The advantage of Albanese’s weakness in the campaign – which few voters knew about – is that Albanese does not carry much luggage. That could change, and quickly, and it won’t be enough to save it from a competition crisis, as we’ve seen during its campaign.
Peter Dutton, almost certainly anointed as the new leader of the opposition, is not the same. He is known, however, for his tough man wallets and the delight he has in priming the left.
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His forays into racial stereotypes – he said in 2018 that Melburnians were afraid to go out to dinner because of the “violence of African gangs”, and his 2016 comments on the “mistake” of resettling Muslim immigrants Lebanese in the 1970s were deeply disappointing.
Dutton is also known to boycott the apology to the stolen generations (which he later said he regretted), which will put him and his party in an interesting position when they respond to a referendum on the Voice in Parliament. . Dutton, as a former Queensland police officer, has seen the disadvantage of Aboriginal people up close, and may have believed that the apology was symbolic.
But symbols matter in politics, and Uluru’s heartfelt statement is not a sign of virtue on the part of a white awake minority. In addition, what the far right of the Liberal Party calls “awakening” is becoming more and more common, especially when these issues are framed as many of them are: a demand for equity.
Dutton, like the man who led the Coalition toward a clever solution to his impasse over same-sex marriage, is expected to know the insanity of his predecessor’s cultural warfare. It was encouraging to talk this week that the Liberals are the party that believes in “families, whatever their composition.”
Dutton’s worldview seems to have formed into a melting pot of threats: he was a police officer in the Squadron of Drugs and Sex Offenders in the 1990s, and left the police force after suffering terrible injuries in a car accident. in the performance of his duty.
“I have seen the wonderful and kind nature of people willing to offer any assistance to those at their worst, and I have seen the disgusting behavior shown by people who, frankly, barely justify their existence,” he said in his inaugural speech of 2001. in parliament.
More recently, in the Home Affairs and Defense portfolios, Dutton has been alive in the face of threats of a national security nature. She was one of the first people in high-level government to notice the profound change in China’s intentions in our region.
In the run-up to the election, Dutton spoke freely about Australia’s future prospects for war.
He told the Australian Financial ReviewJacob Greber says “most Australians would be surprised” by the scale of China’s interference and cyber warfare.
He spoke of an “invasive approach not limited by morality or the law” and said he had no doubt that “we are going in a very problematic direction”.
The same rhetoric, of course, could be applied to the threat of climate change, but there is no doubt that Dutton speaks from a place of intimate knowledge of China’s capacity.
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How will Dutton balance this serious threatening conversation with his apparent desire, now, to show the Australian public his warm side?
This week we’ve heard a lot from Coalition leaders and his wife about Dutton’s humor, decency, compassion, and intelligence.
Stuart Robert, Dutton’s ally in Queensland, says Dutton is “a very warm-hearted person, very, very decent and very competent.”
Robert also made the strange statement that: “You can’t judge someone by the comments they’ve made or the decisions they’ve made when they’re exercising their personal conscience or their particular point of view.” Oh, but people can, Stuart! And they will.
Still, it’s lazy for the Twitter-centered left to dismiss Dutton as a bogeyman. He has the potential to be an interesting leader, maybe even a good one.
An effective opposition leader, one who can rethink his party around dominant values after the disaster of Scott Morrison’s narrow vision for Australia, is good for everyone. Even if his enemies never admit it.