Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is setting the political and policy agenda going into the final two-week parliamentary sitting ahead of the long winter break which is a crucial point in the electoral cycle.
Just as he did before the long summer and Christmas break, the Opposition Leader has forced Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his ministers to react to him and his ideas, and to try and change the direction of the debate in their favour.
Even the Prime Minister’s pre-parliamentary press conference in his courtyard at the beginning of the sitting, usually used to set a government’s agenda and set the tone for parliament, was entirely about Mr Dutton, nuclear energy, carbon emissions and the appointment of former NSW Liberal Treasurer Matt Kean as the new climate change tsar.
The selection of Mr Kean is a highly political act designed to demonstrate Liberal differences but doesn’t rate as a game-changing announcement that is going to put Mr Dutton off track or give Labor a fresh start.
Not once did Mr Albanese mention Labor’s prime mechanism for cutting the cost-of-living – tax cuts which come into force next week – or even the $300 energy rebate in a long discussion on energy and carbon emissions.
Instead Mr Albanese said: “The fact is that Peter Dutton doesn’t have a serious policy going forward. We’ll continue to advance our plan, that is serious, that has a mechanism, has a method of getting there, and that emissions reduction is the cheapest form of new energy”.
He also described Mr Dutton’s plan as a “plan that’s always been on the fringes of the serious energy debate in this country has now been put front and centre by Mr Dutton” and said Mr Dutton was: “on the fringe of Australian politics, is nowhere near the centre, is out there on the hard right of Australian politics being driven by ideology, not being driven by common sense”.
The PM’s attempt to put Mr Dutton to the extreme fringes of Australian politics belies polling showing that there is support – albeit soft – for the idea that nuclear should at least be considered and if what Labor says about it being uneconomic then let the market decide.
It is hard to believe that after two years of Mr Dutton saying he would adopt a nuclear power policy with all its attendant risks and advantages, Labor is not better prepared for his political strategy. Just two weeks ago, Energy Minister Chris Bowen and Mr Albanese held special press conferences to attack Mr Dutton’s vow that he would not sign up to Labor’s unachievable carbon emissions reduction target of 48 per cent by 2030.
This was Mr Dutton’s first big commitment and he cast it as being more concerned about the costs of households in Parramatta than keeping faith with the interim Paris climate change targets.
Mr Dutton conflated the cost-of-living, energy prices, the impact of renewable energy plans on jobs and the economy and said he would put Australia ahead of Paris.
The immediate response was that he was “worse than Scott Morrison” on climate change, would damage business, trade and foreign investment and, worst of all, would turn Australia into a world pariah along with Iran and Yemen. But, ten days later, Mr Dutton unveiled his nuclear power policy with seven nominated sites for nuclear power units – in coal-fired power stations which could use the existing distribution network of poles and wires – but did not disclose a cost.
Suddenly, the only mention of Paris is Olympic-related and you feel the disappointment that we will not always have Paris as Humphrey Bogart said.
Labor’s attack, apart from childish cartoons which demean the import of a strategic decision that will guide Australia for decades, concentrated on the lack of costings from the Coalition and legitimately demanded more detail before the election.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said: “this nuclear shambles is economic insanity for Australia, and every time they speak about this nuclear shambles, it raises more questions than it answers”.
“We already know that the economics of nuclear power for Australia is absolute madness. It takes longer, it costs more to build, it will push up energy prices for Australians, it will create extreme investor uncertainty and it will squander Australia’s unique combination of advantages when it comes to becoming a renewable energy superpower and nailing this net zero energy transformation in our economy.”
Former Labor PM Paul Keating described Mr Dutton as dangerous and “worse than Tony Abbott”.
There are still huge risks for Mr Dutton in the coming two-week sitting of parliament and beyond but he went into the first day having successfully launched a one-two attack and forced Labor on to his territory.
This is what happened at the end of last year after the failure of the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum, the immigration detention debacle and Labor’s slow reaction to the social division in Australia over the Hamas terror attack on Israel.
Then, an off-balance Prime Minister took a restorative break and entered into a midterm political campaign blitz and restored some faith in the government. Polling is now showing Mr Dutton as being seen as stronger, more decisive leader and having a better vision for Australia than Mr Albanese as Coalition primary support grows and Labor’s falls.
This is going to be a telling two weeks of parliament and there will be some wishing they were in Paris.
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