Why John Howard thinks Australians are sick of political correctness

John Howard reckons there are two issues that helped Donald Trump win over American voters, and they’re ones the former prime minister closely identifies with himself,

Political correctness and “identity politics” were key to Trump’s success, Howard told a corporate crowd at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia lunch in Sydney yesterday, Fairfax News reported.

Americans, like Australians, are resentful of the “avalanche of political correctness,” Howard said.

“I think political correctness has become a problem in Western societies, we’ve become far too apologetic about our Western identity and anything that’s a sense of some kind of defence of cultural traditionalism or national identity is in many ways frowned upon,” Fairfax reported him as saying.

Meanwhile, the Democrats suffered from an excess of identity politics, he said, apparently a reference to the fact that Hillary Clinton, Trump’s presidential election rival, came with a loaded history in politics that was offputting to many voters.

“There is nothing new about people who are economically insecure or dispossessed trying to reach out to some sort of new champion,” he said.

The Australian reported from the same event that Howard noted Australia was “going through a very challenging stage politically,” in which a fragmented Senate was making it difficult for prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to push through legislation, as it did for predecessor Tony Abbott.

Are you sick of being politically correct or have you never worried about being so? Do you think Australia’s Senate is functioning well or are independents and other minor parties preventing the Coalition from governing?