The pile-on has begun and the Liberal Party has suffered its first political casualty following Peter Dutton’s decision to campaign against the government’s Indigenous voice to parliament referendum model.
But former cabinet minister Ken Wyatt’s resignation from the dwindling West Australian Liberal division will come as a shock to no-one.
Wyatt was the first indigenous cabinet minister in a federal government and is widely respected.
Yet his former colleagues say he never once advocated as Indigenous Affairs minister for the model now on offer.
While it’s never a good look to have a former cabinet minister resign from a political party they once served, Wyatt’s decision has little bearing beyond the symbolic now that he is no longer in parliament.
But symbols can be powerful in a debate such as this.
And the danger for Dutton is that while Wyatt is the first, he may not be the last to quit the Liberal Party in protest.
As unlikely as it is, considering Bridget Archer said on Thursday she was staying put, Dutton could ill afford one of his MPs to actually pull the pin over it.
This is where Labor is seeking to exert maximum pressure.
The barrage since Wednesday is hardly unexpected.
From Indigenous leader Noel Pearson’s portrayal of Dutton as the “undertaker” to Daniel Andrews’ description of him as mean and nasty, the backlash is as advertised.
The tone of the debate has quickly taken a turn.
And some of it is straight out the activist handbook, which favours playing the person rather than the ball.
Now that the political divisions have been set, the debate is becoming less a discussion of principle, the wording of the proposal or the function of the voice but one driven by personal attack.
The danger for Albanese and the Yes campaign is that any Australian who has reasonable doubts about the voice might take what is being thrown at Dutton as having a crack at them as well.
The Liberal leader clearly believes that there are fundamental features that might move the dial toward a No vote.
Most people don’t even know what the voice to parliament is. Many may not even realise it involves changing the constitution.
Those two things are what the Liberal Party believes will give people pause for thought.
A lack of understanding of what the voice actually is and how it will operate, combined with a claim that the debate is confined to the political elite.
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