Brexit buys Turnbull some breathing space, by Alan Kohler. Some accurate wit here:

Bill Shorten’s pitch had been to buy votes with a temporary increase in the deficit, followed by a miraculous, unexplained return to surplus (admittedly not all that different from Treasury’s miracle).

Now the strategy has swung sharply from “pork for sale” to “more worry” — that is, the scare campaign over Medicare. Sandwich boards with “The end is nigh for Medicare” and “Save Medicare” have hastily replaced the Labor pork stall.

Meanwhile, the Coalition, having had no leadership upheaval for nine months, is campaigning on “stable government” and has surged in the polls as a result. Soothe not entice.

On the implications of Brexit:

Britain’s vote also destabilises Europe as a whole, which is why the stockmarkets on the continent fell so much on Friday night — far more than London: the possibility of countries within the eurozone exiting is far more dangerous than the UK doing so. …

And the truth is that two decades of the EU and its attempt to cram different peoples and cultures into the same lederhosen have simply not delivered on the promises that were made. As a result, a large and growing minority feel duped by the EU, which is understandable, because they were.

Why no populist movement in Australia? Unfortunately Kohler has been trained by the “PC” to describe as “extreme” those who believe what most everyone believed 20 years ago, before the rise of PC.

In Australia, the rise of the extreme right has perhaps been held in check by its own incompetence (i.e. the failure and sacking of the Abbott administration) and the fact that what you might call the viable Left — the Labor Party — is also committed to full border protection through offshore processing.