Australia's far right should get the message: it's not all right, mate

THE political party room coup against Malcolm Turnbull, until last week the Australian Prime Minister, is really another manifestation of a drift to the far right that has been evident of late in Western Europe and the US.

This outbreak of xenophobia and populism was first observed in Hungary and Poland before it gripped France, Holland, Britain and the United States. Indeed, in the past decade, far right politicians in several Western countries have joined in coalition with mainstream free-marketeers and this has helped normalise their views.

In Mr Turnbull's case, he was accused of ignoring the country's conservatives and embracing leftist issues such as same sex marriage. He was further said to have been soft on China, especially its growing commercial presence in the South Pacific. Many right-wing Australian politicians see the South Pacific region as an exclusive bailiwick for people of European descent. But the most potent allegation against him was that he continued to allow large scale immigration when public sentiment was against it.