the capitalist class. It has kept the unions shackled, pacified unrest, and protected profits. The class that owns the mines, banks, and media currently prefers a Labor government, because it has been relatively effective at navigating the capitalist crisis without provoking mass resistance. For now. 

The electoral calm masks global chaos. As protectionism rises and imperialist tensions sharpen, the pressure will eventually spill over here too. Tied to the US politically and to China economically, the ruling class faces a crisis no matter which link snaps. Sooner or later, the old consensus will splinter.

The same crisis that threatens Australia’s liberal consensus will draw a growing layer of workers and youth into the struggle to defend their conditions and demand more. The stage is being set for an immense conflict. The bosses and bankers have their organisations and parties, the working class need their own.

The task facing us is to build a revolutionary organisation that can bring together the firmest, boldest layers of communists to explain the need to kick out not only the rotten capitalist parties, but their whole decrepit system. 

No faith in Labor and the capitalist parties. No illusions in parliament.

There is no future under capitalism. We need revolution. We need organisation. We need to build it now. If you agree, join us.