It’s still early days, but one of the greatest legacies of the second Trump presidency may well be that it permanently shifts the Overton Window back to something resembling normalcy.
The Overton Window is defined as ‘the range of subjects and arguments politically acceptable at a given time’. For the last decade or so, the window has been shifted further and further left, with anything but fawning praise of Critical Race Theory and men in dresses was met with screeching denunciation and instant cancellation.
Trump 2.0 is smashing all of that and dancing on the pieces to the cheers of millions of ordinary Americans and even more people around the world. The seismic culture shift is so pronounced that it’s even emboldening previously spineless ‘conservative’ parties to actually stand for something beside ‘what the left just said’.
Which is not to say that the Peter Dutton-led coalition are simply following some sort of ‘Trumpian’ playbook. Dutton has been charting an emboldened, genuinely centre-right course since making the principled decision to oppose the ‘Indigenous Voice’ referendum in 2023. The elites responded with their usual fury and fake smears, of course, but the Australian people quietly and overwhelmingly backed Dutton.
The referendum was a seismic shift in Australian politics. Suddenly, the paper tigers of the left were exposed for what they really are: all sound and fury and signifying nothing. Dutton has been setting the political agenda ever since, on everything from nuclear energy, ‘Net Zero’ and immigration, to tackling anti-Semitism. The left have been relegated to playing continual catch-up.
Dutton is also taking note of the successes of the Trump administration, though. He’s announced plans for an Australian Department of Government Efficiency, to be headed by the massively popular Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. Another popular female conservative, Tasmanian Senator Claire Chandler, will, as arts minister, run the razor across arts funding – specifically targeting anti-Semites.
In her first interview since being elevated to shadow cabinet in the government services, digital economy, science and arts portfolios, Senator Chandler said she was “deeply concerned” by reports of funding being allocated to artists peddling anti-Semitic content […]
“There are some serious concerns that have been raised around appointees to government boards that have been putting out anti-Semitic content on social media, and I know that some of this exists in the art space,” Senator Chandler told the Australian.
Notable anti-Semitic incidents in the yartz include a ‘pro-Palestinian’ onstage demonstration by actors at the Sydney Theatre Company. The stunt prompted several resignations from Jewish-Australian board members, withdrawal of funding from philanthropists and mass ticket cancellations.
An even more egregious incident involved multiple high-profile arts grants recipients, including a children’s book illustrator, circulating a ‘Jew list’ and doxxing dozens of prominent Jewish-Australians.
Declaring Australians can trust the coalition to take a strong position in “supporting Israel and stamping out anti-Semitism”, the Tasmanian senator said she was still considering what an arts funding “review might look like” […]
“We’d be looking at that very, very carefully, calling it out when we see it in opposition, but as an incoming government, particularly in the arts portfolio, it’s something I will be looking at very carefully.
“Because I don’t think any fair and reasonable taxpayer in this country expects that their hard-earned taxpayer dollars should be going towards any person, we’re talking specifically here about people in the arts community that are promoting anti-Semitic content.”
Chandler is far from a right-wing ‘Philistine’ (no pun intended). She is simply determined to stop the loudmouth left from dominating discourse.
Senator Chandler, who is a classically trained singer and musical theatre fan, backed the nation’s arts sector, declaring it does a “wonderful job” and stimulates economic activity. She also lamented the lack of performances and support for artists in the regions.
Despite a series of high-profile protests against Israel in the sector, Senator Chandler said perceptions the arts world was dominated by the left were misconceived, arguing there were many conservative voices in the creative sphere who were less vocal.
Chandler is also a fierce advocate for women’s rights and has been personally targeted with lawfare bullying by ‘transgender’ activists.
The firebrand gender advocate also vowed to continue her push for the rights of biological women not to compete against transgender athletes and access “single-sex spaces”, such as change rooms […]
Senator Chandler said she stuck by her beliefs about transgender athletes competing in women’s sport and the “reality of biological sex”, and would continue to advocate for them in “whatever position I hold”. She added she supports the right of Australians to “speak freely“ about any issue.
On another front, a putative Dutton government would put an end to Australian taxpayer’s money being handed to green lawfare activists. That Australians’ own money should be weaponised against their own economic interests is the sort of idea that only a left-wing government could come up.
Already struggling to pay a $9m costs order after losing a high-profile case against energy giant Santos, the Environmental Defenders Office may be about to lose its charitable status. The federal opposition, which has said it will end the group’s $8.3m in government funding if elected, has referred it to the Charities Commission for investigation. For a nation that takes Indigenous cultural heritage seriously, Australia needs to be equally serious about how it sanctions those who confect and construct it […]
Coalition resources spokeswoman Susan McDonald confirmed she had referred the “radical” group for investigation after it was severely chastised by a judge who heard its bid to block a gas export pipeline north of Darwin.
At particular issue is the obviously confected bullshit of claiming that there are ‘sacred sites’ at the bottom of the ocean. Or that primitive myths about the oogabooga spirits should be taken seriously by any rational court.
In the Federal Court case against Santos Energy, the EDO represented the Indigenous Tiwi Islanders in a bid to prevent the oil and gas company from developing its $5.8b gas export pipeline.
It argues that the development could disturb “Jirakupai” or the “Crocodile Man songline,” which runs from Cape Fourcroy on the westernmost point of Bathurst Island into the deep sea near the pipeline route.
They were also concerned about the potential impact on an ancestral being of fundamental importance in their culture called Ampiji, a rainbow serpent.
What next? Spending millions recording whale songs and playing them back to trees?
Oh, wait…
