Labor says 'snobby disdain' for disadvantaged led to rise of Trump and Hanson

The Labor frontbencher Jim Chalmers will launch a plea for Australian politicians to engage with the group of voters “trampled” by the impact of globalisation and technological change – arguing Hillary Clinton may have lost the US election when she branded Trump supporters a “basket of deplorables”.

In a speech to be delivered at the Queensland University of Technology on Monday, Chalmers will warn progressive politics to avoid expressions of “sneering, snobby disdain” for people who are being left behind in Australia’s economic transformation.

Chalmers will speculate that it is possible Clinton lost last week because of the derisive comment about Trump’s base. “The clarification that followed and her references to the economic desperation – not quite a basket of desperates – did not salve the wound she had opened up,” he will say.

The shadow finance minister will argue Australian politics needs to come to grips with lived experiences in the electorate. “We need to understand those who supported [Trump] and why, and what that means for us.”

Monday’s speech from Chalmers adds to contributions from Labor frontbenchers in recent weeks analysing Brexit, the rise of Trump and the return of Hansonism in the Australian political scene.

Chalmers will use his speech to express concern about the anti-establishment trends in advanced democracies and to argue the problem in many quarters is being “misdiagnosed and misunderstood”.

He suggests people are looking too closely at the expressions of nativism and xenophobia from the Trumps and Hansons and not closely enough at the underlying economic conditions fuelling the backlash.

“In some quarters and including here in Australia in respect to One Nation, there’s an over-reliance on the dark and disgraceful cultural, racial and religious elements of the populist revolt which obscures its fundamental economic underpinnings,” he will say.

“I’m worried that this failure to understand the underlying problem jeopardises our ability to respond effectively. I’m worried the Turnbull government shares in this failure.

“Because, for as long as governments like our own ignore or even exacerbate and accelerate the undercurrents which convince people they have no place in the modern economy, that they have nothing to lose, extreme and populist parties will thrive.”

Chalmers argues while Australia avoided the global economic downturn and skills and capital destruction in the US during the global financial crisis, he says there are, nonetheless, harbingers of profound economic alienation in Australia.

He cites a contraction in manufacturing jobs, extensive underemployment, wages growth at record lows, living standards 1.9% below the level they were at the 2013 election and a decline in the labour share of national income.

He says there’s an overlap between the voters who supported Trump in the recent presidential race and Australians who supported One Nation in the last federal election.

“People who are drawn to [Pauline Hanson’s] hateful rhetoric share the same economic fears for themselves and their families as those who backed Trump in the US. And, while there isn’t as much analysis done on Hanson’s supporters as Trump’s, we know they are similar – typically older, whiter and less educated.”

The speech warns explicitly against expressions of “sneering snobby disdain” for Trump and Hanson supporters from the progressive side of politics.

Chalmers assigns these sentiments in the speech to the Greens and the “far left” – although he acknowledges a centre-left candidate like Clinton fell into this trap as well.

He says progressive politicians need to be clear their problem is with Hanson, not with her base. “Arrogantly attacking people with real fears and real economic concerns will make things worse.”

He will say politicians must not respond to Hansonism by trying to outdo her on xenophobia. “Neither of the first two choices – sneering disdain or focusing on race and religion – will work because they ignore the fundamental drivers of this problem.”

Chalmers will say the only valid approach is to deal constructively with the economic anxieties by protecting the social safety net, protecting universal healthcare and ensuring adequate industrial protections.

If practical steps aren’t taken, the current trends will gather pace.

“If we don’t listen, if we don’t learn, if we don’t put all our energy into this task, if we don’t find a place for them in the economy, if we don’t get closer to those we represent, we don’t deserve their support,” he will say.

“More people will head for the polar extremes of politics, there will be more Trumps and more Hansons, more supporters with nothing to lose.”