Peter Dutton’s media gripe was correct but foolish

In politics there is the gripe that dare not speak its name; and Peter Dutton has made the mistake of running with it.

The Immigration Minister is right. Fairfax Media and the ABC are on a mission to bring down the Abbott government. But he was foolish to say so.

When it comes to calling out ABC bias and media agendas best not do pundits like me out of a job — and there are good reasons for this.

Obviously, the trouble with complaining about the media is that it sounds whiny.

No one likes a whinger.

And, as has long been said, a politician complaining about the media is like a sailor complaining about the sea — for all its tempests and doldrums, you can’t succeed unless you learn to deal with it.

It must be part of the political armoury to learn how to counter antagonistic media — this is especially so for right-of-centre politicians who can always assume most of the press gallery, all of the public broadcasters and much of the online world will be antipathetic.

(Besides, when part of the problem is the ABC, the government shouldn’t complain unless it is prepared to do something about it.)

Coalition ‘have selves to blame’

Even more importantly, however, is the simple reality that when you are on the back foot, the complaints about the media provide just another distraction.

Politics is an endeavour that must be played on the front foot.

And if this government has one overarching advocacy problem it is that it too often is caught on the back foot.

Dutton had no reason to be on the back foot over the border force issue — for crying out loud it was a messy press release.

To believe the attacks, voters would have to believe that not only were Victoria Police and Australian Border Force planning to carry out a blatantly illegal operation infringing the clearly legislated rights of Melburnians but that they were so brazen about it they decided to detail their subversive plans in a press release beforehand.

Even if that sort of juvenile conspiracy theory works for Twitter and some elements of the media, it won’t pass the common sense filter of mainstream Australians.

So Dutton — and every other government MP — should have been strongly attacking the absurd claims of their political opponents.

Andrew Wilkie likened the episode to Stalin, Pinochet and East Germany’s Stasi, Clive Palmer invoked Hitler’s Gestapo and Bill Shorten talked about a police state.

Instead of defensively getting into the weeds of who approved what press release, Dutton and other frontbenchers should have been calling out Shorten.

Was he accusing the state police (under a Labor government) and ABF of planning illegal random visa checks?

Was he attacking the professionalism of these law enforcement agencies and their officers, as well as their commitment to the rule of law?

Could a man who seriously suggested the Victoria Police and ABF were planning to turn Melbourne into a “quasi-police state” really be trusted with the highest office in the land?

Should elected representatives really be echoing the insulting falsehoods perpetrated by radical socialists, anarchists and anonymous trolls on Twitter?

This attack would also meld perfectly with what should be the government’s main attack on Labor — the way it is running a discredited and desperate smear against the Trade Union Royal Commission in order to shield union corruption and protect the ALP from political fallout.

Dutton was right to get aggressive. But he chose the wrong target.