Nineteen-year-old Edward Bourke, the leader of Victoria Forward (VA), fancies himself an up-and-coming antipodean Steve Bannon, albeit with an affected Etonian sensibility. His suits may not be cut to Savile Row standards — but if there’s one quality he shares with his Tory and Republican heartthrobs, it’s an inflated sense of self-importance.

His organization has taken responsibility for many of Victoria’s anti-lockdown protests which have attracted desultory numbers and occasionally clashed with police. One protest even targeted the family farm where the funeral of Victoria premier Daniel Andrews’s father was held.

Although the protesters project the image of a ragtag army assembled to defend hard-won freedoms, this is no organic grassroots movement. Well-connected think tanks and advocacy organizations funded by the same sources as the Liberal Party have stoked up the protests. And much like the US Tea Party movement, their goal is not simply to replace a center-left government with a center-right one. Rather, they want to push Victorian politics to the hard right.