To be seen as reckless would be the kiss of death for Dutton especially if he is seen to be recklessly aggressive

Anthony Albanese is planning to run a negative campaign focusing on Peter Dutton’s personality. While some of it might be overlooked by voters there is one line that could be a kiss of death.

A couple of weeks ago The Australian reported that at next year’s election the Prime Minister will not just be asking voters to re-elect him on his record alone, but is planning to run a negative campaign against Peter Dutton centred on his “arrogant, aggressive and reckless” personality.

The response of most Labor MPs to this news will I suspect have been along the lines of ‘hurry up!’ and ‘what the ----- is taking you so long?’

Because with the political year drawing to a close and with an election due before next May, it’s painfully obvious that time is running out for Labor to define the opposition leader in the public’s mind to its advantage.

The latest GXO/J.L. Partners poll makes it clear just how painfully.

Labor is targeting Peter Dutton over his ‘arrogant, aggressive and reckless’ personality. Picture: Damian Shaw

Asked which of the two leaders has grown more since the last election, 41 per cent picked Dutton while only 32 per cent opted for the Prime Minister.

Even more worryingly at 57 per cent not many more than half of all Labor voters opted for their man versus 70 per cent of Coalition voters who feel Dutton has grown more.

The word cloud associated with the two leaders is bad news for Labor too.

The word voters are most likely to associate with Dutton is ‘strong’ followed by ‘arrogant’ and ‘leader’.

The best thing to be said about this I suppose is that Labor has managed to get into our heads at least one of the things it wants us to believe about Dutton.

Unfortunately however the trend is not Labor’s friend because “arrogant” was actually slightly less popular as a way to describe Dutton than it was the last time the pollster attempted this exercise back in May.

It isn’t clear to me either that arrogance is necessarily that bad or indeed surprising an attribute to be held to possess in that combination.

‘Arrogant and stupid’ – that would be a problem.

But ‘arrogant and strong’?

Time is running out for Labor to define the opposition leader in the public’s mind to its advantage. Picture: Martin Ollman

I’m not sure that’s likely to prove fatal especially as three of the most popular words associated with the Prime Minister are ‘weak,’ ‘incompetent’ and ‘useless’.

The Oz’s story went on to say the Labor’s campaign will ask “what will Peter Dutton’s arrogance cost you?” according to a senior Labor source who added “He’s arrogant, aggressive and reckless, which is why Australians can’t see him as prime minister.”

The anonymous ALP brain box went on to say Dutton “doesn’t have a plan for the economy or the cost of living. He’s a policy-free zone – the Coalition are the laziest ­opposition in living memory.”

To which I would respond, so what?

We elected you people, didn’t we?

Three of the most popular words associated with the Prime Minister are ‘weak,’ ‘incompetent’ and ‘useless’. Picture: Martin Ollman

Even though not only did you have no plan for cost-of-living on the way in, two years later it’s clear you still haven’t got one.

And do you really think it’s a good idea for Anthony Albanese to get into an argument about laziness?

As for the idea Australians can’t see him as prime minister, this struck me as wishful Labor thinking.

Whatever else we might think of him, thanks to the way Albo has been going about things lately, it’s becoming all too easy to see Peter Dutton as the prime minister.

I’m not even sure aggression is necessarily fatal in a leader either.

It all depends who that aggression is directed against, doesn’t it?

If the Queensland hardman wants to go hard against people smugglers, pedos and overcharging supermarkets is anyone really going to complain?

But “reckless”?

Arrogance and aggression might be overlooked by voters but to be seen as reckless would be the kiss of death for Dutton especially if he is seen to be recklessly aggressive.

To be framed as reckless is to be immediately framed as a risk.

The obvious place for Labor to try and make this charge stick is in health where memories will be revived of $7 the Abbott government planned to charge people to visit the doctor as well as cuts to hospitals and frozen Medicare rebates from his time as health minister.

And as we saw in the Dunkley by-election reviving these memories can be effective up to a point.

On their own I doubt they will be enough however.

To really plant the seeds of doubt in voters’ minds, Labor is going to have to run a risk, namely attempting to make a difference with the Coalition over foreign policy, especially Dutton’s history of robust statements about the People’s Republic of China.

Of course this will be a difficult tightrope to walk as China is not popular with the Australian public.

But if Labor can plant the idea that Dutton is simply too recklessly aggressive to be trusted with the management of that relationship it could prove fatal.

Especially if the Sino-American relations go further south under second Trump Administration.