A West n independent MP has changed his name to ‘Aussie Trump’ in an extraordinary piece of pre-election marketing.
The Upper House MP formerly known as Ben Dawkins legally changed his name to Austin Letts Trump – though he prefers ‘Aussie’ – ahead of the March 8 state election.
The change appeared Thursday on the parliament website, on his updated Wikipedia page, and he will appear on the ballot for the election as ‘Aussie Trump’.
Mr Trump, then known as Mr Dawkins, was a member of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation from February last year until he resigned in December after a falling out with the political party.
He said he was a fan of Donald Trump’s style and was encouraged by his successful presidential election campaign.
‘I admire the fact that he’s, in a very short period of time, unwound some of the absurd nonsense that the left has pushed through,’ he said.
He claimed the ‘authoritarian Labor government’ has repeatedly pushed through legislation in WA without allowing the upper house to properly ‘scrutinize and debate’ the bills.
‘It’s totally unacceptable what they’ve done, and there needs to be a political process like this to draw people’s attention to it.’
The Bunbury-based politician has previously rallied against Covid vaccine mandates, changes to gender terminology and high immigration levels, and said more Trump-style ‘truth bombs’ were needed in n political debate.
He was a Labor candidate at the 2021 state election but was expelled from the party after he was convicted for restraining order breaches.
The breaches were in the form of a barrage of emails he sent his ex-partner after their relationship broke down.
There was no violence involved, but the magistrate described his conduct as belittling and emotionally manipulative.
‘You described your offending as trivial,’ Magistrate Johnston said, reported WAToday in 2023.
‘You’ve deliberately breached the court order multiple times, and you told the person protected that you knew you were breaching it.
‘You’re effectively saying to that person you will do as you please.’
His defence lawyer told the court both parties had since agreed to a parenting plan and resolved a property dispute.
The newly dubbed Mr Trump’s webpage says he ‘opposes political correctness and ‘woke’ agendas’.
WA’s Labor government is expected to retain power at the state election, albeit with a reduction in its current huge majority.
Analysts say the Liberal and National parties could regain previously held blue-ribbon seats but are unlikely to secure enough to oust Labor premier Roger Cook.
Labor holds 53 seats in the lower house with the Liberals and Nationals holding three each.
To win government the conservative parties would need to pull off an extraordinary turnaround, political analyst John Phillimore said.
‘Labor won by so much last time, almost everybody’s expectation is they will win,’ said Professor Phillimore, the executive director of Curtin University’s John Curtin Institute of Public Policy.
‘There haven’t been any major scandals and they haven’t caused too much upset to too many people.’
Prof Phillimore said Labor would undoubtedly lose some seats to the Liberal-National alliance but it would still have a ‘comfortable’ victory.
Labor’s 2017 victory was the party’s biggest in the state’s history at that time, claiming 41 seats to the conservatives’ 18.
That result was surpassed in 2021 when then-premier Mark McGowan led Labor to an unprecedented landslide victory, primarily due to the party’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and its closed border policy.
‘To win the election, the (Liberal and Nationals have) to between them effectively win 25 seats,’ Prof Phillimore said.
‘That just seems far too many steps for them to take.’