Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest person and a major donor to the Liberal Party, urged the country’s conservatives to stare down the weekend’s election wipe-out and lean in to policies like those of US President Donald Trump.

Rinehart, an ardent and vocal supporter of Trump, issued a lengthy statement Monday morning following Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s historic election win at the weekend. The result saw him achieve a majority in parliament for his center-left Labor Party, while Liberal leader Peter Dutton lost his seat.

In her statement, Rinehart called for Australians to “stay and fight for understanding of the changes Australia needs,” and to look more closely at the “common sense and truth” in the US.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-05/billionaire-rinehart-urges-australian-right-to-embrace-trump

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  • @NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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    145 days ago

    Yeah, we said the same thing about the MAGA idiots, and Trump back in 2016. Thought having Trump on the ticket would make Hillary an easy shoe-in. Turns out they were wrong.

    • Hegar
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      95 days ago

      Australia has compulsory voting, parties with only minority support can’t win by suppressing turnout.

      • Atelopus-zeteki
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        75 days ago

        The US has a party that promotes voting and voting rights, and alas another which does everything possible to prevent voting.

    • @WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      I would have agreed with you up until last week, where the Aussie conservatives (including all MAGA/cooker parties) had their greatest defeat since the 1940’s.

      Australia is definitely not immune, but the best defence against fascism appears to be the consequences of fascism. Thanks America! Now fix your shithole cuntry.

    • @Arkouda@lemmy.ca
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      -25 days ago

      Not every country has an illiteracy rate of 75%, so it isn’t a shock that US citizens were wrong about something.

      • AmidFuror
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        95 days ago

        It’s that attitude of “it can’t happen here” that will get you into trouble. You need to remain vigilant.

      • @Funky_Beak@lemmy.sdf.org
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        55 days ago

        We actively encourage kids to enter the work force at 15 nationally so I wouldn’t be overtly confident about the status quo in Australia.

        • @Arkouda@lemmy.ca
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          -25 days ago

          I was in the workforce at the age of 10 and can read at a post secondary level so I am unsure what this has to do with literacy rates.

      • @NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Dude, pretty much every person in the U.S. can read. You have the statistic backward, 70% of people have an at or above average literacy rate.

        Edit: Besides, it’s not reading that got us Trump, it’s billionaires and Fox News. Russia, China, and any other not friendly country to the U.S. disinformation campaigns have been rampant for a decade or more now.

        • @Arkouda@lemmy.ca
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          55 days ago

          21% of the country is clinically illiterate. In the remaining 79%, 54% read at or below a 6th grade level. This means that about 75% of US adults are functionally or clinically illiterate.

          This impacts their ability to think critically because they cannot comprehend the “facts” they are told to read because the language is above that of a 6th grader allowing propaganda to flourish.

          • Atelopus-zeteki
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            45 days ago

            I just looked up the numbers Wednesday, in a similar question comparing US to Canada. You are squarely in the middle of the error bars with your numbers, alas, speaking as one USian who is actually able to read and comprehend.