Trump may have aided Australian PMs election victory: analysts [Video]

Donald Trump’s stinging trade tariffs may have helped Australia’s left-leaning prime minister snatch a resounding election victory Saturday, analysts say.

Unlike Canada’s Trump-swayed vote three days earlier, the US president was far from the biggest concern for voters who backed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, academics said.

But some said Trump nevertheless appeared to have a significant impact on the governing Labor Party’s late turnaround in the opinion polls, and the emphatic election result.

After trailing three months ago, Labor overtook opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative coalition and led a string of polls up to election day.

Dutton’s perceived “Trump-lite” policies — such as axing public service jobs in a drive for government efficiency — had turned some voters off, said Henry Maher, politics lecturer at the University of Sydney.

“Of course, there are other concerns — cost of living, defence, health and everything else,” he told AFP.

“But if we …