The dispute over Gazan refugees now defines the bare-knuckled fight over leadership.
Lacking any substantive policy alternative, Peter Dutton wants to declare the battle as a question of integrity and character over substance and delivery.
The Liberal leader accuses Anthony Albanese of an abrogation of leadership. Compromising national security for localised political appeasement.
Albanese resists the temptation to assign the totem of racism to the Liberal leader. But he welcomes others to make it. A bet each way, as he has so often been accused of.
This is where both Albanese and Dutton have decided the contest to be.
Despite the cost-of-living imperative, the dispute has become personal. Both leaders welcome the challenge. And both are convinced they can win the argument.
But at what cost?
The attrition for the major parties is obvious in such an aggressive confrontation over issues so divorced from most people’s primary consideration. And the consequence is glaringly obvious. A repeat of the flight to alternatives.
Albanese, on a test of leadership, maintains voters will not be willing in the end to accept Dutton as prime minister. And this will be enough to avoid a hung parliament.
Dutton, on the other hand, is now angling the attack on Albanese as the leader the country can no longer afford.
This week in parliament may be an obscure week for ordinary Australians ensnared by the slavery of inflation, but it is a big week for the Prime Minister.
Albanese desperately needs to recalibrate to avoid another week lost to a foreign policy debate Labor will never win. Not for the first time in high office, Albanese continues to suffer the vicissitudes of incumbency. Since the loss of the voice referendum, Labor has not won a week.
Having prided himself as the master of the tactical manoeuvre, he finds himself on the constant defensive.
This is unfamiliar territory for Labor in parliament. And this is where the party has assumed a dominance.
In this case, Dutton has proven a subtle and formidable opponent. Not that it reflects a broader appeal. But the point is all about the optics, and the psychological advantage.
And as parliament is set to resume, Dutton holds the edge.
While there is a cost to the Coalition in going after lower-tier issues such as Gaza, Dutton will be calculating that there is a greater cost to the government. It would be wrong to assume Dutton is only playing to his personal comfort zone and the Coalition’s natural advantage, with the issue of national security playing to a core equity that plays in his favour. The broader Coalition assessment is that there is advantage in drawing a thread between this and management of the economy.
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