By Alasdair Pal
SYDNEY (Reuters) – An Australian state lawmaker has changed his name to “Aussie Trump”, in what he said was a protest against the country’s ruling centre-left Labor Party.
Trump, formerly known as Ben Dawkins, is an independent lawmaker in Western Australia’s (WA) upper house of parliament, where Labor also has a majority.
“I’ve launched a political protest against the tyranny and systematic corruption of the Labor government in WA,” he wrote in a post on X late on Wednesday, signing off as “Aussie”.
“Vote Labor Out! & Drill Baby Drill!,” he wrote in a second post, echoing U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to increase extraction of oil and gas in the United States.
The lawmaker’s name on the parliament’s website has been updated to Austin (Aussie) Letts Trump.
He also posted a photo on X showing legal confirmation of the name change from the state’s Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
The Australian Trump was expelled from the Labor Party in 2023 for multiple alleged breaches of family violence restraining orders.
“This is simply attention-seeking stuff,” Western Australia’s Premier Roger Cook, who leads Labor in the state, said of the name change at a press conference on Thursday.
“I’m not sure how much lower he can go.”
Labor faces a state vote in resource-rich Western Australia next month, before the country goes to the polls in a nationwide election that must be held by May.
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Jamie Freed)
