Trumpism is Australia’s new political game, by Robert Gottliebsen.

Part of the reason why the ALP is framing its policies towards so called fairness and can put small business to one side is that Australia’s population distribution is following the US and we are developing an underclass in certain defined areas.

Trump won the US Presidency by winning the seats where that underclass lived. The unsuccessful Democratic Party challenger Bernie Sanders also planned to target this same group but using left wing style policies. Bill Shorten is following Sanders.

Thanks to a study by NERA Economic Consulting, which Coles commissioned, we now have remarkable research showing where Australia’s equivalent of the US underclass lives and how they have been hit. Armed with this knowledge, Shorten can win without small business and in any event in some respects the Coalition is more dangerous to small business than the ALP because they pretend to be on the side of small business when they are an enemy. …

Better methodology to find those households and areas:

Traditionally maps of where the underprivileged live are calculated by income levels.

NERA took an entirely different approach and instead looked at cost of living increases in 537 Australian local government areas. …

So not only are these areas where the cost of living is rising the fastest but they are also the areas where income is the lowest — the classic US style underclass that delivered Trump to the White House. …

Heavily represented in the 200 areas where cost of living is rising fastest are a number of regional areas (mainly in South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and Victoria). But every state capital including Sydney and Melbourne has representation in the 200 — particularly in the outer metropolitan areas. …

Implications:

Any companies targeting their products need to understand that this underclass in Australia lives in specific areas that require a different marketing strategy. …

As Trump showed, any party that offers jobs — and in Australia lower energy, health and accommodation costs — to these people has a good chance of winning. …

The next Federal election will be like no other in recent history.

hat-tip Stephen Neil