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The campaigns and the final outcome of the Australian federal election, which took place on 21 May 2022, furnish a unique insight into the essentially right-wing nature of populism. The political phenomenon of populism can be defined as a construction of 'elites' based on identity, these being middle class and educated, as 'the enemy', while actual elites of wealth become the main policy beneficiaries. This has been termed a 'bait and switch' strategy. Before the election campaign, the Coalition had absorbed many aspects of populism, and populism was also being exploited to a very large degree by the One Nation Party, and by the United Australia Party. In addition, a noisy fringe of 'anti-vaxxers' were adopting the populist stance. Populism emerged frequently in the campaign, for instance in the transphobic rhetoric of candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves, the media output of Sky News, the publicity stunts of Prime Minister Morrison, and perhaps most persistently, in the propaganda of Clive Palmer and Craig Kelly from the UAP. However, despite all of this, the result of the election was a poor showing for the ONP and UAP, a victory of 'teal' independents in Liberal seats, and the Coalition's loss of 19 seats - a disaster for the Morrison approach. In speculating about the future of populism in Australia, this paper seeks to explore the implications of these results. Such speculation includes the possible replacement of traditional media by social media, and the retreat of the middle-class populist core to a more far-right ideological positioning.
KEY WORDS: Populism; bait-and-switch strategy; class; culture wars
Introduction
There is a vast recent literature on the subject of political populism, and it is not necessary to review it comprehensively for our purposes here. Most writers refer to the original 'Zeitgeist' article by Cas Mudde, published in Government and Opposition in 2004. While on the whole a perceptive and timely discussion of populism, this article tended to steer away from an ideological understanding of the phenomenon, partly dismissing it as a futile reaction to the inevitable rise of free-market policies (Mudde 2004: 555). The definition of populism by Mudde is useful, as it avoids reductionist arguments equating populism with 'common sense' and 'gut feeling' rhetoric, and also with vote buying via pork...