Australian demagogues, home grown right wing extremists and hard line conservatives within the Liberal National Party government will be watching the French election result and wondering what implications it may have for their own brand of politics.
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Emmanuel Macron's overwhelming victory over France's One Nation equivalent, the National Front, is a timely reminder that while extremists on the fringes can, from time to time, determine election outcomes, most votes are clustered around the centre.
Despite fears the same forces that saw Britons vote for Brexit and put Donald Trump in the White House could deliver victory to the National Front's Marine Le Pen, centrist candidate, Emmanuel Macron, romped home this week.
The Kennedy-esque 39-year-old, the youngest French leader since Napoleon Bonaparte, kept Le Pen's vote well under 40 per cent. This was the figure the populist right winger had earlier nominated as the cut-off between a good performance and a bad one for her party.
Macron, a former philosophy student, investment banker and Socialist Party government member also beat out France's major parties to take the top spot.
Neither the Socialists nor the Republicans were able to win favour with a jaundiced electorate that looked towards an outsider with new ideas and a vision for change. It was, in the words of one commentator who noted "illiberal populism is, it turns out, so 2016", France's "Obama moment".
The French election result comes at a time when similar forces are in play in this country.
Recent elections, including the nail biting return of the Turnbull Government, have been marked by a growing disenchantment with the mainstream political parties.
This has witnessed a resurgence in support for Pauline Hanson's One Nation brand, the establishment of new political parties built around disenchanted conservative factions and a fall in support for the LNP and Labor.
An immediate consequence of this has been a "race to the bottom" by mainstream politicians for extreme positions on refugees, national security, economic policy and employment.
It is the inevitable consequence of a swing to the right in Australian politics that has been taking place for several decades.
The lesson to be taken from the election of Mr Macron and his En Marche movement is that mainstream political parties move away from the centre at their peril. Voters drift away from that centre when they become disenchanted with those supposed to occupy that space, but given a sensible option will readily support a party or candidate that represents a moderate, balanced position.
While populist extremism, fleshed out with florid rhetoric and wedge politics in the style now made familiar by Donald Trump, Ms Le Pen, Pauline Hansen, and Cory Bernardi may influence an election or two it has a limited shelf life.
The majority of Australian voters are thoughtful, concerned and compassionate people; not outliers driven by self-interest and a fear of those different.
Political groups that swing too far to the right or the left of this mark run a serious risk of becoming a brand no reasonable Australian would want to be associated with.
