There are those in Australia who look across the Pacific and wonder what it would be like to have a Trump-style government, and whether such a calamity could happen here. The correct answer, of course, is not only that it could but that it is happening right now.

Yes, some of the more horrific aspects of the Trump presidency – the alleged collusion with Russian forces, for example – are absent, but from a policy sense there is little that would see Turnbull wishing to be separate from Trump.

Tax cuts that favour the wealthy? Hell yes. The Turnbull government’s key economic policy has been to bring in tax cuts which when fully completed will overwhelmingly favour the wealthy and which will exacerbate income inequality.

Tax cuts for corporations? Yes please! While the Turnbull government has been unable to get the bulk of its company tax cuts through, there are few doubts that they won’t occur. Pauline Hanson is expected to give the government her support once the Longman byelection is out of the way and she doesn’t have to explain to voters why she supported a policy most of them do not.

A willingness to hit the racial dog-whistle? Why certainly. The signs are already here that the next election is going to be a horror show of talk about migrants and crime and blaming immigration for everything from wages to housing prices to congestion, and all coated with a very thin veneer of racial anxiety.

Trump has spent much of the past year talking up fears of the MS-13 gangs to such an extent that despite no evidence of any growing activity, 85% of those who voted for Trump now believe the gang is a very serious or a somewhat serious “national threat”.

For Malcolm Turnbull and his government, substitute MS-13 for “African gangs” in Melbourne. Last week on 3AW Turnbull responded to Neil Mitchell’s question of whether he believed “people in Melbourne are frightened to go to restaurants because of Sudanese gangs?” by saying, “Well I’ve heard that from people in Melbourne and Neil you’re a person in Melbourne. Well I’ve heard it, I’ve heard people, colleagues from Melbourne say that there is a real anxiety about crime in Melbourne. It is a real issue.”

There was a time Turnbull might have been expected to take a stand against such fear-mongering. A time when “heard it from people” would not within a sentence turn into “a real issue”. But those days are long gone.

He might not be as vulgar as Trump, but Turnbull is just as willing to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

And what about thin-skinned responses to criticism? The ongoing attempts from the Turnbull government to discredit the ABC is only marginally less subtle than Trump’s railing against the “fake media”.

The Turnbull government is not content to merely seek to have the ABC remove content it finds displeasing. This week the health department sought to have the parliamentary library take down a post which highlighted just how weak are the privacy provisions surrounding the My Health Record.

I suspect that censoring those who are pointing out reasons the public should not trust a government service is not the best way to have the public believe they can trust that service – or their government.

And finally, how about a preference for big business?

As we have seen with the company tax cuts that is certainly evident, but a perfect example of where the Turnbull government’s priorities lie came this week with the announcement of Nine taking over Fairfax.

The deal is a terrible one for those who value a diverse media. I suggested on Twitter that talk the new company would have “plenty of Fairfax DNA” was like saying the Brisbane Lions have plenty of Fitzroy DNA. But as a few people pointed out to me, at least Brisbane kept the “Lion” name and also makes an effort to keep the Fitzroy legacy alive as best it can.

That the new company couldn’t even be bothered keeping “Fairfax” in a manner similar to “Seven West Media” or “Time Warner” shows how little care there is about what Fairfax represents, and does not bode well.

You can blame the Fairfax management – and it sure as heck deserves plenty – but this takeover would not have occurred had the Turnbull government not removed the cross-media ownership laws last year.

That legislation – made possible with the support of One Nation, Nick Xenophon and Derryn Hinch – was designed to provoke such takeovers. It is not about competition in the free market, it is not about greater diversity of media voices or giving media companies a better ability to hold governments and corporations to account.

It is about – as is inevitably all pro-business legislation – ensuring consolidation of power in the market.

In defending the legislation this week Turnbull stated that “all the media companies strongly supported these laws”. It was a view parroted by the communications minister, Mitch Fifeld, justifying the legislation because it was supported by “Nine, Seven, Ten, WIN, Prime, Southern Cross Austereo, News Limited, Fairfax, Free TV, Commercial Radio Australia and Fox”.

Yes, companies wanting to buy other companies and companies wanting to be bought by other companies liked the legislation. I am shocked.

It does highlight how the government will default to doing what business wants rather than what might be best for workers, or in this case our democratic society.

If business says it is what is needed, well then that is what is supplied, and that is how it is justified.

It all makes for a pretty awful mix. And while those in the US are wondering whether the changes wrought by the Trump presidency can ever be undone, here too the impact of the Turnbull government will be long lived.