Chinese Communist Party CCP
The Coalition is warning of a red threat (Image: Reuters/Carlos Barria)

War is on the horizon and communists are inside your house — or so Scott Morrison wants you to think.

The past two weeks of parliamentary debate gave us some classic Cold War cultural references. The ’50s nostalgia is real. In case you weren’t alive then, here’s a rundown of what it all means and what to look out for in what’s sure to be a national security-heavy election.

Manchurian candidate

The most jarring of cultural references to come out of yesterday’s debate was Morrison labelling Labor’s deputy leader Richard Marles a “Manchurian candidate”. Although the prime minister was forced to withdraw, it left many aghast at the seriousness of the allegation as proof of the lengths he was willing to go to plant the seeds of a national security scare campaign. 

The Manchurian Candidate was a 1959 novel by Richard Condon. The son of a US political family was the central character, brainwashed to become an agent for a communist conspiracy. Morrison’s claim about Marles came in reference to a speech Marles gave in China in 2019 around political and economic cooperation.

Even aside from Morrison’s direct use of the term, the Coalition has been heavily implying this conclusion in Parliament with its rhetoric around Labor being China’s preferred government. 

Defence Minister Peter Dutton got the closest when he said last week that the Chinese Communist Party had “made a decision about who they’re going to back in the next federal election … and they have picked this bloke [Albanese] as that candidate”.

Fellow traveller

Morrison also managed to drop another Cold War communism reference in his speech, this one even more obscure. Referring to countries that have “chosen to intimidate this country”, he said: “They will not find a fellow traveller when it comes to threats and coercion against Australia in my government.”

“Fellow traveller” is a term straight out of the 1950s that was unfavourably used to describe a communist sympathiser. It was usually used on politicians or academics who weren’t card-carrying members but were seen as a threat for not outwardly condemning communism. 

New world order

For the conspiracy theorists out there, the new world order is the suggestion that there are designs for an authoritarian government to take control of the entire world. It is being thrown around in mainstream media, and in its slightly more palatable form suggests a new global structure where China replaces the US as the world’s superpower.

Panic bubbled up after Russia and China flaunted their increasingly tight bond at the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics and said their relationship would be “superior to political and military alliances of the Cold War era”. Reactions ranged from panic to downplaying it as a run-of-the-mill PR stunt. Either way, no matter what side of the divide you fall on, everyone’s nostalgic for the ’50s. 

Reds under the bed

Communist panic in the ’50s led to the coining of the term “reds under the bed”, depicting some sort of communist bogyman who lurks unseen in familiar places. Morrison appears to be preying on fears of foreign interference. Some in the media are already calling this a “reds under the bed” scare campaign. 

Shanghai Sam

Another low blow in the fear-mongering stakes came in the form of the moniker Morison gave Labor senator Sam Dastyari after he resigned over donations tied to the Chinese government. While he tried to deny ever saying it (see lie number 45), it was a lazy and racist attempt at humiliating the former senator.