Leader of the Liberal Party and aspiring prime minister Peter Dutton has officially kicked off the Opposition’s election campaign, unveiling the slogan his party will be using in the 2025 Federal Election. However, the “brand new” slogan seems to have a striking similarity to another slogan used in New Zealand.
Though the exact date for the upcoming election has not yet been announced by the Prime Minister, Dutton is hitting the ground running in his bid to boot Anthony Albanese from the Lodge.
Despite Dutton climbing in the polls, this feat would still require a historic win to make up for the massive number of seats the Liberals lost in the 2022 election. Additionally, it would mean Albanese’s government would be the first in 94 years to only last a single term.
Dutton knows he needs to pull out all the stops if he wants to win — which is why he revealed a shiny new slogan he hopes will score the favour of Aussie voters: “Get Australia Back on Track.”
These five words were plastered on banners, placards, and the podium where Dutton stood at the rally in the Melbourne seat of Chisholm, attended by numerous party loyalists.
Slight hitch though… the slogan isn’t exactly a new one.
Dutton’s new phrase strikes an inescapable resemblance to the slogan used by NZ’s conservative PM Christopher Luxon — “Get our country back on track” — which saw him oust the NZ Labour party in 2023.
Luxon won New Zealand’s 2023 election in a landslide, after an increasingly polarising campaign that criticised the sitting government’s economic management, and sparked some “anti-Maori” culture wars.
Won’t lie, that’s giving some major BDE (Big Dutton Energy), so would it really be a surprise if the slogan was borrowed?
While Dutton has not yet commented on the too-close-to-be-a-coincidence similarity, he has dismissed any allegations his slogan echoes another conservative world leader’s — US president elect Donald Trump.
“I saw a quote that I used in May and I think it was used in the American campaign and somehow then it was written up here that we were borrowing something from the Trump campaign,” Dutton told Sunrise on Monday morning.
“I think there are some pretty basic principles that are around that are shared across countries and communities and societies like ours, and one of them is that we do need to stand up for our values and what we believe in.”
The infamous “Make America Great Again” slogan has forever changed the political campaign game, to the extent that slogans sharing the sentiment of restoring a country’s former glory are often accused of copycatting.
Plus it’s not like copying a slogan is all that taboo.
If the result is an election win, then if the slogan ain’t broke don’t fix it. Hell, Aussie billionaire Clive Palmer literally copied MAGA during the 2019 election, with his typical Palmer shamelessness.
However, using the same slogan doesn’t mean the same result is locked in. We all saw how “Make Australia great” went for Clive.
So regardless of whether Dutton’s new slogan is parroting the NZ one, or even Trump’s, at the end of the day the real issue is if it resonates with Aussie voters on election day.
Labor has also gotten its election campaign underway, opting for a traditional three-word slogan: “Building Australia’s future”.
Though no official date for the upcoming election has been announced, the final date for it to be held is May 17, meaning we could be in for another four months of campaigning from both major parties.
If so, it’s gonna be a long few months folks. Best of luck.
Lead Image: Instagram/Peter Dutton.
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