The "Australia first" push that has followed the election of Donald Trump is already producing unlikely alliances across party lines, with Nationals MP George Christensen echoing Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's call for a crackdown on 457 foreign worker visas.
Seemingly alert to the prospect of America's populist, protectionist, anti-establishment bug crossing the Pacific, Mr Shorten has targeted the traditional Labor base in recent days, ramping up his rhetoric about protecting domestic jobs with new plans to curb overseas labour.
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Bill Shorten has revealed his plan to put Australian workers first but Malcolm Turnbull says it's hypocritical and opportunistic. Courtesy ABC News 24.
He has been joined by Mr Christensen, a maverick Queensland conservative and avowed Trump supporter, who says "there is no need for the issuance of any further 457 foreign worker visas in our region" where unemployment is high.
"I will be writing to the Minister for Immigration, the Minister for Employment, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister today requesting that no further 457 visas be issued for jobs in the Central and North Queensland regions. After all, Australian jobs should be for Australian workers," he said in a statement on Facebook.
Mr Christensen's intervention is the latest example of conservative Coalition backbenchers breaking ranks with the government. They have successfully agitated for action on section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, changes to the superannuation reform package and the backpacker tax.
In a speech on Sunday, Mr Shorten declared: "It is time to build Australian first, buy Australian first in our contracts and employ Australians first."
"We in the house of Labor must understand that in the mining towns, the manufacturing suburbs and regional communities of our country our fellow Australians are hungry for recognition, hungry for Australia's political parties and leaders to recognise that the economy is not currently working in the interests of ordinary Australians," he said.
Labor wants to force employers to demonstrate they have genuinely tested the Australian market prior to hiring foreign employees and make companies with large overseas-sourced workforces provide training schemes.
Mr Shorten said the visa system shouldn't allow foreign workers so easily "where you've got lots of unemployed Australians".
"Mr Turnbull needs to stop acting for the global economy, talking about the easy movement of labour around the world, and recognise that what Australians want is they want to make sure that their kids are getting a fair crack at the jobs that go here," he said.
On Monday, the Opposition Leader drew praise from uncomfortable quarters, with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson observing: "When you look at Bill Shorten's recent rhetoric, it seems Labor is now taking its cues from Pauline Hanson's One Nation. Good to see."
With four Senate seats, One Nation is claiming to be the Australian answer to President-elect Trump's anti-immigration, protectionist policy platform, which won over traditionally Democrat voting regions that have experienced manufacturing and mining industry decline.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has fired back at Mr Shorten's Australian worker push, calling it "breathtaking hypocrisy".
"The highest number of 457 visas were granted when he was the employment minister," Mr Turnbull said.
"Around a third more 457 visas were granted when he was employment minister than have been granted over the last 12 months. Bill Shorten was in the Olympic grade of granting 457 visas."
Mr Shorten has heavily criticised various positions held by Mr Trump and rejected suggestions that Labor was adopting an anti-globalisation stance.
"There was nothing new in what we're saying," he said on Sunday. "You'll see me today in that speech, saying we've got to embrace Asia. We've got to have an outward-looking economic system. We've got to grab the benefits of trade. We want to make sure our manufacturers are part of global supply chains.
"That ticks all the boxes of saying we need to engage in our region and the wider world. But what I will never do is apologise for putting Australian jobs first."
Taking another leaf from the Trump campaign playbook, the Prime Minister has targeted the "elite media" for distracting from a focus on economic growth and jobs.
"I would have thought, after this last election in the United States, people might focus less on the polls and less on the opinions of commentators on the ABC, or other elite media outlets, and focus more on what people are actually saying," he told 7.30 on Monday night.
Mr Turnbull was joined in his criticism by Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who said: "People do believe that Canberra and other areas, and to be honest the ABC at times, get fascinated in questions that are inside the beltway that have zero and nothing to do with our lives out there."
One of Mr Turnbull's headline reasons for ousting Tony Abbott in September 2015 was that the government had been behind in "30 Newspolls in a row".
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