Joe Hildebrand: Peter Dutton’s campaign starting to feel a lot like the Voice debate

Remember the Voice campaign? First came anger, then denial, then the bargaining. Stop me if this is starting to sound familiar, writes Joe Hildebrand.

There are emotional stages of election campaigns, just as there are emotional stages of grief – and trust me, after day 31 on the trot I’ve been through a few of them myself.

The famous five stages of grief are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance, and when a campaign loses its momentum it is very easy for it to slip into the same pattern.

I saw this first-hand with the Voice campaign. As support was clearly drifting away its backers first told themselves and others that it wasn’t as bad as it looked; that there were “a lot of undecideds out there” or that “the mood on the ground is really positive”.

God only knows what the result would have looked like if the mood on the ground had been negative.

Peter Dutton speaks at a Liberal Party rally outside Melbourne. Picture: Richard Dobson

Then came the anger: Blaming the opposition or the media for spreading misinformation or lies. It was all somebody else’s fault.

Stop me if this is starting to sound familiar.

Then the bargaining. Desperate pleas and social media scrambles to claw every possible vote that were often both bitter and pathetic.

Ironically, I remember writing a column of my own begging Australians to ignore all the slings and slurs by supposed Voice proponents.

And so on and on towards crushing defeat.

This brings us to the final week of the election campaign and some uncannily similar overtones from the Dutton camp as it faces an Everest-esque mountain to climb if it is to come within striking distance of government.

Of course campaigns have to stay positive no matter what and always tell themselves that they can win – without that they would be too soul-crushing for all concerned.

But such self-confidence needs to be scaffolded by the weaponry you need to achieve that result and the battle-plan to deploy it. It cannot just be wishful thinking.

Peter Dutton’s declaration that the so-called “quiet Australians” that delivered victory to Scott Morrison in, 2019 will re-emerge from the shadows of suburbia to carry him to Kirribilli House sounds worryingly like denial.

And his rousing exhortation to supporters at a campaign rally today to forget about the left-wing “hate media” sounds suspiciously like anger.

Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese again went on the attack at a Labor rally of the faithful, proving the “demonise Dutton” strategy is still alive and well.

But the PM also unveiled a new 24/7 healthcare hotline – branded “1800 MEDICARE”, shamelessly enough – and that is what is dominating coverage today.

Dutton’s noble rallying cry, by contrast, didn’t seem to include any new offering for voters. He was talking about the campaign instead of … well, campaigning.

Of course any election is a brutal affair, and the Liberal leader has blamed the drop in his standing on Labor’s relentless and unfair attacks on him.

And he’s absolutely right.

But that’s also exactly what the leaders of the Voice campaign said about him.