President-Elect Donald J. Trump

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (15:27): I rise this afternoon to speak on an event that I think has sent shockwaves around the world, and it has certainly been concerning to many South Australians—that is, the re-election of Donald Trump to the US presidency.

A lot has been said about the implications of this for the left of politics, and I will talk a little bit about that today but I also want to talk about some of the lessons for the right of politics and in particular to warn the South Australian Liberal Party from going too far down that path, because, of course, we know the United States is very different from South Australia.

For the left of politics I think it is very clear that people want to actually see progressive political parties talk about their economic concerns and to engage in what is going wrong with our economic system. It is very clear in the United States, after years of rising inflation, that people are really struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table, and the Democrats, because they have become an establishment neoliberal party, are not offering the solutions that people crave.

Might I say the other big takeaway for me, looking at what happened in the United States, was the Democratic Party's capitulation to the State of Israel and the fact that they have signed up holus bolus to that military conflict. These are some warning signs, I think, for the Albanese Labor government. We know that Albanese Labor has been an apologist for the State of Israel and the mass murder of innocent people in Palestine and across the Middle East in a way that I think has been utterly deplorable, and there has been a failure of leadership from the federal Labor Party on that score.

Also, federal Labor is failing to do anything meaningful about the cost-of-living crisis that is facing our country at the moment. What we are seeing from the federal Labor Party, as we saw from the Democrats over in the United States, is a tinkering around the edges and a lack of engagement with the everyday concerns of people in the community, and so I do urge the Labor Party at a federal level to do better.

I think it is also important to note that the Liberals should not get their hopes up here in South Australia either because, whilst this sort of Trumpian hard-right politics does have a lot of currency in the United States at the moment, I do not think it is electorally popular in South Australia. I have been contacted by lots of South Australians who have been appalled by the way in which some of those Trumpian tactics have been imported into South Australia in recent weeks.

I was pretty appalled to hear all members of the Liberal Party, other than the Hon. Michelle Lensink, oppose the ban on conversion practices—a pretty straightforward proposition and one that would accord with the views of most South Australians. But so extreme are their views that none of them could bring themselves to back such a sensible reform.

I was appalled by the antics that we saw in relation to the termination bill, and we have talked a lot about that in the chamber over recent weeks. So I say to the Liberal Party: do not go down that path. Do not go getting any ideas because whilst the anti-establishment wave that has hit the United States is no doubt going to have an impact here in Australia, we do politics differently here in South Australia, and I urge the Liberal Party not to forget that.

I will use my final minute on the clock to say I have been contacted by lots of young people who have felt really desperately sad and hopeless about the state of the world following the US election. I share your sense of sadness and grief at what has happened with the return of a racist, sexist, misogynist man to the presidency of the United States. All I can say is do not lose hope. Now is not the time to retreat, now is the time to get active. Get involved with community groups, continue your activist work, connect with like-minded people. Now is the time for us on the progressive side of politics to continue to work together so that we can make the world a better place, and I know that this time will pass.