He calls Albanese weak but is Dutton just too aggro for The Lodge?

“Screaming and interrupting, and rude, and insulting, intimidating and bullying.” Such were the descriptors used by former Labor WA Premier Mark McGowan to describe the Canberra press pack following the now-Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during the 2022 election campaign.

McGowan was speaking about his experiences of the joint press conferences he had with Albanese during that six-week campaign.

The WA premier said he was “shocked and appalled” by some Canberra-based members of the press pack, who, the Guardian reported, “attracted ongoing criticism from Labor supporters and veteran journalists for interjections and combative questioning”.

“Ask that question again.“: Peter Dutton responds to a question about Hezbollah at a press conference in Sydney.Credit: Nine News

“The sort of thing in a workplace, you’d get sacked for,” McGowan said. “They need to reflect on their behaviour. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The same could be said about many politicians during question time, but there is no doubt that every political leader has to learn how to shape up to the Canberra media pack. The journos belonging to it are relentless and competitive, as they should be.

In his first press conference as prime minister in May 2022, Albanese sought to assert dominance. Encountering a shouting press gallery reporter, the fresh PM snapped at him.

“You will not get the call earlier because you yell,” Albanese said. “Can we just on day one, get that clear?”

What about when the tables are turned? This week Opposition leader Peter Dutton singled out an ABC reporter who asked what he clearly thought was an offensive question during a press conference where he condemned protesters displaying Hezbollah signs. Given the misogynistic (and, if applicable, racist) abuse that female members of the media face on social media whenever their heads are above the parapet, I won’t name her. She was just doing her job.

The reporter asked Dutton a question that seemed to equate the proscribed terror group Hezbollah with the state of Israel.

“With Hezbollah, you’re saying being responsible for the deaths of women and children; groups have commented on the hypocrisy of that situation because there are no bans currently on Israeli flags being raised, despite 45,000 people dying at the hands of the Israeli government,” she said.

The question seemed to be based on an assertion being made by pro-Palestine protesters throughout the week, who do equate the acts of Israel (which they accuse of genocide, a claim Israel fiercely denies) with the acts of terrorists on the other side of the conflict.

As the Herald/Age’s Nick Bonyhady reported, she “put to Dutton that some groups considered the laws hypocritical because, she said, Israel’s actions had resulted in 45,000 deaths and its flag was still allowed”.

Dutton was clearly irritated.

“Where are you from, I’m sorry?” he asked her.

She replied she was from the ABC, and he asked her to clarify the question.

He interrupted her when she spoke, saying, “you asked about the listing of the organisation. I just didn’t understand that question ... this is a question from Canberra, is it?”

Dutton went on to cut her off several times.

“No, you asked the question about the listings … just ask that question again,” he said.

The reporter then asked: “If you could just explain what determines something is a terrorist organisation?”

At this, Dutton took umbrage, saying it was a bipartisan decision to list Hezbollah as a terrorist group and “if the ABC doesn’t support that, they should be very clear about it”.

The reporter demurred, but Dutton spoke over her. “You asked me why our country has listed Hezbollah – they’re a terrorist organisation. They organise terrorist attacks,” he said. “If that is not clear to the ABC, then I think the ABC is in greater trouble than even I first imagined.”

Even if the reporter’s questioning was clumsy, Dutton’s belligerence was graceless. It will do little to improve the party’s flailing female vote. He goaded the reporter in a way that was uncomfortable to watch. It was a performance in keeping with the toughness the opposition leader projected all week, over the divisive issue of the metastasising Middle East conflict.

Dutton went harder and harder as the prime minister tried manfully to tread middle ground on the issue. Dutton accused Albanese of “weakness” and said, of the protesters with the Hezbollah signs, that it was “unacceptable that the government wouldn’t be arresting people already”.

As a former Queensland police officer, he should know better than anyone that “the government” doesn’t arrest people, the police do. It’s a crucial difference (we call it the separation of powers, and it’s foundational to democracy) which Dutton sought to blur for his own purposes.

Dutton was loudly supported by the conservative media. On Wednesday, The Australian ran the headline “White Flag Albanese”.

Albanese, for his part, criticised Dutton for his “macho stance” and said the Opposition leader “thinks that politics is all about testosterone”.

The tragedy, if you can call it that, is that each leader is playing to the stereotype imposed on him by the other. As my clever stablemate Niki Savva pointed out on Thursday, Albanese bungled what might have been a constructive debate on tax perks for property investors last week.

He does look feeble on the issue of banning gambling ads, despite having political cover – a parliamentary inquiry chaired by late Labor MP Peta Murphy recommended a ban on all gambling ads within three years. Not to mention the rightness of a deeply moral cause, which he could argue for if he wanted to.

Meanwhile, Dutton insists that he and his party have not given up on winning back the climate-concerned teal seats.

Yet, he presses on with a ludicrous nuclear reactor plan that economists and scientists have condemned as unrealistic and wildly expensive.

As the teals will argue during the next election campaign, it is yet another deliberately unworkable climate/energy policy dictated by the National Party.

Dutton’s aggressive public demeanour is likely to turn off the female voters who have been deserting the Coalition – a long-term trend he seems ill-placed to reverse.

At the 2022 election, nearly one in three voters chose an independent candidate or minor party, the highest number recorded in a century.

If all voters are offered in their leader is the binary of weak v strong and macho v gormless, is it any wonder that record numbers of voters support a third way?

Jacqueline Maley is a senior writer and columnist.