Musk
is ready to bankroll UK populist Farage.
Is Australia next?
By
Hans van Leeuwen
(The Australian Financial Review)
December 20, 2024
The Reform UK leader is potentially in line for a
massive injection of support from the X owner. Could
the billionaire be looking at Down Under, too?
London
| British populist leader Nigel Farage has been memorably
photographed drinking a pint of goats testicles
for a reality TV show in Australia, and copping a
banana milkshake all over his pinstripe suit while
campaigning in Essex.
But
a potentially more significant addition to his political
photo album emerged on social media this week, taken
at Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort. Standing
in front of an eye-catchingly tacky portrait of the
resorts owner is an awkward-looking trio: Farage,
his Reform UK partys money-bags treasurer, Nick
Candy, and Elon Musk.
Its
not the kind of photo that would be easy to explain
to a Martian although perhaps the astronautically
inclined Musk may one day get the chance to try. But
it has sent shockwaves across Britains Labour
and Conservative parties.
The
reason? Tesla founder and X owner Musk pumped high-octane
financial and tech support into Trumps election
bid and gave it lift-off. Now, he is mulling whether
he might similarly rev up Farages momentum in
Britain.
Newspaper
reports have suggested Musk could use Xs British
subsidiary to furnish Reform UK which has only
five MPs in the 650-seat House of Commons, but got
4 million votes in the July election and came second
in 98 seats with up to $US100 million ($157
million).
Farage
says that no cheques have been written, and that even
if Musk does decide to pony up the dough it will be
nothing like this much.
But
even half that figure would be a game-changer: it
would still be four times the size of Lord Sainsburys
2023 donation to the Tories, which was the largest
in UK political history. Come Britains 2029
election, all bets would be off.
That
seems a long way away. But theres an election
happening a lot sooner than 2029 in another anglophone
democracy: Australia.
As
a thought experiment, imagine if Pauline Hansons
One Nation was given $100 million and the keys to
X. Politics certainly wouldnt stand still.
Could
Musk visit his populist-reformist zeal on Australia,
too? Possibly even quietly encouraged by Mar-a-Lagos
Aussie habitués, such as Gina Rinehart? Looking
at what interests him about Britain might help answer
that question.
His
comments on Britain often relate to political stories
that have brought people onto the streets. Race-related
summer riots, for example, prompted him to post that
civil war is inevitable. The tractor protests
against inheritance tax had him claiming that the
UK was going full Stalin.
He
also backed the petition for a fresh election, saying
the people of Britain have had enough of a tyrannical
police state.
Farage
went on right-wing TV channel GB News this week with
a chapeau for all this: Musks fear, he said,
is that the two big parties are identikit, and that
the mother country of the English-speaking world
is frankly going down the tubes.
So
far, so UK-focused. But Britains Daily Telegraph
also reported that one of Musks chief concerns
is with the countrys Online Safety Act, which
puts onerous responsibilities on social media companies
to police their own content.
Musk
has also been watching this debate in Australia. When
an X user posted on Australias disinformation
bill in September, Musk retweeted it with a single
word: Fascists.
For
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and even for Opposition
Leader Peter Dutton, the concern should be that this
kernel of antipathy could metastasise into the kind
of antagonism he is venting at Britain.
Not
everyone is so sure. Sophia Gaston, a London-based
senior fellow at the Australian think tank ASPI, reckons
Musks embrace of Farage reflects a particular
beef with the way immigration and culture-war issues
are playing out in Britain.
My
instinct is that Australias leaders would need
to be seen to be failing consistently on these issues,
and over a long period of time to attract a similar
level of scrutiny, she said. And even
then, Australia will not be regarded as the same lodestar
for the future of the West as Britain will continue
to be.
So
Australias political establishment might need
to hope that Farage will keep hogging the Trump-Musk
limelight on the world stage allowing the election
Down Under to dwell safely in the shade. (The Australian
Financial Review)
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