ISABELLE MULLEN: Peter Dutton picks up Republican playbook on economy and immigration ahead of election

Australia is a very different place to the United States.

And Peter Dutton is a very different person to Donald Trump.

But ahead of the next Federal election Dutton is looking at Trump’s winning strategy and building his campaign on the same formula.

The cost of living and immigration.

Anthony Albanese shouldn’t knock it; it’s proved to be a winning ticket.

A combination of aspiration and fear that put Donald Trump — who was facing jail time — back in the White House.

Dutton hasn’t missed a beat.

He told reporters that Australians have been talking about the same issues as the US for years.

“Certainly cost of living, certainly interest rates, certainly migration,” he said.

He’s painted a picture of an out-of-touch Prime Minister, who’s lost his way by focusing on issues of the heart like the failed voice referendum.

“I want interest rates to come down as quickly as possible, but I just don’t think they will under an Albanese Government,” Dutton said.

If you believe the latest polls, it seems the Federal Government is not getting much credit for its cost-of-living relief.

Dutton has described the parallels between the United States and Australia as “eerie.”

What’s he got to lose?

Maybe that’s why his language has become increasingly similar to Donald Trump’s.

At most press conferences Peter Dutton now asks a winning question: “Are you better off now than you were three years ago?”

A question Donald Trump asked hundreds of times while he was on his campaign trail.

It’s a hard one to argue with when people are doing it tough.

Most Australians won’t look at global factors when casting their vote. They will look at their hip pocket.

The party perceived to put more in it will win.

And then there’s immigration.

Dutton has long tied immigration to a key household concern — Australia’s housing crisis.

He argues that immigration has increased demand for housing, inflating the market and ensuring first homeowners can’t get into it.

“When you bring in 1 million people over two years and you don’t plan for it, it creates social tension and it creates supply issues,” he said.

Just like Trump, the Coalition’s message is that immigrants are coming to take something that should be yours.

It’s a dangerous message because it can breed racism and fear, but for many, it cuts through because it validates their frustration.

Dutton isn’t threatening to build a wall but he is promising to cut permanent migration by 25 per cent and slap a two-year ban on foreign investors buying property.

As a former Queensland police officer, Dutton’s “tough on crime” persona won’t hurt him either.

Just look at the Queensland election result.

And then there’s the illegal boat arrivals debate.

The old political football returned to Parliament earlier this year when groups of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India made their way to WA.

At the time, Dutton said it wouldn’t have happened under the Coalition, telling reporters: “People smugglers will always take advantage of a weak prime minister.”

The Coalition has long sold itself as the party that is tougher on the borders, just as Donald Trump claimed the Biden administration was “letting millions and millions of people in unchecked and unvetted”.

In this case, Dutton’s claim is baseless.

According to defence experts Operation Sovereign Borders has more funding under Labor than it did under the Coalition.

But fear can be a winning strategy. The Prime Minister knows this.

He took the immigration portfolio from Andrew Giles earlier this year after a series of bungled explanations on how and why immigration detainees — some murderers and rapists — were released into the community.

After all, in politics — as in life — perception is everything.